Brigg's recommends 5w30........

[HappyHyundai]

Dang, Briggs and Stratton used to only recommend SAE 30 and 40 for their engines. Now they're recommending 5w30 Synthetic for ALL temperatures and 5w30 conventional for temperatures that are 40F and below. I had no idea that synthetic are a big deal.

I shouldn't be complaining I guess. After 13 years of service, my Tecumseh 2-cycle 3 HP 1-stage snowblower finally died. Boy do I hate 2-cycle engines. I'm now a proud owner of a Craftsmen 4-cycle 4HP 1 stage snowblower.

http://briggsandstratton.com/display/router.asp?docid=64066

 

[MN Driver]

I think the 5w30 recommendation with a synthetic and not with a dino is because the dino shears down far too quickly and would burn more oil. I'm not sure why the multigrade burns more oil but it seems that it is a common occurance to others on this forum. The synthetic will hold up better with the higher temperatures associated with air cooled engines.

I personally think that the rest of my equipment will wear out before my relatively seldomly used lawn mower and snowblower so I use conventional oils in both. 15w40 HDEO in the lawn mower(used to use straight 30), and 5w30 in the snowblower(as specified)

 

[Bror Jace]

If you read enough B&S manuals, you get the feeling that they are concerned that the 5w30, 10w30 multiviscosity conventional oils will shear down (and this is very valid looking at used oil analysis here) and then they will leave the crankcase ... either past the rings, valve guides or possibly flash off through the crankcase vent.

Then the engine, low on oil will suffer damage, probably seize.

I think there's a lot to this. These motors are rather negligence-resistant as long as they have some sort of viscous liquid in them keeping them from grinding themselves to oblivion.

And, the rest of the piece of equipment will likely wear out before the engine does, as has been noted.

However, I change the oil in these motors often and/or use a HDEO (5W-40 or 15w40 depending on season). "Good enough" simply isn't good enough for me.

--- Bror Jace

 

[daman]

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I change the oil in these motors often and/or use a HDEO (5W-40 or 15w40 depending on season). "Good enough" simply isn't good enough for me.

--- Bror Jace

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i agree, i use Amsoil's ACD 10w30/30w and change it out
every 30-40 Hrs.

 

[caprice_2nv]

I doubt B&S has to deal with too many warranty concerns anyways. At least their older engines could probably live a long life with Ram's p*iss in the crankcase. Personally to make me feel good I would probably synthetic 5w30 or something close to that and change it once or twice a year depending on the amount of use.

 

[Lonnie]

I run a 5w30 synthetic in my car and change it at 5k miles. I save a couple of quarts of the used oil for my lawnmower. Is that cheap, or what?

 

[daman]

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I run a 5w30 synthetic in my car and change it at 5k miles. I save a couple of quarts of the used oil for my lawnmower. Is that cheap, or what?

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Are you for real??? 5k used oil....

you take pay-pal,i'll send ya $5 bucks so you can
get that poor mower a nice qt. of RTS......

 

[Locomotive]

Briggs used to get real funny acting about syn oil til they saw the profit potential, remember only use their 5w30 syn as it is made for briggs engines only. I have torn down a few engines that looked really beat up but i have found that the exaust valves were carboned up realy bad but very little wear on the rings and cyl lining plus no scuff marks. I m talking about engines that only had oil added to them but rarely changed if at all.

 

[1999nick]

Quote:

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Quote:

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I run a 5w30 synthetic in my car and change it at 5k miles. I save a couple of quarts of the used oil for my lawnmower. Is that cheap, or what?

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Are you for real??? 5k used oil....

you take pay-pal,i'll send ya $5 bucks so you can
get that poor mower a nice qt. of RTS......

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At least, he's not wasting all of that good M1 by draining it at only 5,000 miles. IMHO, M1 has no advantage over regular if it is being dumped at this OCI. Engines will last for 200-300,000 miles on dino if changed at this interval. His lawn mower is probably better off with this barely broken in M1 than if he used new dino.

As I've mentioned on this boarde before, an article in PopularScience magazine 20+ years ago said that M1 was better with 10,000 miles on it than regular oil brand new, and I successfully put this to the test for about 20 years, before I retired. I was a 20,000 mile per year driver back then, and I changed my M1 once a year. Sometimes I would change the filter halfway through, and sometimes not. I would usually add a couple of quarts of makeup oil, and never had a problem. I usually traded cars every 5-7 years; 140,000 miles, and I was ready for a new ride.

 

[daman]

"His lawn mower is probably better off with this barely broken in M1 than if he used new dino."

LOL..says you...

how do you know it's barley broke in did you do a used oil analysis on
THIS oil???(don't care about any other used oil analysis on M1)

that oil could have anything in it,if somthing happend
to his car in that OCI...he'd be dumping that #@$%! right
in his mower.lawnmowers are hard on oil.

I'll go pick up cans in a dich and buy my rider a qt. of oil
before i'd do that,Gezzzzz.

 

[1999nick]

Quote:

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"His lawn mower is probably better off with this barely broken in M1 than if he used new dino."

LOL..says you...

how do you know it's barley broke in did you do a used oil analysis on
THIS oil???(don't care about any other used oil analysis on M1)

that oil could have anything in it,if somthing happend
to his car in that OCI...he'd be dumping that #@$%! right
in his mower.lawnmowers are hard on oil.

I'll go pick up cans in a dich and buy my rider a qt. of oil
before i'd do that,Gezzzzz.

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Twenty + years of good experience using M1 like it was originally intended to be used, 1 year or 25,000 mile OCI's tell me that, in a normal engine in good shape, 5,000 miles is nothing on M1. When the M1 in my car had 10,000 miles on it, it still had a good 10,000 miles left. Or did back when I was driving 20,000 miles a year. I am retired now, driving only 5 to 6,000 miles per year. I change oil twice a year now, using regular oil.

If my engine were in such bad shape that the oil was in the condition you suggest is possible, I would certainly not use it in my lawn mower. A used oil analysis is not necessary if the oil has bits and pieces in it, or if it is really dirty to the extent of being opaque.

In my lawn mower, I use fresh M1, usually the 5w30 weight, changed once a year which is 60 to 65 hours of use. My mower, which is a 2000 model with the 5.5 hp Honda OHC engine, has never used any oil between changes. It is used year 'round, and I change the oil in March. Right now it has 48 hours on this change, nary a drop has been used. I have an hour meter on this mower,one of several that I have on my lawn maintenance equipment, so I know exactly how much it is used. Back when I was driving 20,000 miles a year, if,for some reason I changed the M1 at 5,000 miles, I would not hesitate to use this oil in my mower, or edger, or lawn vac.

 

[daman]

Anything can happen in an OCI...

 

[Bror Jace]

I've self-recycled used oil before into another engine ... but it's fairly clean stuff that I've poured through a cotton cloth or a coffee filter ... and I've poured it into an older piece of equipment that was on its last legs.

And between a fresh mineral oil and ANY synthetic with 10,000 miles on it, I'd take the dino.

 

[daman]

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I've self-recycled used oil before into another engine ... but it's fairly clean stuff that I've poured through a cotton cloth or a coffee filter ... and I've poured it into an older piece of equipment that was on its last legs.

And between a fresh mineral oil and ANY synthetic with 10,000 miles on it, I'd take the dino.

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