Changed the oil on the Wee

50 miles, dumped the factory fill and put fresh oil and filter. Strained the old oil through paper towels. Not much to see there, the oil was slightly glittery meaning it had some metal in it but it was too fine to get caught by either paper towels or the oil filter. Suzuki puts a magnetic drain plug on this baby, I examined the magnetic drain plug. Not much to see there, either. No news is good news, in this case, it means that things inside the engine are not grenading :-).

For those Googling Suzuki DL-650 V-Strom 650 oil change procedure:

Torque values:

• Drain plug: 16.5 ft/lb or 198 in/lb
• Oil filter: 2 turns past gasket touching the crankcase.

Consumables needed: Order from RonAyers.com or your local Suzuki dealer:

• New crush washer for drain plug: Part #
• Oil filter: Part # 16510-03G00-X07
• Three quarts of 10W40 oil. Shell Rotella T 15W40 also works fine and is allowed by the manual except in cold conditions (as in, below freezing), and is cheap at Wally World. The manual says 2.9 quarts, but I put all three bottles of 10W40 in and it came just a hair over the 'Full' mark -- no big deal. What about Shell Rotella T Synthetic 5W40? Not explicitly allowed by the manual but has similar characteristics to the 15W40 at operating temperature so should be fine. Note that you don't need to use a specialized "motorcycle oil" in this engine. Just avoid the "energy efficient" oils, which will make the wet clutch slip.

Tools needed:

• Metric 3/8" socket set and ratchet with extension (makes it easy)
• 3/8" torque wrench calibrated in inch-pounds, capable of handling 198 inch-pounds in the upper half (or more) of its scale.
• Oil filter wrench that'll fit the Suzuki filter.
• Oil drain pan
• Oil funnel
• White-out
• Old newspapers
• Disposable nitrile gloves
• Paper towels or shop rags

Spread old newspapers around the work area immediately under the motorcycle. Otherwise the work area will get all oily and greasy. Put on nitrile gloves (if you can't find them locally, Harbor Freight Tools has'em cheap by the hundred mail-order). Used motor oil is a known carcinogen.

Take out the oil filler plug on the right top of the crankcase. Slide the oil drain pan under the crankcase. Take out the oil drain plug on the lower left of the crankcase and let oil drain. Examine magnetic tip of oil drain plug to see if there is anything unusual there. It is usual for there to be a very fine dusting of metal particles, especially if the engine is still in its breakin period, but you should not see metal chips or flakes or worse yet, chunks of engine internals (eep!). Clean the drain plug well with shop rag or paper towel, remove the old crush washer from it, place new crush washer onto it, and place it aside.

Make sure oil drain pan is positioned both under the drain hole and under the oil filter. Take off oil filter from front of engine and dump its contents into the drain pan. Set oil filter aside upright on a piece of newspaper. Let oil drain. Rock bike back and forth, front and back, side to side, to encourage oil puddled around to drain.

Wipe the oil filter area clean with a paper towel or shop rag. Spread a little used oil on the new filter's o-ring. Spin the new filter on until the o-ring just touches the crankcase. Mark the top of the filter with a dab of white-out, then tighten the filter two whole turns.

Put oil drain plug back in, torque it to 16.5 ft/lbs or 198 in/lbs. Put 3 quarts of oil into crankcase using the funnel and put oil filler plug back in. Clean all oil off the bottomside of the engine around the oil filler plug and oil filter. Start the motorcycle. Watch red light on dash for low oil pressure. It should go off within five seconds as the oil filter fills. After about 20 seconds stop the motorcycle, wait a minute or so for oil to drain back down from the heads, and check the oil level. It should be spot on. Check for oil leaks around filler plug and filter. Should be no oil there.

Move oil pan away, put fresh un-sullied newspaper under the motorcycle, pour the used oil back into the 3 quart containers you poured the new oil out of using the funnel, and take it to be recycled. When you come back there should still be no oil under the motorcycle and nothing dripped on the newspaper.

-- Badtux the Wrenchin' Penguin