ponytug
Super Member
Air cooled engines do seem benefit from motorcycle or other engine oil specifically created for the higher temperatures and wear encountered in air cooled engines. I can't point to a particular brand that I think is better, as I have too few 4-cycle air cooled engines, but the few that I have are generators. I have moved those over to air cooled engine oil, because when you need them to work, you really need them to work.Glad you found the problem. With the benefit of hindsight, were there any warning signs prior to failure (strange noise, smoke, power loss etc.) or did it give out without warning?
FWIW, my brother has advised me to only run the Kohler brand engine oil in Kohler engines. The place he works has hundreds of kohler engines in various small equipment. Over the years they have noticed the ones using kolher brand oil keep plugging away while the ones receiving other brands of oil fail prematurely. They can't figure out why the engine oil brand would make such a difference, but that is the trend they see.
From what I read, the oils are supposed to have more anti-wear additives, and the oil formulations are more heat and oxidation resistant.
YMMV...
All the best,
Peter
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