Originally Posted By: meep
Originally Posted By: Pete591
Any synthetics to avoid in small engines?
I have not heard much about Royal Purple in small engines.
My late model honda push mower DID NOT do well with M1 10-30.
1st OC (early). metal filings. "ok... left from manufacturing"
2nd OC. (when book called for 1st OC) "hmm...more metal filings"
started to smoke on startup. [censored]. No longer held on to idle.
3rd and all other OC went to rotella T 5-40. ever since, the filings (or glistening in the draining oil) have gone away and the smoking has gone away gradually. It's even started to idle on its own again.
I'm not making this up... it hated that oil. It's a pretty big deck (21 or 22?) for that little engine that has a double blade and loads up very badly if the grass is more than 1" above cut height. That engine works very, very hard in our application.
Based on this, I stopped using M1 in our cars.
M
You had a very strange, unusual experience with your Honda. I have a mower with the Honda 160 GCV OHC engine on it, purchased in 2000. Presently it has around 475 hours on it. Since the first oil change at about 5 hours, as recommended, it has had a yearly oil change using M1 5W30. It has never used any oil in this one year, average 60 hour OCI. One year I had an extra quart of M1 0W30, and I used that; still no oil usage that year.
From the time Mobil One came out, back in the 70's, I believe, I used in in my cars and trucks, changing yearly, until I retired back in 2001. Never had a problem and the OCI's were at 18,000 to 20,000 miles. Retired now, and I only drive 5 or 6 thousand miles a year, so I am back to using any dino on sale, with a 6 month OCI.
Your Honda mower is probably a 21 inch. Most walk-behind mowers are. This is normally an easy load for any Honda engine, whether it is the consumer grade 160 OHC or the commercial grade engine. Something just doesn't sound right about the way you describe yours as running. Mine cuts through very thick, heavily fertilized and watered Bermuda grass without much strain.