KX 450 Cold Starting

[Freeride1]

A friend of mine that is the regional motard and ice racing champion who did my rebuild told me these efi systems don't calibrate for altitude and have a temp range of 40 -110 degrees which would be typical for a motocross race. When I tried to run Rotella he freaked out and told me not to since I have a wet clutch/motor oil combination and store the detergents would cause a problem. I am so confused about oil and fuel for this snow bike right now. I got the 5w40 Motul oil and brought back the Rotella. Life was a lot easier before I bought a stroke.

 

[mtn-doo]

A friend of mine that is the regional motard and ice racing champion who did my rebuild told me these efi systems don't calibrate for altitude and have a temp range of 40 -110 degrees which would be typical for a motocross race. When I tried to run Rotella he freaked out and told me not to since I have a wet clutch/motor oil combination and store the detergents would cause a problem. I am so confused about oil and fuel for this snow bike right now. I got the 5w40 Motul oil and brought back the Rotella. Life was a lot easier before I bought a stroke.

I hear ya... if you are in doubt, aleays run the manufacturer's recommended oil. However, any oil with the wet clutch certification will work. I personally run Amsoil 10/30 synthetic for cold weather and wet clutches.

http://www.thebestoil.com/AMSOILSyn...torcycles/Catalog_ProductDetails.aspx?id=1623

 

[Rush44]

Its OK not to believe that Rotella is a good oil. I've done my mountains of research and its what I have chosen for my last 3 bikes exclusively. Head over to ThumperTalk or KTMTalk and ask there.

And it is true that the EFI bikes we run are simple FI only. They do not compensate for altitude.... temp only. And we already over fuel in most bikes as it is.... the cold just makes it worse.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[Rush44]

And Randy is exactly right. If you don't agree with any particular oil you can safely run the manufacturers recommended oil. I just got tired of paying $12/qt for "recommended" oil and did a bunch of research to find a better cost alternative. Just make sure whatever you choose is obviously wet clutch certified. Rotella T6 is wet clutch certified and is used by thousands of other thumper riders... even race organizations! Oil is just one of those conversations that almost nobody can definitively agree on

Good luck in your decision!

 

[Freeride1]

Another thing I heard from my motard buddy and then again from an expert motocross guy with his own shop was that they have seen the KX450 crack a piston in less than 20 hours if it was run on pump gas. Personally going to the airport to get fuel is a pain so I would love to just run pump gas but it gets scary when I hear those stories.

I usually have my 20 foot heated trailer so the bike will be warm every morning but I didn't take it to Quebec because we were parking in some tight spots. Maybe I should just get an old KX500 so I don't have to worry about all these things lol!

 

[DieselTwitch]

I've started to noticed that its the battery that is cold not the oil. I'm running 0W40 also. the other day I had my bike outside and it was -10F, took forever to start. the next day I put a battery tender on it and it was -15F... fired right up! Now I'm wiring up a battery hook up to my truck so my truck will charge the bike while we are going down the road.

 

[Freeride1]

That's a great idea! To bad my bike is kick start lol! Maybe I could run some stacks on my truck and duct them to my bike going down the road to keep it warm

 

[paulharris]

as for oils, its obviously important to note that some new 4 strokes have separate crankcase/engine oil and gearbox/clutch oil reservoir. you only need to run the oil designed for wet clutch on the gearbox side. IMO on the engine side run a high performance synthetic with moly

 

[Freeride1]

My 2012 KX450 only has one oil compartment.

 

[paulharris]

My 2012 KX450 only has one oil compartment.

interesting, i would be curious to see how many newer bikes have this

 

[teal_210]

interesting, i would be curious to see how many newer bikes have this

As far as 450 mx bikes go, Honda is the only one that separates the oil.