Honda GCV160 1st oil change

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I bought a Honda mower from Home Depot this past May, and am changing the oil for the first time. I have WAY more than the recommended 10 hours on it for the first oil change. I have been cutting my grass 2x weekly (and the occasional 3x) since I bought it at the end of May and each time I cut my grass takes about 1 1/4 hours. Oops.

I turned the fuel off, tipped the mower on its side, and drained the engine oil into a pan. It was pretty dark and had a small amount of very fine glitter. I expected that. I refilled with T5 10w30. Good choice?

Question: Am I supposed to screw the dipstick in to check the oil level, or not?? When the dipstick is "on top" of the threads, i.e. NOT threaded in, its perfectly on the full mark. If I thread it in, its about 1/2" over the full mark.

Either way, I measured the oil that came out and put the same amount back in. I dont want to over/under fill it.
 
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Ouch, hopefully not much long-term harm done

but I find it ironic that people will dump the factory fill early on a car but run way past recommended OCI for their other engines?
 
Yeah, I really have no excuse... I will definitely change it again in 5 more hours to get whatever stuff is left floating around in the sump, and change it at least 2-3x summer from now on.

On the bright side I guess, the oil wasnt low at all (didnt burn any during the break in period!) and any metal glitter was very very fine, and not abundant. Thing runs great, cuts grass great and is very easy on gas!

Originally Posted By: Brybo86
but I find it ironic that people will dump the factory fill early on a car but run way past recommended OCI for their other engines?

New car = $40,000
Lawn Mower = $399

lol.
 
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Originally Posted By: Quest
This is how you check your GCV160 oil level:

Page 7:

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/69048/Honda-Gcv160.html?page=7

with the oil dipstick plug unscrewed, you simply wipe clean the dipstick crosshatch end and then simply insert and let the plug sit on top of the oil filler neck opening end, take it out and read the dipstick level.

Q.


Thanks!! In that case, I am perfectly on the "full" mark. Sweet.
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
Ouch, hopefully not much long-term harm done

but I find it ironic that people will dump the factory fill early on a car but run way past recommended OCI for their other engines?
And they will own their $ 169 mower, longer then their $22,000 car.,,,,
 
in my experience this engine does better with 10/30 when used hard in hot climates. I had one that continuouslt shed metal "shinies" with mobil-1 5-30 until it developed startup smoking. I moved to someone else's 10-30 -- no more "shinies" and the smoking, while it was still there, stopped getting worse.

Yes, don't screw it all the way down to check oil.
 
I bought my Honda mower last year, and at the first 10 engine hours I did change the oil, and there were a lot of sparkles. Changed it again at another 10 engine hours, and there was some sparkles. Changed it again at the end of the season, and the sparkles were gone.

I was really worried about my engine because during the break in there was consumption, but it was not smoking, and I could not smell it. After the second oil change, and about midway through last summer, it quit using oil. I was using 10w-30 conventional.

I think I will keep on using 10w-30 because it cranks effortlessly when cold, and I don't have to worry about a 5w-30 shearing down in the summer heat.
 
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Thanks for all the replies!!

Has anybody added an hour-meter to their Mower? I was thinking it would be a great way for me to track the OCI's more closely.
 
Originally Posted By: [email protected]
I bought a Honda mower from Home Depot this past May, and am changing the oil for the first time. I have WAY more than the recommended 10 hours on it for the first oil change. I have been cutting my grass 2x weekly (and the occasional 3x) since I bought it at the end of May and each time I cut my grass takes about 1 1/4 hours. Oops.

I turned the fuel off, tipped the mower on its side, and drained the engine oil into a pan. It was pretty dark and had a small amount of very fine glitter. I expected that. I refilled with T5 10w30. Good choice?

Question: Am I supposed to screw the dipstick in to check the oil level, or not?? When the dipstick is "on top" of the threads, i.e. NOT threaded in, its perfectly on the full mark. If I thread it in, its about 1/2" over the full mark.

Either way, I measured the oil that came out and put the same amount back in. I dont want to over/under fill it.


According to Honda, you are supposed to change the oil after the first FIVE hours of use then every 50 hours.

The mower came with a bottle of 10W-30 oil, I used it for the first 5 lawn mowings. I then used Supertech full synthetic 10W-30 for all subsequent oil changes. Since it is easy to change the oil and it only uses 12 oz, I change the oil in my Honda lawnmower twice a year.

To check the oil, you DO NOT screw the dipstick, simply put dipstick in without screwing and pull back out to check the oil level.

Honda says you can use 5W-30, 10W-30, ans straight 30. Since I mow grass only when it is warm, any of those viscosities will do.
 
Originally Posted By: [email protected]
Has anybody added an hour-meter to their Mower? I was thinking it would be a great way for me to track the OCI's more closely.

This is probably not necessary based upon what you have told us thus far. Change the oil after the spring growth spurt, then again at the end of the season. Where I live the grass grows like crazy from late April thru the end of June, slows down in July and August, then picks up speed again in the second half of September. I think that you will find it difficult to accumulate more than 50 hours per OCI if you follow this strategy. Don't forget to remove and sharpen the blade, and also clean out the deck while you have her flipped over to drain the oil.
 
Shell Rotella T5 should meet all of your needs. I run it in my Honda GCV-190 and change it 1-2 times per year. I have an hour meter on mine and typically change every 15 hours or so because that just seems to be convenient for me. Oil changes take 5-10 minutes and use ~14 oz of oil so cost is virtually nothing.
 
Good luck with that engine. Worse engine I ever had on a piece of small power equipment. I know many on here love those Honda engines,but my experiences just turned me off of them.
 
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Good luck with that engine. Worse engine I ever had on a piece of small power equipment. I know many on here love those Honda engines,but my experiences just turned me off of them.


Can you elaborate on your experience? Ive read only good things about the engine.
 
My mower has a Honda GCV160 engine on it that has been in service since 2006 with no problems other than I recently replaced the carburetor. I change the oil twice yearly with a good 10W-30 because in So. Cal the mower is in year round use. I also have a pressure washer with the same engine and it hasn't given me any problems. Everyone that I know that uses a GCV160 engine doesn't have any reliability complaints either.
 
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