Generator 25 hr OCI, really?

[1978elcamino]

I bought a brand new large portable generator from Northern Tool a few years ago. With the recent hurricaine's in Florida I finally got to use it.
I would run it when I woke up until about 1pm. Then back on at around 6pm until midnight. After two days I figured I would look up the OCI and was shocked it said 25 hours.
For those who run it non stop are we really going to change it once a day?
I changed the oil at 35hrs and at 71 hours our power was restored. Before it goes back in storage I will obviously change it again but wow, 25 hours, really? 2.6 quart capacity using Rotella and a Motorcraft fl400s. It has a Ducar V-Twin, carbureated, oil cooled, electric start 999cc.

So my question is, why such a short OCI? Personally I would think of something like 50 or 100hrs.

 

[TheOilWizard]

Daily oil changes, the BITOG dream

 

[ripcord]

25 hours does seem way short for a wet sump, pressurized and filtered engine with that much capacity. Are you sure 25 hours wasn't just for the first break in change? I00 hours seems much more typical and reasonable.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

My predator generator without an oil filter has 20 hour change interval. That makes more sense to me.

 

[1978elcamino]

25HRS on the oil and 200hrs on the filter according to the manual.

 

[Dutchy491]

My Honda EM6500 has a 100 hour oci.

 

[ragtoplvr]

It kinda depends on.how heavy you load it and how hot it is. 50 % load and between 30 and 90 f, 100 hours on both. Running your home central AC in a heat wave, 25 hours.

 

[fantastic]

50 hours would be more realistic & 25 is pretty low. What oil grade or spec do they recommend on this gen.?

Critical thinking hat on: Generators are not always treated to a covered porch or enclosure & could be run in some of the worst conditions like a Huricane SO changing the oil is very important. That would certainly decrease the run time & I could see 25 hours perfectly reasonable.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

I bought a brand new large portable generator from Northern Tool a few years ago. With the recent hurricaine's in Florida I finally got to use it.
I would run it when I woke up until about 1pm. Then back on at around 6pm until midnight. After two days I figured I would look up the OCI and was shocked it said 25 hours.
For those who run it non stop are we really going to change it once a day?
I changed the oil at 35hrs and at 71 hours our power was restored. Before it goes back in storage I will obviously change it again but wow, 25 hours, really? 2.6 quart capacity using Rotella and a Motorcraft fl400s. It has a Ducar V-Twin, carbureated, oil cooled, electric start 999cc.

So my question is, why such a short OCI? Personally I would think of something like 50 or 100hrs.

pretty common on generators IMO. I change my Wen 56380i at ~100 hours. I use HDEO in either 5w40 or 10w30 grades. I sent in a UOA on mine after a run and it came back fine. I have nearly 800 hours on my generator.

Just my $0.02

 

[tblt44]

I ran mine roughly 50 hrs over 4 days.
Ran all night running my widow unit and frig. then off 4 hrs on 2 hrs during the day.
Will be doing a oil change soon. I have maxlife 10w 30(red bottle)and quakerstate 5w 40 euro on hand. Just not sure which one I will use.
No need for the euro anymore the BMW is gone.
I read 50 -200 hrs for a generator oil change

 

[Skippy722]

I ran mine 7-8 hours, changed the oil with some HPL Supercar 0w30, and I’ll probably run that till 100, or just throw it into with the yearly oil change schedule everything else is on.

 

[berniedd]

It has an oil filter, so presumably it also has an oil pump (better than a splash system). So why only 25 hours OCI?

 

[shurguywutt]

I got an old Briggs 7500 with no oil filter that has gotten me through many storms because I always end up living at the end of the grid. I always use at least a 30wt, preferably a 40wt. Right now I have Rotella T6 in it. Top it off with some good used oil as needed. Change it every 50 hours or so. Run it at about 50-75% load but they don't make them like they used to.

 

[Sierra048]

I got an old Briggs 7500 with no oil filter that has gotten me through many storms because I always end up living at the end of the grid. I always use at least a 30wt, preferably a 40wt. Right now I have Rotella T6 in it. Top it off with some good used oil as needed. Change it every 50 hours or so. Run it at about 50-75% load but they don't make them like they used to.

My sister and BIL gave me an old, and I mean old, Briggs & Stratton generator that wasn't working several years ago. After replacing the carb and a few other parts I got it running. Several weeks back I saw that it had puked out all of its oil all over our basement floor. The gasket between the starter motor and generator motor was bad. Had to start from the outlet/control end of the generator and work my way towards the leaking gasket. After almost 3 hours of removing everything in between, I finally got to the old, leaking gasket. I was going to hit the internet to try and find a replacement. But after looking at all the parts spread out all over the place, I decided it wasn't worth it and decided to junk it. I plan on getting one of the Predator generators from Harbor Freight when they can get some in. They've had quite a run on them in the past few weeks.

 

[shurguywutt]

My sister and BIL gave me an old, and I mean old, Briggs & Stratton generator that wasn't working several years ago. After replacing the carb and a few other parts I got it running. Several weeks back I saw that it had puked out all of its oil all over our basement floor. The gasket between the starter motor and generator motor was bad. Had to start from the outlet/control end of the generator and work my way towards the leaking gasket. After almost 3 hours of removing everything in between, I finally got to the old, leaking gasket. I was going to hit the internet to try and find a replacement. But after looking at all the parts spread out all over the place, I decided it wasn't worth it and decided to junk it. I plan on getting one of the Predator generators from Harbor Freight when they can get some in. They've had quite a run on them in the past few weeks.

Man if I put that much effort into a free generator already I would have just RTV'd it. Mine doesn't even have a starter. Let it sit in your garage until you can fix it - it might be good to have a spare. The predators are alright from what I heard but I don't really know how long they last.

Also I guess you are right to a point, gens have become so cheap they are pretty much commodities now. $600-$800 you can get a decent one that will last you a while if you take care of it. But if you are in a place that loses power or has storms you need one. Lose $1000 worth of groceries one time and you already bought paid for one.

 

[repairman54]

During Sandy when I lived in NJ I ran my BS powered 5600w run rated Craftsman portable gen. set 11 days straight, only shut off to fuel and check oil level. Thats 264 hours. Never had to add oil either.
WM 5-30w full synth. in it. I just sold that gen set as my current place has a Generac. Changed oil after things returned to normal after that stretch. No issues for the years following later on with multi day runs and after storm maintenance.
OEM oil in a new unit is an unknown, I would put a good synth. oil in it and run it. Short OCI is probably for a non synth. oil IMO.

 

[AJB0009]

What is the fear? What could/would happen to oil if ran an extended OCI in this application? Trying to learn.

 

[Dave Sherman]

The manual for my Predator calls for 20 hour changes, which does seem a little excessive. I run Rotella T5 in it and bought a magnetic dipstick for it, so I would think it could easily go beyond that. Even at the first oil change there was very little sparkly stuff in the oil. Now there's just thin film that builds up on the magnet.

 

[spasm3]

My predator 4375 also calls or 20 hours. i'm going to do 50.

 

[Whimsey]

My sister and BIL gave me an old, and I mean old, Briggs & Stratton generator that wasn't working several years ago. After replacing the carb and a few other parts I got it running. Several weeks back I saw that it had puked out all of its oil all over our basement floor. The gasket between the starter motor and generator motor was bad. Had to start from the outlet/control end of the generator and work my way towards the leaking gasket. After almost 3 hours of removing everything in between, I finally got to the old, leaking gasket. I was going to hit the internet to try and find a replacement. But after looking at all the parts spread out all over the place, I decided it wasn't worth it and decided to junk it. I plan on getting one of the Predator generators from Harbor Freight when they can get some in. They've had quite a run on them in the past few weeks.

The Briggs & Stratton generators made in the early 2000's seemed to have bad crank shaft seals that caused severe to moderate oil loss, causing a lot of destroyed generators during Sandy. I worked at Lowe's then and saw lots of destroyed or seriously leaking Briggs generators returned for this reason. You have to pull the generator head off the crank shaft to replace the seal. I bought my Briggs Storm Responder 5500W at the end of Sandy. It developed the crank shaft leak, but not too seriously. I was advised by a fellow Bob member to try Valvoline Synthetic 10W-30 HM with Max Life. It actually reduced the leakage to a minor damp spot on the cardboard under the generator, which is livable versus trying to pull the gen head off the crank shaft.