synthetic or regular oil?

[Jim mac]

just got a 04 honda rancher with 3400 miles. the thing does smoke some, but the owner told me he has amsoiil synthetic in the quad. would regular 1040 be a better oil for this thing? jim

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I seriously doubt that changing from synthetic to mineral would stop the smoking. Unless he was running too thin of oil to begin with like 10w-30 or even 5w-30......

[yaegerb]

Changing the oil won't stop smoking as already stated. You need to open it up and put some rings and valve seals in. As far as the oil you should be running, I recommend Honda GN4 motor oil. Link below.

http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/43/72/214/933/-/11718/Pro-Honda-GN4-4-Stroke-Motor-Oil

[kb0nly]

I run Castrol GTX 10w-40 in my vehicles and trike, and lawnmower, and snowblower, etc etc. I don't run full synthetic and probably never will, as well as i refuse to buy "special" motorcycle oil. If it hasn't killed on in twenty years i don't see why it ever will. Just don't use any of that high mileage formulated oil, that stuff adds a lot of extra crap in the oil that could cause problems with wet clutches. Other than that just use a good quality motor oil and don't worry.

[Jim mac]

Im going to try one last thing on the quad. The guy was talking about seafoam in the gas. I made the mistake of dumping that stuff in my atc70 awhile back. Like usual I just dump some in the half empty tank and figured if a little is good, maybe I should add more. Talk about a smoker! jim

[tri again]

Im going to try one last thing on the quad. The guy was talking about seafoam in the gas. I made the mistake of dumping that stuff in my atc70 awhile back. Like usual I just dump some in the half empty tank and figured if a little is good, maybe I should add more. Talk about a smoker! jim

I've seen engine oil diluted with gas from a leaky petcock gas shut off valve.

Very scary.
Can't really hurt to change it.