Basic servicing of Radical SR3 1500

[nightSpirit]

I can't find a search function to see if this has been posted before (sure it has)...

I'm going to do a fluid swap (coolant, oil, oil filter), plugs, air filter over the winter break. I've found a how to for the oil, is there one for the coolant? (I know it's 50% mix) where do I buy the coolant apart from Radical? same on the oil filter, oil and plugs...

Any tips, part numbers greatly appreciated.

Roll on the better weather!

[BioBa]

Like with all cars for the coolant you find the lowest hose and disconnect to drain. Any good quality coolant suitable for aluminium engines will do.
With Radicals be prepared to mop up the floor afterwards.

[nightSpirit]

Can you tell me which oil, oil filter and coolant to use though..and where from (if not R)

Thanks

[nightSpirit]

Sorry to bring this up again but can someone please just say shell ultra 15w50 from such a place? Same with coolant. I want to know what people are buying and where from if not R. Halfords advanced coolant for instance...any good in a bike engine?

[SportsLibre]

BioBa said:

Like with all cars for the coolant you find the lowest hose and disconnect to drain. Any good quality coolant suitable for aluminium engines will do.
With Radicals be prepared to mop up the floor afterwards.

Nothing special about the Radical, it is just a (mildly) high performance bike engine in a car.

Edited by SportsLibre on Saturday 11th January 10:54

[Steve57]

get mine from here usually.
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-1142-silkolene-pro-4-1...

[jpivey]

To answer the question, oil I still use silkoline as I buy it in bulk that what R used to use, coolant no idea but coolant is coolant isn't it? Oil filter it's just a standard Suzuki part, plugs take one out and buy from where ever
I buy my oil from fluidsinmotorsport. Hope this helps going to be honest I only ever buy parts from R when I can't get them elsewhere.

[nightSpirit]

Thanks guys, so if I ask a part shop for a pattern gsx600r oil filter and that oil I should be good. I also thought that as the engine is rebuilt fairly regularly (mine 20 ish hours ago) there's no need to swap coolant outside the engine swap?

[BioBa]

I do not know if the GSX 600 filter will fit but I ask for a Hayabusa filter. Plenty on ebay or direct from Suzuki.

[nightSpirit]

Thanks guys, bought these for the filter:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-K-N-Oil-Filter-Suzuki...

Will get oil sorted. Anyone got a comment on the coolant swap thought? I just thought it good to do as I like things perfect but if it gets done each year (ish) am I being overly diligent.

[BertBert]

jpivey said:

To answer the question, oil I still use silkoline as I buy it in bulk that what R used to use

I thought Silkolene was back on the menu? The Shell stuff lost OP like it was going out of fashion!
Bert

[LCM]

nightSpirit said:

Sorry to bring this up again but can someone please just say shell ultra 15w50 from such a place? Same with coolant. I want to know what people are buying and where from if not R. Halfords advanced coolant for instance...any good in a bike engine?

Irrespective of brand it makes sense to match the oil to the engine - trackdays with basically a standard engine suggests standard synthetic bike oil whereas racing with an exotic engine suggests race bike synthetic oil. Seeing as nobody has mentioned it yet, I thought that I should - above all make sure that you use BIKE oil!

[nightSpirit]

Ok, so are you saying race bike fluid (car is used for track days only and the ocassional road hobble) is wise? Having never had one of these cars before, or a bike for that matter I'm learning!

Happy to buy what is the absolute best protection for the engine but I have no experience of what that might be.

[splitpin]

As BertBert mentioned, after a very brief flirtation with Shell's 'equivalent', (although their Shop might suggest otherwise) Radical reverted back to Silkolene/Fuchs ProR 15W-50 latter part of 2012; fine with me as I've always found Silkolene's stuff top drawer. Eg IMO very much the case with their Titanium Chain Lub, not that you'll need that!

Fit the red stuff above and stop worrying

Buy from whatever reputable source is offering it at the best price at the point you want it; sometimes that will may be Opie Oils, other times not necessarily.

Cheers

[Coldaswell]

I gave up using the 15W-50 as I have an oil cooler and could never get enough heat into the oil to get the oil pressure down to sensible levels on the road.
I did a lot of research and discovered that it's a topic with hundreds of opinions and endlessly debated. Facts are available but hard to come by. After finally reading detailed info on viscosity, temp, non-synthetic versus synthetic etc. I now use a high performance synthetic bike oil rather than the full-on race oil. It's 0W-40 or 5W-40 and works much better and is fine for the 4 or so track days I do a year.
Just make sure you use bike oil or at least oil that is suitable for a wet clutch and gearbox too.
I get mine from Opie too.

Hope you're having fun with the new toy :-)

[BertBert]

That sounds like a scary solution.
Problem: oil is too cold
Solution: run thinner oil.

Surely the solution is to run the oil at the right temp?

Can I offer the Bertish lore of gaffa?

[Coldaswell]

Gaffa's good for many things but will never replace oil being run in an engine at race revs IMHO. I'm only an amateur at these things but got most of the useful chemical info from here:http://www.bobistheoilguy.com

As I said, nobody seems to agree on any one solution to any one problem either!

I ran super bikes on the oil I put in the radical for years and they were ok.

[BertBert]

I wasn't saying that the oil was wrong, just that whatever oil you are running, running too cold is a bad thing.
BErt

[LCM]

Coldaswell said:

As I said, nobody seems to agree on any one solution to any one problem either!

I ran super bikes on the oil I put in the radical for years and they were ok.

The first thing that one needs to understand is that 50% of the population is of below average intelligence. Of the 50% above the mean, only about 10% is data rational and has any meaningful scientific training. Of those, less than 10% has any knowledge or understanding of any single field of knowledge and of that 10% less than 1% has specialist knowledge. We don't really need to go any further do we as we already know that 99.995% operates on ignorance, rumour and superstition.

Now, let's not get into the assumption that every problem has a single solution or we'll be here all night................

Whatever. 2*Bert's point about running a cold engine under load is entirely valid, is entirely valid. It isn't a simple matter of oil temperature and its relaionship to pressure that is important but oil temperature also acts as an analogue for the temperature of the metal moving parts and so tells us whether they and their associated clearances are operating within design parameters.

[BertBert]

LCM said:

The first thing that one needs to understand is that 50% of the population is of below average intelligence.

It seems churlish to be picky after you have supported my point so nicely, but do you know the above to be the case?
Bert