first OC, B&S 14HP ZTR

[meep]

This is my first true B&S ownership experience. so far it's been very very good.

I put about 6 solid hours on the ariens 34" ztr, including about 1.5-2 hours of pulling a 450lb aerator in soft dirt. i've been mowing frequently, so it's hasn't been overwhelmed by deep grass. about 5 gallons fuel consumed.

it has a rotary valve with hose barb for the drain. it's very slow to drain this way. 1/3 qt in 10 minutes, so I suctioned the rest. while the dipstick still looked green/gold, what came out did NOT. the drained oil came out green/black, saturated (and I mean *saturated*) with tiny sparkles. the sparkles actually looked smaller in size than what I recall with a past honda hrx mower. It was jet black/green in the jug.

the dealer said I really didn't need to worry about it until 25 hours, but that 5 would be an excellent idea. glad I didn't wait.

10-30 castrol syn went in. the starter and idle seemed to be a slightly higher rpm as I tut-tutted back into the garage with it. good enough!

I'm wondering if I should change the oil in the transmissions at some point, probably earlier in life.

(love this mower--- so easy that I adopted the elderly, still-working lady's yard next door).

 

[larryinnewyork]

I bought a 'new' B&S engine for an old mower I had.
After 5 hours, I drained the oil and it looked "silver/black" colored.
No dought it was the aluminum cylinder walls wearing in.
Could this be normal ?
Apparently so, because it lasted another 12 years before being sold.
I then bought a new mower (B&S engine) and changed the oil after 1 hour (it was dark with a small amount of aluminum).
I kept doing this and after 6 hours / 6 cuttings, the oil looked decent.
I will continue to increase the frequency to several times a year.
Manufacturer says every 25 hours

Just bought a new B&S engine for the snow-thrower, I will do the same.
Especially after learning that it has Non-matallic (plastic) cams & gear on cam shaft.

 

[volk06]

Use a HDEO for your OPE. It has a more robust additive package and will withstand the abuse better.

T5 is a great choice.

 

[meep]

volk06 that's a great idea. i used to use the rotella 5-40 syn-- was probably the best OPE oil I used. In this case the castrol or PU (whichever is on sale) is what I stock for all of our vehicles.

but now come to think of it, all of the OPE in the garage will need it soon-- blower, trimmer, genset, and the rider (I will probably change in another 10, not wait to 25, so I'd easily use 2/3 the gallon in the next 6 months.

good idea, thank you.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: meep

I'm wondering if I should change the oil in the transmissions at some point, probably earlier in life.

(love this mower--- so easy that I adopted the elderly, still-working lady's yard next door).


Was this the Ariens ZTR? (I forget!)

You might want to go easy on pulling ~450lb rollers for hours. Regardless of what they tell you, this stye machine is not intended to do this for any length of time.

It's probably got Hydrogear ZT-2100 or maybe 2200 (the new EZT) drives on it. You can dump and refill the oil on them, but they require removal from the machine to do so. Have to invert them to dump oil. You can Google them for service and ops manuals.

 

[meep]

@JTK - yes, good call. ariens Zoom 34 ZTR. Impressed!

yes the manual lists 450lbs as the max tow weight. I didn't realize the aerator would weigh that much. Hence the interest in an earlier oil change on them.

it's got the 2200s. it's a shame they have to be pulled for service. I wonder if they can be suctioned dry and refilled with a turkey baster. I'll go look at the manuals.

 

[JTK]

There's no way to get a suction tube down far enough through the breather hole to pump these out. That's the way it's been in the past on the EZTs anyway unless HG has modified them with the newer 2200 designation.

Main thing is to keep them clean and dry and try not to use them beyond their design.

 

[tig1]

I bought a new Craftsman riding mower last year with th 22HP Briggs engine . I ran the FF for 3-5 hours then drained. I replaced the filter and went with M1 10-30 for the rest of the year. This spring I changed both filter and M1 and refilled with M1 10-30 again. I noticed this time the old oil looked very good.

 

[meep]

i always love how they sound different after getting rid of whatever oil they came with. be it a used OPE on some 7 year old black goo, or in this case the standard fill by the dealer-- there was just the slightest change in engine note.