Next oil change questions

[cyberdork]

I have a 85 GS700 with roughly 28,000 miles on it. I was thinking about running some seafoam through the crankcase, or some other kind of motor cleaner. Would this be a wise idea? Also anything wrong with switching to synthetic oil?

[boathead]

funny that you should ask this, as it was something i was going to ask.

i got a 650G in june or july (i already forget, alzheimers), with 25K on the odometer. as it turns out, some months later, i am fairly certain the kid i bought it from never did anything, and i, being mechanically disinclined, have been learning on the fly with the help of gsresources.

anyways, i changed the oil when i got it, but did not change the filter, as i was in the middle of the oil change when i learned i needed an extension for my cheap little socket set to change the filter. i figured i'd just get it at the end of the summer, which was today.

about 2 weeks ago, i put a little seafoam in the oil. figured i'd put a few miles on it, and then change it out for the winter. of course, after i did this, i read that this should NOT be done, as it affects the friction on the clutch plates, so says the manual.

not, i've only put about 1k miles on the oil, so i figured it would be still rather clean when i changed it. to my surprise it was thick sludge. is this because the seafoam cleaned out sludge? or simply that the po had never changed the oil, and the new oil that i put in in july simply cleaned it out? i don't know.

i will say since i got the bike, i've been having trouble finding neutral from first gear. so today, i changed it, and took it for a ten mile spin, and what do you know? perfect shifting, and no problem finding neutral. again, is this because the sea foam cleared crap out?

[BassCliff]

Here's what I've heard...

Hi,

I've never used Sea Foam in my crankcase, but many riders have. From what I've read, the suggested procedure is to put a couple of ounces in the crankcase about 50-100 miles before your next oil change is due. It's not a good idea to run a long time with Sea Foam in the crankcase. Some people have warned that using Sea Foam will, indeed, clean out some gunk and can actually cause leaks if that gunk was shoring up a weak gasket.

There's nothing wrong with switching to synthetic oil. Lots of riders like the Rotella synthetic or diesel oil.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[salty_monk]

But the detergent pack in Synthetic oils "may" also encourage leaks (but only in bikes that are about to/likely to leak anyhow)....

I've used Sea foam with no probs. If the sludge is coming out with the oil that's good... means it's no longer in the engine! If it's that bad I might be inclined to oil change that bike a little more frequently for a while (say every 1,000 miles for a couple of changes).

Dan