ORIGINAL: mandtra
I have a almost mew Saito 1.80 with less than 2 gallons of Coolpower 15% ran in it . and it just started making a funny metallic noise and when i took the engine apart. the cam area ws bone dry, and and damaged by a lack of lube.
I don't want to start a religious war but I wouldn't run any of my engines on Coolpower and expect them to last a long time, especially a Saito.
Coolpower's PAG synthetic oil has neither the highest film-strength nor the best viscosity index and its ability to hold corrosion at bay (despite the manufacturer's claims) is wishful thinking at best.
The Coolpower mantra seems to be "quantity can make up for quality" which is not true if you're only getting tiny amounts of oil through to a critical area like the cambox. If there are only trace-amounts able to reach the cam/lifter interface then you need to be sure it's the best damned oil that money can buy. And using more oil in 4-stroke fuel achieves very little as they seem to establish an equilibrium in the crankcase and once that nominal volume of oil is reached, any excess is blown out the breather. So, if the nominal level is (say) 3ml, then if you run 20% oil as opposed to 10%, all it means is that twice as much will be blown out of the engine. The actual amount of oil doing any good remains exactly the same.
Also, all Saitos benefit immensely from the use of around 2% castor in the fuel they're fed. This small amount does a great job of reducing camshaft/lifter wear and protecting against corrosion *without* causing carbon buildup on the valves or cylinder/piston-crown.
One of the benefits of castor is that it is polar and therefore tends to wet-out the metal parts of an engine more effectively than a PAG-based synth. The blend of synth and a trace of castor however, offers the best of both worlds providing the capillary action of a low-viscosity lube with the tenatious "stickiness of castor.
When I called Horizon. THey said the cam area has to be MANUALLY LUBED . well I checked my manual and I cant find that anywhere in the manual.
They are dead right but as you point out, they don't actually tell you about the need to manually lube the cambox area so therefore they are still liable for the warranty repairs.
I expect we'll see a change to Saito's engines pretty soon which will result in the breather nipple being placed on the side of the cambox itself. That'll ensure that oil is forced to where it's actually needed most.