Red oil in case?? What is it?

tsmith

tsmith

New member
I purchased a 2010 EC 300 with about 4 hrs on it. I dont think it even had a full tank of gas ran through it. Im planning on taking it out on the first real ride this coming weekend so I thought I would put fresh oil in it.
When I drained the oil I noticed it was red similar to transmission fluid. :confused: Has anyone heard of this? What could it be? I dont think the original owner mistakenly put tranny fluid in it. He had several street bikes and dual sports. But it sure makes me wonder what it could have been. I never had any problems or noticed anything funny when I had it out for a short ride right after I bought it.
I replaced it with 10W30 Lucas motorcycle racing oil. So, I should be good now.
 
Trans fluid has been recommended on this forum. It has good detergent properties and works well. I have read to change it after a long ride or every 4-8 hours, but I have no experience with ATF in a bike transmission myself. It isn't under pressure or being pumped anywhere, so it is only being used in a bath type environment.
 
tsmith said:
I purchased a 2010 EC 300 with about 4 hrs on it. I dont think it even had a full tank of gas ran through it. Im planning on taking it out on the first real ride this coming weekend so I thought I would put fresh oil in it.
When I drained the oil I noticed it was red similar to transmission fluid. :confused: Has anyone heard of this? What could it be? I dont think the original owner mistakenly put tranny fluid in it. He had several street bikes and dual sports. But it sure makes me wonder what it could have been. I never had any problems or noticed anything funny when I had it out for a short ride right after I bought it.
I replaced it with 10W30 Lucas motorcycle racing oil. So, I should be good now.
Click to expand...

Its a 2T so the oil is only for the transmission :) Not uncommon for some people to run ATF so thats probably what it was. 4T engine oil works too (as its designed to work with wet clutches). Avoid anything with friction modifiers that may cause the clutch plates to slip. A thinner oil generally creates less drag and in particular with these bikes, less squawk/squeal when working the clutch hard.
 
I use bellray gear saver oil and I think that is red also no clutch chirping either I know some guys that had serious clutch chirping who are running motorex ATF
 
FWW I have used GRO for the forst 12 months with little to no noise. I then tried a round of fuchs silkolene gear oil - some noise. Now I'm on the Amsoil 4T 10W40/50? and its horrible. The clutch makes noise as soon as its under stress. I think I'll go back to the GRO as its worked wonders. I didn't mind the GRO in the engine either. Burnt really clean with minimal smoke or spooge. I'm also finding the Amsoil Donimator nice on the engine too though so will stick with it. I like the red premix! Reminds me its been mixed.
 
I use Castrol oil in my Gasser and my Husky, it is red. I think it's a good oil, I've done over 12000 km on the Husky without opening the motor, exept for valve check
 
Shell Rotella T diesel oil. Cheap and easily available everywhere, from truck stops to Walmart. Change it every race or hard ride, or a few hours. The non-syn 15-40 W is fine, and is what is recommended by Rekluse for their clutches. I used to use the 5-40W synthetic but haven't since it was reformulated. Not saying its bad now, just have not tried it lately because my '07 is fine with the 15-40W.
 
Jakobi said:
FWW I have used GRO for the forst 12 months with little to no noise. I then tried a round of fuchs silkolene gear oil - some noise. Now I'm on the Amsoil 4T 10W40/50? and its horrible. The clutch makes noise as soon as its under stress. I think I'll go back to the GRO as its worked wonders. I didn't mind the GRO in the engine either. Burnt really clean with minimal smoke or spooge. I'm also finding the Amsoil Donimator nice on the engine too though so will stick with it. I like the red premix! Reminds me its been mixed.
Click to expand...

What GRO did you use ? I'm running Motul 7100 10-40 (synthetic ester) but noise is quite about the same. I do prefer ester oils but I'd give it a try with GRO.
 
Don't buy into the marketing hype and piss $$ away on MC trans oil. The diesel stuff is very good and will get blackened with spooge oil from the PV long before its broken down. I had my primary cover off this spring, clutch basket is like new and plates well within spec @ 200 hrs. Same with all my previous motors I've had apart. At $13/gal., its four times cheaper than some of the MC stuff that is no better. $$ better spent on tires.
 
Vindicator said:
Thanks ! :) I used 5100 15-50 on my previous pumpkin, worked quite nice, gear change was quite soft, much better than with the 300V. I haven't tried on the GG yet. I'll see if I can find a GRO dealer in Portugal
Click to expand...

i'm using the 300V since i still had some from previous bike.
don't really have any probs,unless slighty sticky clutch.
gearbox is smooth enough,i guess.
maybe i'll give the cheaper diesel oil a try and spend ?? on tires as GMP states :)
 
GMP said:
Shell Rotella T diesel oil. Cheap and easily available everywhere, from truck stops to Walmart. Change it every race or hard ride, or a few hours. The non-syn 15-40 W is fine, and is what is recommended by Rekluse for their clutches. I used to use the 5-40W synthetic but haven't since it was reformulated. Not saying its bad now, just have not tried it lately because my '07 is fine with the 15-40W.
Click to expand...
Only advantage to the synthetic Rotella (if you change your oil often) is that it's thinner so it works better with clutches that drag a bit. My 07 gasser liked the synthetic best but my 99, 01, and 11 gassers work just as well with the heavier dino based Rotella. I change my oil when I notice the clutch starting to drag a bit which is usually around 20-30 hours of riding in non dusty conditions.
I will add that I don't race or even abuse my clutch very much. If you do abuse your clutch the synthetic might be worth the extra. Rotella also makes a synthetic blend. Cheapest thing to do is start at the bottom (dino Rotella) and work your way up till you find the cheapest one that works the way you want it to.
 
It's very interesting all this, I've been using motul 7100 changing about every ten hrs, the clutch just started squawking at 53hrs when loaded at low revs with a bit of clutch abuse, a mate who has a 300 kato said his did this with the ester oils and he did some research on DBW and now uses delo400 (similar diesel oil to rotella) at 100 bucks Aussie for 20 liters and it is perfect. Changes it when he feels a change in the box, eg harder to find neutral which is usually way past 10hrs.

Another bloke round here uses Bp 20w50 deisel "farm" oil in his rmz450 changed every approx 5hrs or race and it's still going at 200 hrs no other maintenance beyond new filter when he can be bothered. NONE. It's 80 bucks per 20 liters and goes in everything on his farm.

I'm thinking maybe in the tranny GMP is correct as usual and save the money.

I think I'm going to go this way. Also the Aussie distributor has allegedly never sold a transmission part, apparently about the toughest one out there.

This bike continues to amaze.
 
hannesd said:
i'm using the 300V since i still had some from previous bike.
don't really have any probs,unless slighty sticky clutch.
gearbox is smooth enough,i guess.
maybe i'll give the cheaper diesel oil a try and spend ?? on tires as GMP states :)
Click to expand...

For some strange reason the 300V Factory Line 15w-50 would make my 07' KTM 300 gearbox harsh. Never had any issues with the clutch but one frequent problem I had was to systematically fail to reduce from 2nd gear to 1st gear on sturdy up hills. It would always shift to neutral, you can imagine the imediate result of this :D . Switched to 5100 15w-50 , semi-synthetic (technosynthese), and this problem simply fade away.

I don't mean to start an oil discussion because oil and mixture % is like religion :D but I always try to use the adequate oil for the tranny. This does not mean that if not having it around I would not use Rotella or any other but it's just my perspective.
I change the tranny oil every 500Kms until it totals 1500kms. After that I change it every 1500Kms or 1 year. It still comes out almost like new, I spend 12? on each oil change. I have ride mates that do it every 2 years or more...They have an even smaller carbon footprint than me :cool:
 
Motul 300V is a ester synthetic good for very high temps, I used it in my air cooled Ducati Hypermotard (dry clutch) in summer. Its formulated to run hot, as ester absorbs moisture from the air at a high rate and that will not be driven off otherwise. It is totally unnecessary and undesirable in a two stroke trans, which basically runs cold compared to a four stroke. Your not even close to a good diesel oil's limitations. Try a couple different weight oils until you find what your bike likes. Like gasser said, I had some that liked the lighter synthetic, and others like the one I have now thats a one kick in gear starter with the 15W-40W. ATF is OK in a lot of bikes, with good clutch action, but on the light side that made shifting a bit notchy in mine.

This is my clutch basket @ 200hrs.
 

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