Interested to know what oil people are running or recommend for Pantah motors. Owners manual calls up Castrox GTX which wasnt a bad oil back in the day, but I have just put Motul 5100 10W40 in my recently restored F1 on the back of the local Duc shops recommendation, & it has developed a sizeable oil leak down the front right side of the motor after only 30km of running.

There was no sign of leaking with the fairly fresh belly full of oil that was in the bike when i bought it, but could just be that its at least a couple of years since the motor has run right up to full temperature. Havent pulled the covers off but suspect its the cambelt drive shaft seal as I had a 650 Pantah do the same thing a few years back, also soon after going to a synthetic 10W40. Maybe its just a coincidence.

Comments appreciated.

Andrew.

I've always used mineral oil (20W50, 15W40 API SG) frequent changes.

Hi Andrew,
I use Klotz Motorcycle Techniplate Full Synthetic in all my Ducati's, except the bevel. 20W/50 race, 10W/40 street. Started using it years ago because BCM used it in all their belt race engines, Bruce worked closely with Klotz, and he never had an oil related failure. I know there are other perfectly good oils out there that cost a little less, but I can't bring myself to switch. Maybe it's the very addicting unique smell it has. Any discussion of oils always seems to boil down to use any good brand, keep the level full, and change it regularly. I think full synthetic pays for itself when things get hot, and in my experience, synthetic doesn't affect any seals used in Pantah engines.
Bill

Andrew,

pantah_good is right, you want to use a motorcycle full synthetic. Klotz is good but I have found that Ames Oil work very well also. Heat is the killer in our air cooled motors. I use 10W-40 in my motors but I have the clearences setup to run that weight oil.

Palmer

The Motul 5100 is only a semi-synthetic. While it is a pretty good oil (I used to run it in my girlfriends 750 Monster), it is not the best. I run Motul 300V in all of my bikes. It is a full synthetic oil. You can feel the difference in how the bike shifts. The oil did not cause the leak.

I've always used a good fully synthetic oil in my F1 (apart from initial running in all those years ago!) which at present is Castrol RS 0W-40 but its for street use only. By coincidence I had a similar oil leak after returning from my MOT(roadworthiness) test a couple of weeks ago and on checking found that the camshaft drive oil seal was indeed the culprit and although in seemingly good condition had almost worked its way out of its housing. After 25 years the rubber casing may have hardened up and lost its grip. A new seal is now in place - all I need now (here in England) is for it to stop raining!!!!
Richie.

Hello friends, in the Italian league vintage endurance, my friend, teammate, because the bike is his property, we always used Motul 5100 15w50w, and we have never had problems due to poor lubrication, but I have to say that small oil spills are always present, it must be said also that we do three rounds in endurance test of 30 minutes, and then the race is always a minimum of three hours, so the engine block is a bad life!

The Motul 300v in Italy costs 27 euros, the 5100 costs 17 euros.

In Italy there is a crisis we use the 5100!

Ciao Carlo.

Great photo Carlo...zoom in on the front tire - that thing is hard at work!
Bill

New cam drive seal in hand & about to be fitted. But as I had some GTX 20W50 that's been on the shelf for a long while I couldn't resist putting it in & taking it for a run to see what happened.

After close to an hours running there was still some seeping down past the oil cooler outlets, but nothing dropping off the bike. This compared to several drops a minute with the Motul once hot - suggests its getting places inside the motor the old GTX aint....

So will put the Motul back in with the new seal, gear changing also feels significantly better with the Motul, neutral much easier to find, plus it smells great too. Plus a couple of other Duc freaks I have spoken to here rate it - 5100 for road & 300V for race.

While its a 25 year old seal two things made me wonder; I recently put the 5100 in my '05 1000SS & it now has a couple of very minor 'seeps', plus a friends father put a modern hi spec oil in his 20 year old classic car & it sprouted a couple of leaks which stopped when he reverted to what he had been using.

Hello Friends, when we have finished a race in 4 hours, the engine block is wet with oil, comes almost exclusively from the vent that exits the engine block, and the connectors that connect the radiator, while those near the starter.

We always blame the great stress that the engine block has a long race three or four hours.

We will do this test with Motul 300v and then I will let you know.

Thanks for the compliment Bill, thanks for talking with me friends!

Carlo Leoncini.