Ahaha! were XJ's made to be ran in third world countries?

when i was installing my LED kit i took off all me covers and stuff, and saw a sticker under the right side cover, it said this macine is supposed to be ran on 91 octane (leaded) and i was like, " Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?" was leaded gas common around 1985? or do i have some weird XJ or is it a typo?
Also it says that it should have 20w-40 oil, but you guys said 20x-50, and i bought 15 bucks worth of oil, valvoline, should i return it and get 20w-40

i installed a fuel filter too, they didnt have the one recommended, so they game me a small engine on, napa brand, oh well.

 

my 78 honda cx500 has the same declaration, use the weight suggested by the manufacturer for oil, or something close, and tune it on whatever octane gas you will be running, i tune all my bikes for 89 octane, and they run fine.

 

where does 'third world countries' come from????

 

According to the manual the xj700n model with the code number 1FG or 1JJ runs on regular gasoline. I have model 1FG and I use Vavoline 20W50 for smoother gear shifting.

 

third world countries still use leaded gas

 

It's an 85 model bike 23yrs ago most countries probably still ran leaded fuel I know they did here.
Oil should be fine but you can take it back and swap for peace of mind.
But now that I think about it weren't the 700's built for the U.S market?
Whiskey Foxtrot Tango had me going for a while till I clicked lol.

 

All Yamahas (and practically every other Jap bike) have been able to run on unleaded petrol since the very early 70s. If it doesn't "ping" then the octane is high enough. (Our "standard" here in Oz is 91 octane, and my 900 runs fine on it.)
XJs were not sold in "Third World" countries. Throughout most of Asia, you will see nothing but scooters. There are still Minsk 125s in Vietnam (Where the legal limit for bikes is 175cc) and India is home of the Enfield 350, but everywhere else it's little 60-110cc scooters. My 250 Honda Baja caused crowds to gather in southern Laos!

 

Re: Ahaha! were XJ's made to be ran in third world countries

i was buying leaded gasoline for my '68 lincoln as late as 1992...

 

Thing is, lead isn't really about octane, it's about lubrication and protecting the valve seats.

Old engines need lead or some lead substitute because their valve seats were not designed to run without it.

Newer engines can't use lead because it will instantly destroy catalytic converters.

XJ's don't have cats. Hopefully they are the middle type of engines whose valve seats were designed for unleaded gasoline. These types of engines, like the '78 320i and '75 International I had, fall into the category that can run on either leaded or unleaded... whatever you have handy.

 

I repeat, all Yamahas since the very early 70s will run on unleaded petrol. Their valve seats will handle this perfectly well. My XJ 900 has 129,000 km on the clock, the last 40,000 at least on unleaded, and the valve seats are untouched. My 1978 XT500 handles the same fuel with no problem.
Lead does preserve valve seats (By leaving a coating which adheres briefly before being burnt off in the next cycle), but also raises octane. Higher octane will NOT give more power by itself. It permits higher compression ratios to be used, without pre-ignition. If it did give more power, we would all be running on avgas.
Again, if your engine runs without pinging on standard, you do NOT need higher grade petrol.

 

by ping u mean constantly ping rite? cuz my engine pings when i start it up for 2 secs or less, peopel told me not to worry tho

 

Re: Ahaha! were XJ's made to be ran in third world countries

When you see an octane requirement in an owner's manual published prior to the mid-1980's, you need to take it with a grain of salt. Up until that time in North America (and indeed even today in many parts of the world) octane was rated by one of two different methodologies, Research Octane Number (RON) or Motor Octane Number (MON). Due to different testing procedures, typically the RON number was eight or nine points higher than the MON number. To reconcile these two different figures, the U.S. Government in it's infinite wisdom (cough,cough) decided to test both ways, add the two numbers together, and then divide the sum by two to come up with the Pump Octane Number (PON). You might see this also expressed as (R+M)/2 on the pump octane labels.

The long and the short on this is the 91 RON fuel you find in Europe, Japan, and pre-1980's North America has the same knock-resistance as the 87 PON regular unleaded you will find in most of North America now. Unless you've changed the compression ratio on your XJ, 87 PON fuel should be just fine.

As for the lead issue, it is my understanding that all XJ engines, as well as most vehicle engines produced in the U.S., Europe, and Japan since the late 1970's have the hardened valve seats that do not require leaded fuel. If your car or bike was built before 1976 or 1977, I would investigate getting hardened valve seats installed on your next engine rebuild, otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.

 

To summarize:
No - you do not need leaded fuel - that was a marketing gimmick in the US in the late 70's & early 80's so buyers wouldn't be scared off by the "Unleaded Fuel Only" sticker.

No - you do not need to run 91 (premium) fuel - our bikes run just fine on basic regular -- unless you've got some high compression for some reason. It's a good idea to stay away from fuel that has a high percentage of Ethanol however -- very bad for the rubber parts in our fuel systems.

And No - you do not need to run with 20w-40 oil only. That was just the recommendation at the time. I've been running the 20w-50 for years now - great oil.

 

I asked the local dealer this same question when I went to pick up a new speedo cable. The service manager(the only one there old enough to have worked on and remember these bikes top of his head) Laughed and first said yup you gotta run full leaded haha!! THen Yeah I remember they put those labels on those bikes and he never knew why they did But they will run just fine on unleaded and yes the valve seat issue was the main reason for the leaded fuel.

 

You can find 20-40 at the Dealership. Comes in a YAMAHA Logo'd Plastic Bottle.
Almost 8-Bucks a quart.

You can find 20-50 on the shelf at Auto Parts Store and Discount Retailers.
Three to 5-Bucks.

 

I couldn't get 20-40 at the parts store couldn't even order it.
Run the 20-50.