• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Oil Change & Other Questions

Read this and become informed...it will help protect you from sketchy internet advice:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/

Both types of oil lubricate just fine. Synth lubricates a cold engine better...that's the main benefit. It also has the potential to last a little longer, but our bikes spec a short oil change interval anyway.

If you use synthetic, it MUST have the JASO-MA certification for wet clutch use. Do NOT use synth oils that have the "Energy Conserving" logo on the API circle. Your clutch will slip.

BTW -- I switched to Rotella 5W-40 after I read that primer and talked with my uncle, who is a retired engine design engineer who specialized in lubrication. If some engine rebuild guys measured something different...then they weren't controlling the test parameters properly. While the Rotella is marketed as a heavy-truck diesel oil, it has the JASO-MA certification, which means that Shell took the trouble to get it certified and they know something about this stuff. My uncle did research and wrote papers about engine design and oil for 40 years (mostly at Cummins). He said...don't screw around. Just buy the synthetic.
 
ContraHusky said:
Read this and become informed...it will help protect you from sketchy internet advice:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/

Both types of oil lubricate just fine. Synth lubricates a cold engine better...that's the main benefit. It also has the potential to last a little longer, but our bikes spec a short oil change interval anyway.

If you use synthetic, it MUST have the JASO-MA certification for wet clutch use. Do NOT use synth oils that have the "Energy Conserving" logo on the API circle. Your clutch will slip.

BTW -- I switched to Rotella 5W-40 after I read that primer and talked with my uncle, who is a retired engine design engineer who specialized in lubrication. If some engine rebuild guys measured something different...then they weren't controlling the test parameters properly. While the Rotella is marketed as a heavy-truck diesel oil, it has the JASO-MA certification, which means that Shell took the trouble to get it certified and they know something about this stuff. My uncle did research and wrote papers about engine design and oil for 40 years (mostly at Cummins). He said...don't screw around. Just buy the synthetic.
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Like i said i would love to use rotella but the bike calls for a 10w-50 oil and Rotella only comes in 15w-40 or 5w-40. Will it hurt to run a 15w-40 when the bike calls for a 10w-50 regardless of the brand of oil?
 
BACKMARKER said:
Like i said i would love to use rotella but the bike calls for a 10w-50 oil and Rotella only comes in 15w-40 or 5w-40. Will it hurt to run a 15w-40 when the bike calls for a 10w-50 regardless of the brand of oil?
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But...as I said, read the link and learn what the differences are between those designations. There are other resources out there as well. You can then make sense of the choices and be informed. What is the actual viscosity difference between xW-40 and xW-50, at 212 degrees? What is the viscosity difference between 10w-x dino oil and 5w-x synth oil, at cold start? If you can't answer those questions, you're not in a position to make a choice.

I would never make an uninformed choice like that, based on what some random person told me on the internet.
 
BACKMARKER said:
Like i said i would love to use rotella but the bike calls for a 10w-50 oil and Rotella only comes in 15w-40 or 5w-40. Will it hurt to run a 15w-40 when the bike calls for a 10w-50 regardless of the brand of oil?
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15W40 will be just fine.
 
just saw the rotella 5w-40 synth at canadian tire. price is actually pretty good. at least it isn't double the price of rotella dino oil.
 
Huskyfly said:
What radiator fluid are you guys topping off with........just straight filtered water???
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supposed to use distilled water from any grocery store. and as far i know all modern antifreeze is compatable with aluminium, but i'm sure the dealership will tell you otherwise.
 
Huskyfly said:
What radiator fluid are you guys topping off with........just straight filtered water???
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Right now, 7th Gear. I have a bottle of Engine Ice sitting in my garage when it's time to flush the system.

As said above, the automotive stuff is compatible.
 
For oil: I have run both Rotella T 5w40 syn and Rotella 15w40 dino in motorbikes for the last 10 years, never had a problem. Mostly now use the 5w40 syn cause its not much more expensive then dino and it's not to thick at start-up in cold weather.
for coolant: buy a jug of distilled water (has all minerals removed) and a jug of standard automotive antifreeze. Mix 50/50 and pour in radiator. I've been doing this in my bikes for years as well. Or go spend $14 a liter for motorex "motorcycle-specific" coolant.:eek:
 
Did the first oil change tonight at 480 miles, stuff looks pretty dirty, not sure if this is typical or if service could have been done sooner:

Filter

Huskyoilchange004-1.jpg


Magnet

Huskyoilchange006-1.jpg


Oil

Huskyoilchange015-1.jpg


Filled it with 10-40 Castrol

The 14m drain plug gets torqued to 18ftlbs and the big 12m allen drain plug gets torqued to 44ftlbs (IMO that's a bit high so I only went to about 35 with no leaks or loosening yet.)
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Is your bike a TE630 my small drain plug is a 12 mil socket and the large one is a 10 mil allen

Torque specs don't seem consistent in the literature, in the shop manual the torque specs for the 2 plugs are 18 ftlbs & 44 ftlbs but when you go to the torque spec charts it shows the plugs being tightened to 18 ftlbs & 22 ftlbs.

When the oil filter cover was removed the screws were snug at best...no leaks tho.
 
That´s what my magnetic plug looked like after my last oil change (7000 kms). The filter looked ok but I didn´t do the third filter under the casing. The finger size filter on the side had a few specks of carbon on it. I put quite a bit more than the 2.5 litres of oil in and it still only comes up to the minimum in the show glass.
 
organ donor said:
That´s what my magnetic plug looked like after my last oil change (7000 kms). The filter looked ok but I didn´t do the third filter under the casing. The finger size filter on the side had a few specks of carbon on it. I put quite a bit more than the 2.5 litres of oil in and it still only comes up to the minimum in the show glass.
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You shouldn't have done that. Overfill and you will have oil puking out of your airbox, all down the brake pedal and swingarm.
Ask me how I know...

It takes a while for the oil level to equalize once you stand the bike up straight, but 2qt is the max...
 
Even at my mileage, I still get some metal flakes on the magnetic drain plug and in the oil filter (but not as bad as I did early on). The screens stay pretty clean.
 
jtemple said:
The type of oil you use is full of all kinds of debate on any motorcycle. Personally, I use Rotella T6 Synthetic because it's a cheap, well reviewed synthetic oil. I change my oil quite a bit more frequently than required by the manufacturer.

The USB owner's manual, quite frankly, sucks. If you want a true shop manual and parts catalog, hit me up via PM. It has all the torque values you need in it.

The left hand metal screens are intended to be cleaned with every oil change. The right hand metal screens are intended to be cleaned at valve check intervals (every 3000 miles). I have 8000 miles on my bike and have pulled that right side screen several times and it has been spotless every time. I'm due for another valve check here in 1000 miles and I plan to pull the clutch cover and check that screen again. I don't expect to find anything in it.

I use a Craftsman ATV jack for my bike. They cost about $100.
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jtemple i am not sure how to pm..need manual info on 630.cant get into usb to read.can u help me out
 
johnnyq said:
jtemple i am not sure how to pm..need manual info on 630.cant get into usb to read.can u help me out
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I just enabled your account, sorry. I've been away from the internet for far too long. Click on name or avatar and click on 'Start Conversation' to send a PM.
 
Passed the road test today, feels good to be legal :)

btw Great site Coffee, good cup of Joe is second only to riding the Husky.
 
I did an oil/filter change last week and thought I'd try Rotella T6 5w-40. So far I'm happy with it, bike shifts smoothly and it runs quieter than normal. I've read the "Bobstheoilguy" articles and the more I read the more confused I get...

So here's the question I know you all are gonna hate, but is there really much difference in protection between a full synth 5w-40 or the recommended 10w-60? Is there anyone that's been running this oil grade for an extended period on this particular bike?
 
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