Small engine oil?

[Shawn T. W.]

Well my mower engine is $3500

Mines probably more than that!

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/my-big-lawn-mower.591750/

 

[Hoobie]

My John Deere lx 188 riding mower I bought in 1990. This is my 36th season.Used nothing but sae30 oil. Never had a motor issue and still works well. I mow an acre lawn.
Never had any other issue either except backing into it with the truck driving the hitch through the cowling.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

"small engine" to me ...means air cooled - up to two cylinders, and gasoline powered ...

My above pictured "Lawnmower" is 2.4L, 4 cylinder, diesel, so I don't really consider it a "small engine" ... Yes it's still very small compared to what I normally drive, a 6 cylinder 15L diesel, and even my 8 cylinder 5.7L gasser occasionally ...

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I agree on the definition of a small engine. Sadly many are upward of $3500 today

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Wow, didn't know that ... But since you brought it up ... when I think about the $17K price tag on my Z-turn ... I'm sure Kawasaki is getting a part of that for the 31 HP engine in it!

This is my "Lawn Train"! Cuts, de-thatches, sweeps ... All at once ...

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Wow, didn't know that ... But since you brought it up ... when I think about the $17K price tag on my Z-turn ... I'm sure Kawasaki is getting a part of that for the 31 HP engine in it!

This is my "Lawn Train"! Cuts, de-thatches, sweeps ... All at once ...

View attachment 5357642

Yup. Commercial ZTR engines are that pricey

 

[Shawn T. W.]

To be honest, I was thinking of the pump I had just changed the oil on yesterday morning ... I think I paid $800 two years ago for the whole thing, and it's there pro model with three times the warranty as there standard model ... IIRC it's a Subaru engine ... I'm not home anymore more, so can't check ...

 

[4x4moses]

Not another oil thread! I did a search and didn’t see it addressed. What do people do for small engine oil? It used to be straight 30 weight was called for but that seems outdated these days. I found some small engine 10w-30 Walmart branded oil and bought a couple of quarts. Is just regular synthetic 10w-30 ok, that seems like what I’ll probably start using.

Edit, the stuff I got at Walmart is straight 30 weight.

My Hustler zero-turn (Kawasaki engine), and Wallenstein generator (Honda engine), both recommend 10w30 in most climates. 30HD is approved for warm climates (I'm in the DEEP south). My Hustler dealer recommends 30 weight. So that's what I use.

 

[Soloz2]

I’ve got some kohler 10w-30 for my small engines I use, but my Ferris has a Briggs that specs 15w-50 or something like that and based on what I’ve read using the thicker oil does mean less risk of damage at high temps so that’s what I use in my lawn mower.

 

[Jaygyver]

It also depends on where you live. Alaska and Arizona are two different worlds. Pretty much all my pressure washers, generators, mowers pretty much say 30w above 40 degrees or something like that. 10w30 is exceptible on up the scale but MAY use oil. The newer ones are now saying 10w30 synthetic is fine but doesn't say if it MAY use more oil.

Living in the PNW with the summers getting hotter for longer I just mainly use reg 10w30 in everything.
I don't use any of them for more than an hour or so at a time anyway, except the mowers and don't use any of them in the winter. The SxS is the only one I use in the winter but we just don't get the cold others do.

 

[kjon]

Not another oil thread! I did a search and didn’t see it addressed. What do people do for small engine oil? It used to be straight 30 weight was called for but that seems outdated these days. I found some small engine 10w-30 Walmart branded oil and bought a couple of quarts. Is just regular synthetic 10w-30 ok, that seems like what I’ll probably start using.

Edit, the stuff I got at Walmart is straight 30 weight.

Non detergent is used in engines with no filter, detergent carries dirt with it to the filter.

 

[4Liberty]

Anyone ever had a valve train/lifter failure in a small engine or tractor? Reason I ask is they don’t run anywhere near the spring pressures or camshaft ramp designs that the modern performance industry is using, and the lifters I’ve seen in the stuff I have are mushroom type and they spread out the load much better than the small diameter automotive things. I just took apart a 233 Ford Diesel from a 5000, and it had mushroom lifters. Over 8000 hours on the clock and that had obviously not been working for a very long time. Small time logging operation and they didn’t give much of a hoot about maintenance either. The main and rod bearings looked great, and original by the numbers. Same with the cam and lifters. There was uneven wear on 2 lobes but I think that’s reasonable. Other parts of the engine were far worse than what I mentioned and on parts most people don’t associate with rigorous maintenance. I’m pretty sure those guys were dumping in whatever was at hand.

 

[RHiebert]

Not another oil thread! I did a search and didn’t see it addressed. What do people do for small engine oil? It used to be straight 30 weight was called for but that seems outdated these days. I found some small engine 10w-30 Walmart branded oil and bought a couple of quarts. Is just regular synthetic 10w-30 ok, that seems like what I’ll probably start using.

Edit, the stuff I got at Walmart is straight 30 weight.

 

[tomplum]

Non detergent is used in engines with no filter, detergent carries dirt with it to the filter.

I can't think of any gasoline engine that I would use non detergent in. Maybe some engines in the 1970's and earlier were spec'd with ND when they were built. Detergents help keep piston rings free and deposits from forming through out the crankcase.

 

[caine]

Well, this comment won't win me any praise... I'm not very prompt about oil changes in my equipment, so I've used the recommended weight (or something close to it) and always choose synthetic.

I can almost say I've never had a problem. The exception was a very old 8 HP Tecumseh engine on a large leaf vacuum/shredder that decided, one day, to throw something out the side of the engine (and continued to run until I shut it off). I only got about 20 hours use out of the thing, and it had essentially no hours since I had changed the oil. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, or something.

 

[gstrom99]

ANY oil is better than no/low oil...

 

[DarkBlack]

Fully synthetic oils flow better at low temperatures than conventional oils. 5 points lower.

That’s an old saying from the earlier days of widespread adoption of synthetic oils. It’s kind of 1/2 true, and 1/2 false.
I think it spawned from the widespread public misunderstanding of “W” in multi weight oils.
While the “W” in a multi weight oil roughly approximates the equivalent “weight” ( viscosity) of a single weight at cold temperatures, it is not the same. The “W” 15 in a straight single weight conventional is for the weight ( viscosity) of a 15 oil.
The “W” in 15W-50 is for “Winter”, which is 2 different tests, one being a cold cranking simulator.

Multigrade oils are required to be labelled with the lowest Winter grade they meet. If Mobil1’s synthetic 15W-50 oil could pass the Winter test of a 10 W, it would be labeled a 10W-50.

A 5w-xx, or 10w-xx conventional would have to pass the low temperature cranking and pumping tests to be labeled as such, which a synthetic only able to reach under the 15W criteria was not able to .

Of course conventional changes viscosity earlier in life, and different formulas have different slopes to their viscosity curves, but at the temperature of the testing standard Winter temperature a conventional 5, or 10w passes while new, while a 15w synthetic did not, but likely synthetic is better at anything higher in temperature

 

[Flogger]

i use the same 15w40 Rotella that I use in everything else. i’ve replaced a lot of worn out parts but never an engine.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I've been using Valvoline VR1 in my ZTR. It has a high zinc content

 

[Rockbadchild]

I use 10W-30 in everything small engine unless it calls for 40W... I did once put 40W in a bike that called 30W and I did notice significant lag in throttle response....