Hello,
You’ll notice by my signature below that I am an employee of Chevron Global
Lubricants. I am a training specialist and field engineer for our North American
lubricants division. I originally worked for Amoco at the R&D facility before
moving into marketing, and while in that role, Chevron bought our lubricants business
right after I moved to Florida.
All in all, I have more than 34 years of experience in fuels and lubricants testing,
development and tech service support.
I own three motorcycles that I either drive on the street or race. What I wanted
to share with you today is my experience with my drag bike.
It is a Yamaha Roadstar Warrior. Originally built as a power cruiser, but now it
is stretched, slammed and built to run on E-85 fuel and nitrous oxide. I have taken
this bike from a fun street cruiser to a beast that wants to jump out from under
me every time I snap the throttle.
The engine is putting out more than three times the horsepower it was originally
built with, and with the highly oxygenated fuel, nitrous, and severe use, I have
been battling cylinder and piston ring distress for a couple of years. Essentially,
whenever I did a teardown, there was evidence of streaking of the Nikasil-lined
aluminum cylinder, essentially a scuffing situation that is aggravated by the high
cylinder pressures and fuel dilution.
Since Chevron does not make motorcycle oils, I have had to try many of the “other”
different motor oils, all synthetic. To make a long story short, I should have read
your white paper on motorcycle oil testing. It would have saved me at least three
premature teardowns.
Bottom line — the AMSOIL Synthetic Motorcycle 20W-50 has completely solved
my problems. I have been running it for over a year now, and compression and leakdown
have stayed at the exact level as when the engine was freshly rebuilt. This weekend,
I tore down the top end to try a new piston ring combination, and the cylinders
had absolutely NO sign of streaking or other wear-related distress.
Also, all other clearances, including valve lash and valve guide and bearing have
stayed the same. This is truly remarkable.
In my training endeavors, I run into a lot of end users who are high performance
junkies just like me. I have no problem sharing my experience with the AMSOIL products.
Thank you so much for the great product.
Best Regards,
Sam Vallas
Training Specialist
Chevron Global Lubricants
