Garden tiller oil?

[dlundblad]

Does this sound okay?

At the girlfriends today tilling up their garden. I checked the oil which was low and diesel dark. Turns out it was the 3 year old factory fill. We changed it and dumped in some Pennzoil Conventional SM 10w30 and ran it for about an hour.

I rechecked and saw that it consumed a bit during that time. The oil also had very small metallic sparkles in it. We dumped it again and added some RT 15w40 which I thought would help with consumption.

I normally wouldn't worry, but since it isn't mine I'd rather be extra cautious. The best I can so is encourage her mother to check before every use. I figured I'd top it off when finished too.

 

[901Memphis]

Sounds normal for OPE to get abused. You did the right thing flushing it. Both choices are fine for an air cooled engine and the 15w40 should buy it time.

 

[bubbatime]

10W30 or SAE30 for this application. 10W30 conventional will consume a bit more than SAE30, but tillers are such low use items that it won't make a real difference. I know if it were mine I would just run plain SAE30.

 

[jeepman3071]

Go with the 15w40. Its fine for engines that consume oil like that and will slow the consumption. These small engines aren't too picky about viscosity, the most important thing is that they have oil in them. Preventing or slowing down consumption will help this. I use 15w40 Rotella T in all my OPE that gets used during the hot summer months with great results. I also put it in customers mowers who aren't good at checking the oil level.

The only failures I have seen working on outdoor power equipment for 10 years are from engines that have been over revved, and engines that were run with low oil or no oil. Run the 15w40 HDEO with confidence. What kind of engine is this? Might be time for new rings if it smokes a bit.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Go with the 15w40. Its fine for engines that consume oil like that and will slow the consumption. These small engines aren't too picky about viscosity, the most important thing is that they have oil in them. Preventing or slowing down consumption will help this. I use 15w40 Rotella T in all my OPE that gets used during the hot summer months with great results. I also put it in customers mowers who aren't good at checking the oil level.

The only failures I have seen working on outdoor power equipment for 10 years are from engines that have been over revved, and engines that were run with low oil or no oil. Run the 15w40 HDEO with confidence. What kind of engine is this? Might be time for new rings if it smokes a bit.


Its a Briggs and Stratton. I am going to guess around 3 horse?? I was thinking the same too about the rings.. It puffed a pretty hefty amount of smoke at idle. Darn thing is only about 3 years old though.

From what I could tell, the 15w40 helped a lot.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Go with the 15w40. Its fine for engines that consume oil like that and will slow the consumption. These small engines aren't too picky about viscosity, the most important thing is that they have oil in them. Preventing or slowing down consumption will help this. I use 15w40 Rotella T in all my OPE that gets used during the hot summer months with great results. I also put it in customers mowers who aren't good at checking the oil level.

The only failures I have seen working on outdoor power equipment for 10 years are from engines that have been over revved, and engines that were run with low oil or no oil. Run the 15w40 HDEO with confidence. What kind of engine is this? Might be time for new rings if it smokes a bit.


Its a Briggs and Stratton. I am going to guess around 3 horse?? I was thinking the same too about the rings.. It puffed a pretty hefty amount of smoke at idle. Darn thing is only about 3 years old though.

From what I could tell, the 15w40 helped a lot.


Yeah some Briggs engines will burn oil even when new. I'd just keep using 15w40 in it and call it good. I have a 1966 Briggs and Stratton 2hp engine on a reel mower. It burns a little oil, but it still starts first pull and runs strong. They can run for decades like that.

If it does end up needing rings, you can find all the parts for it on Partstree.com. The parts are cheap and these little engines are pretty easy to rebuild. If it is only used every so often just try to remind the owner to check the oil level before use and it should be fine.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Go with the 15w40. Its fine for engines that consume oil like that and will slow the consumption. These small engines aren't too picky about viscosity, the most important thing is that they have oil in them. Preventing or slowing down consumption will help this. I use 15w40 Rotella T in all my OPE that gets used during the hot summer months with great results. I also put it in customers mowers who aren't good at checking the oil level.

The only failures I have seen working on outdoor power equipment for 10 years are from engines that have been over revved, and engines that were run with low oil or no oil. Run the 15w40 HDEO with confidence. What kind of engine is this? Might be time for new rings if it smokes a bit.


Its a Briggs and Stratton. I am going to guess around 3 horse?? I was thinking the same too about the rings.. It puffed a pretty hefty amount of smoke at idle. Darn thing is only about 3 years old though.

From what I could tell, the 15w40 helped a lot.


Yeah some Briggs engines will burn oil even when new. I'd just keep using 15w40 in it and call it good. I have a 1966 Briggs and Stratton 2hp engine on a reel mower. It burns a little oil, but it still starts first pull and runs strong. They can run for decades like that.

If it does end up needing rings, you can find all the parts for it on Partstree.com. The parts are cheap and these little engines are pretty easy to rebuild. If it is only used every so often just try to remind the owner to check the oil level before use and it should be fine.


Good to hear. It sounds like ive been nominated garden tiller from now on so I guess no worries on the oil checking. Lol.