Switching to synthetic

[wagonmaster]

I have used Castrol in many cars/trucks, no issues at all. I just get a "deal" on Chevron stuff nowadays and it's as good as ANYONE'S!

[HPbyStan]

I use Mobil 1 in both Astros as it's better than either of these things need BUT I use Ams/Oil in my race engines. I got dragged "kickin and screemin" into Ams/Oil cause I figured anything marketed like that must be suspect but I was having major problems in a BSA motorcycle race engine. The thing in it's engineers wildest wet dreams was never expected to put out this level of HP and it just can't get rid of the heat. I used to change dyno-gut oil between the heat and the main and it still would only go like stink for a few laps and then slow down a bunch. With the Ams/Oil, the hotter the darn thing gets, the faster it goes. ( Heat eguals HP until your thermal gains are overcome by frictional losses ) This stuff is the closest thing to a "free lunch" in mechanics that I've ever seen. I should probably sell the stuff but I'm just a user not a pusher.

[wagonmaster]

Wow Stan:

BSA motorcycle race engine

Been years since I even heard that term! I've beena H-D guy for 47 years, but I had a couple of cool BSA's over the years, a 500 Gold Star single (fun to start on cold mornings!) and my favorite, a NEW '65 650cc Spitfire Hornet, complete with magneto ignition and the "kit" for lights, etc.! It was a real "rocket" (no pun intended) and it took a tiny rider on a really good Sportster to beat it on the street! My Mom through out the box of stuff that had the pictures of it 30 years ago, but we did go to Daytona, stopping frequently to fill the small fiberglas tank, that year..from Atlanta. Sold it when I went in the Marine Corps. What BSA stuff are you racing?

[HPbyStan]

Hi, Racing the later, well last, BSA single, the B50. Only ran it one year in AHRMA vintage racing ('99 '70s singles class). Won their national championship easily. It had been run in AMA Modern competition until they changed the rules from 500cc to 600cc in the late '80s / early '90s and then I finally parked it. In the three years that Jimmy Sumner raced it, against mostly Rotax powered stuff, if you count heat races also, he won more times than he lost. Now that is hard to do in any league let alone against the latest factory stuff on an old British single with the same "born on date" as the rider. It sat on my back porch untill former retired national 43 Mike Gilkey asked to ride it in the AHRMA series in Daytona. That was fun so we ran the whole year. I was getting "a kick" out of this but Mikey was bored because it was sooo easy so when Formula USA started their modern flattrack series in 2000, Mike wanted to run that. Their rules called for 400cc engines so I put a B25 (250cc) crank in one of the 510cc engines we had been using and came up with 398cc. Before the season started they ruled that 2 valve pushrod engines could be 500cc + the .040" overbore so we ran the new bike ( I design and build my own frames as well) with the same engine as before. Mikey never did win one of the F-USA races although he probably should have won three of them. At Texas Motor Speedways high banked half mile he turned 4th quick time in qualifying and came 3ed in the National main. It was the 1st time a BSA rider had been "on the box" at a modern 1/2 mile National in over a quarter century. The 4th place Rotax rider protested the BSAs engine displacement and it was torn down and Gilkey got another $300 for being legal. The winners circle photo is kinda funny. There's the Factory Husaburg winner, Factory ATK (Rotax powered) 2ed and the ole BSA 3ed. Two young kids and ole 40ish Mikey. In 2001 Mike desided he wanted to take on the AMA 600cc national class at Daytona so I built him a 585cc engine ( the biggest that thing can go and have any hope of living imo). I'd hoped that my chassis design and Mikes ability could make up for the HP lack we surely would have. That thing was amazing!! In practice he was yankin the 'Taxs down the short straights but the electronic ign that, imo, had cost him 3 F-USA races the year before quit altogether this time and whilst I was changing that, he rode a practice on a Rotax and crashed breaking his collar bone and he rethought this racing plan at his age and quit.

[wagonmaster]

That's(those) are great stories! Ever ride the twins? I haven't in decades, but just saw a Spitfire Hornet when I was in Daytona this year...Looked like it just rolled off of the production line at Birmingham Small Arms, except for the megaphones one each exhaust! I put many a mile on one of those! Always preferred them to the Triumphs.

[HPbyStan]

I had a '59 A10 Super Rocket that I liked and a '65 Lightening Rocket that "not so much". I'm looking around for an A10 project at the moment. I grew up on BSA singles. My dad wouldn't let me have a car in high school but bought himself a new BSA B33 single in '56 and gave me his '55 B33. I had 3 Gold Stars back in the day 2 of which were new. I was in the UK last May and went by the old Small Heath factory. Not much is left any more.

[phr1$k37]

Well I am still in search of a dealer that doesnt want to kill me on the amsoil purchase. I HAD to change my oil this weekend - it was black after only 8000kms of driving ;p I just put in Royal Purple Synthetic to carry me over. I was on sale I bought 7L for $40.

[91AWDAstro]

Well I wound up just going with Mobile-1 this time. I'm getting close to 3k on the motor so it will be time to change it again.