Hitchcocks Forum

AGuys,

How many pints of oil when carrying out a oil and oil filter change put 2.25 litres but when checking looked low on the oil checker.

Thanks Reds

Probably depends on which model. Only the latest EFI holds that much oil(?)

On the latest EFI which holds a total of 2.75 litres there are several weirs which prevent oil going straight from the filler to the sight glass; the oil has to be circulated by the pumps. Those same weirs and the oilways prevent all the old oil draining out, there is usually some 600ml to 1000ml left in the motor. So adding 2.5 litres will be more than likely overfill the engine. Overfilling is far worse than under-filling because it can seriously damage an engine. The EFI oil pumps seem to start sucking oil around 1.5 litres, this would be the barest minimum it should run on i.e. only for filling. The top mark on the sight glass should be considered absolute maximum; there is only a couple of hundred millilitres between the bottom of the glass and the top. If the sight glass does not show a bubble, it will be overfilled.



The book of words (owners handbook p.63) says run the motor with bike dead level on centre stand for a few minutes to warm and circulate oil, switch off and check level is between marks. It does not say how long to wait for the oil to drop after switch off; a good 3 minutes, maybe 10 minutes or even overnight (i.e. park bike and check it next morning before use). I've added "dead level", it makes a difference.



1 litre = 1.76 pint, approx 1 US quart.

Thanks very much jefrs i have put the 2.25 litres as said in the book but not fired it up yet would you suggest draining some out ?

Reds

Checking the oil level on the EFI engine is never more than 'hit and miss' - more hit than miss unfortunately. The sight glass is a guide as Jeff says, but its all we can go on. I generally leave my GT535 overnight and check that the level is mid way between the upper and lower marks on the glass. It takes about 250cc to raise the level from the lower to the upper mark on the sight glass, but leave it a good 1/ hr before a final check. A lot of oil seems to get trapped in the primary chain case and one can only assume the drain holes must be quite small. If you have no oil in the sight glass, tilt the bike over 30degrees to the right for about 30 seconds, all of a sudden the oil level is full! The other area of debate is that the book gives the oil spec as 15W-50 ester based semi-synthetic (Motul and Fuch's Silkolene) whereas MotoGB and the Dealers generally fill with 10W40 semi synth as our climate is obviously a lot cooler than India. . . . . Maybe a topic of discussion for another thread?

1. Before draining the oil, check the level on the spyglass or dipstick, depending on model
2. Drain oil and remove filter, carefully measuring all recovered oil
3. fit new filter and carefully refill with the exact amount of fresh oil.

Bingo.!

Seems to obvious but it works.

If you have put 2.25 litres of oil in I suggest you check the sight glass. You could have the correct 2.75 litres or you could well have over 3 litres in there. Yes do start the engine to run the pumps and circulate the oil. Just run it at idle for a minute or so. If you go charging around with it overfilled one of the first things it does is try to discharge the excess oil up the breather into the air filter. It's prolonged use that would destroy an engine from excess oil pressure popping seals and gaskets out; although my mother in law did once put oil in up to the filler cap on her car.


Big problem is the crankcase. The flywheel splashes around in oil but if there's not air to displace then the piston hits incompressible oil and disaster happens; fortunately you would have to put a lot more oil in for that.



If you are over filled I suggest draining some 500ml out from the bottom front filter. You may not get that much out from there (reason for using that hole), whatever comes out is enough. Catch it for reuse. The motor will be happy idling on as little 1.5 litre. Now run the motor, stop and wait, then check the glass. If too much then drop some more out. If low then add about 100ml (have a good guess) and try again, and again until - I stop when it 'just shows' in the glass. - Then I run the bike around and check next morning and add oil to the bottom mark as near as I can. The sight glass is very, very variable; one day it will be low, the next high - so long as some oil is showing it is ok but do not have the glass full without a bubble.

TinyTim (fyi) - the EFI doesn't have a dipstick and there is a weir below the filler cap that prevents the old pencil being used. It's the wretched sight glass or nothing. There are three drain holes; the main drain plug rear of engine, the little filter bottom front RHS of engine and the crankcase plug centre front of motor. That central crankcase plug is the one that gets forgotten. Then there is the main filter on the RHS.

NB The O-rings in the kit may or may not fit, I had to reuse some of the originals and I did not get new copper washers for the plugs. My advice if you're getting the oil filter kit is check on the phone with H that you get all the right parts for this latest model as it is annoyingly different to the 2010/2011 EFI, to check on the RE parts list against the VIN/engine number whatever.

>

Although it's only done nearly 2000 miles I had a little problem (soot, sorted) that required me to change the oil in addition to first service, so whilst its on its third filter, it's had something like five oil changes. The first of those extra changes was to check for metal fragments after getting excess soot (none, happy bunny). Then two lots of oil were used to scrub the black out of the system, with new filter, it's squeaky clean now. Then I over filled, easily done, and so I experimented with getting the level right. IMO it's a bit of a bad design, the smart move would be to replace the sight glass with a level plug.

If you lot paid a bit more attention to the original question you might actually be of some help - instead of wittering on about irrelevant 'facts'
I believe Reds has a Redditch 350 and a J2?, can't remember him mentioning he had an EFI.
frank

If memory serves the old 350 takes a mere 1.5 litres and Reds said, "2.25 litres as said in the book" so my assumption has to be it is an EFI which retain a nominal 600ml (or more) when doing a change.

One of my first bikes was a Redditch Oilfield 350 Bullet.

Your memory does not serve you well, the oiltank capacity for the Indian 350 is given in the book as 2.25 ltrs as Reds said . The oil capacity for the EFI is given in my book as 2.75 ltrs.
In a previous post. Reds said 'I want to service my 1960 350 bullet normally get jacksons in knebworth but thouhgt I would do it myself.'

Nowhere does he mention owning an EFI, but you 'assume' he is doing an oil change on one and advise him to drain 500ml out, even though he has already stated that the oil level looks too low. Good advice do you think?
Frank