Oil injection - Love it or leave it?

[matt glascock]

Hi everybody. A recent thread on our forum has rekindled an internal debate I've been having regarding the use of oil injection. I would love to hear of any experiences - good or bad - , endorsements, indictments, successes, failures, or anything else pertaining to oil injection to help me decide whether to convert to premix. I have three bikes currently with functioning oil injection. M99 Road Toad, SL250, and 250ED. Any general comments or comments specific to these three models will be welcomed and appreciated. The ED will be raced - hare scrambles only. Many thanks!

[dirtsquirt74]

I can only speak for myself. I would convert to premix for two reasons. (1) one less thing to break down (2) My family and I are trail riders and have run our engines at 40 to one mix for forty years. I like premix because it makes my engines run cleaner.

Richard

[mac]

Not really an opinion but I guess more of an observation leaning towards oil injection. I read an old article on oil injection on the first Can Am motorcycles and according to the factory testing,the motors lasted far longer with oil injection vs premix do to a constant correct amount of oil and jetting.
Also,I,ve had three different snowmobiles over the years that were oil injected and each one had 6 to 7 thousand miles on them when they were sold with never any trouble. I think the only time I know of an oil injectioncausing trouble on a snowmobile is when a friend rebuilt the motor and did not bleed the oil lines of air after putting it back together.
All that being said,as hard as it is getting to find pistons for my Ace 100 I don,t know if I would leave it oil injected if it had it. I know,not much help lol.

[Tether]

I have been around oil injection bikes for 45 years and have never seen a pump fail. I’ve seen, though, someone putting straight pump gas in non injection 2-stroke motors.
I have reinstalled several oil injection systems on bikes where the PO had removed it.
Once set up it’s nearly maintenance free, just top of the oil tank now and then.

[socalhodaka]

I love my 03 Wombat with oil injection and the bike gets rode a lot.

[matt glascock]

Great thoughts fellas. Thanks. My own quasi-research on the subject describes the pump mechanism in glowing terms such as "bullet-proof", "fool-proof", "fail-safe", etc. I'm sure mine was pumping away just fine but didn't have the juice to blow through the frozen check valve at the intake manifold which led to a thrilling WOT seizure and the loss of an awesome piston/cylinder set. Kelly, do you run any oil premixed with the fuel as a back-up. I know in one of the (many and exhaustive) oil discussion threads we have had there are descriptions of modern oils that claim proper lubrication in ratios as thin as 100:1. The combination shouldn't result in an excessively oil-rich mixture. I suppose running premix with injection oil brings up the concern for oil compatibility. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill here. Perhaps the answer here is a program of more frequent pump function confirmation. I do like the convenience of filling up at the pump. Let me ask this: Does anyone run oil injection on bikes that are raced? I'd like to hear about that.

[hodakamax]

Olde school here. Ya gotta pour oil in somewhere where it mixes with the fuel to lubricate things. Lubricants belong in the fuel with the least amount of mechanization possible. As for racing, pumps use engine power to run them and pump fluids. Extra weight. Are you really going to haul extra oil during a race? All minuscule of course, but there, with its gears and hoses, another system to go wrong. Simple and sure, mix it up and not worry about it. How's that? Maxie

[socalhodaka]

Max, I agree on the race application. But when you ripping around town on an Enduro type and need to gas up, I just want to gas and go. I know for some they ride maybe a few miles but on a long ride like I did on RT 66 in Arizona around 120 miles, I need gas.

[matt glascock]

I'm with you, Maxie. I'm nixing the oil injection on the ED. I know the pumps are reliable, but there are multiple places throughout the system where some minor glitch - a miniscule piece of crud, a frozen check valve - could shut the system down despite a functioning pump. Also, the plastic (nylon?) gear that operates the entire mechanism is a concern. I do agree with you, Kelly. Gas and go is very appealing when on the road. I'm splitting the difference. Premix on the race bike. Injection for street and light trailing. What I need is a more frequent confirmation of functionality. What would be great to know is the normal, expected rate of oil consumption. I know that would be almost impossible due to the variable rate of oil consumption based on engine RPM, but a ballpark range would be nice.