Just wanted to thank Cujet for his very helpful recommendation of running M1 15W50 in air cooled engines. We recently got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Zeta and we will be without power for at least another week. 15 year old Honda GX390, gets a quart of M1 15W50 every 50 hours, running continuously from a hose we have plumbed to it from under the house with natural gas. Running our lights, icebox and also two neighbors lights and iceboxes with no trouble, 8125 starting, 6500 continuous Blackmax generator. I sleep well at night knowing there will most likely not be an oil related failure due to the 15W50. No damage to my home but plenty damage in the area I live, thankfully I along with my friends and family and everyone else made it through the storm safely. Much more damage than we expected.
Honda generator
- Thread starter mobilnissan1991
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Glad you made it through safely, and keep pouring 15w-50 in that Honda- thickie beats thinnie all day 
I keep 2 quarts of M1 15W-50 incase I have to run my generators in very hot weather. My Coleman 5000 Watt / 6250 Watt starting, with a 10 HP Tecumseh, can provide enough power run our whole house AC unit, and if power ever went down for a long time during the hot days of summer that is exactly what I would be demanding of it.
As Cujet has posted years ago, his air cooled outdoor power engines continued to run without problems in hot weather for long outages with M1 15W-50 in them, while his neighbors engines using thinner oils suffered severe damage.
One note, when I first looked to buy some M1 15W-50 I was not able to find it. So I bought 2 quarts of M1 V twin 20W-50 motorcycle oil from Pep-Boys. I still have that also. In hot weather the M1 V twin 20W-50 would also be a good go to oil if you could not find the M1 15W-50.
Sure these oils are more expensive than many of the other oils, but if you are really going to run an air cooled I.C.E. in hot weather, they hold up and provide the kind of protection you need to keep the engine(s) reliable.
Don't let the nay-sayers who preach using lower cost thinner oils talk you into trying a lower cost thinner oil in very hot weather. Sure those oils work fine when the ambient temperature is lower than 80 F. But when it gets above 80 F and maybe even around 100 or more, you definitely want that extra protection that the thicker M1 oils provide.
BTW, there is a rough general rule regarding chemical reactions that is good to know regarding anytime you are making engineering decisions related to temperature: In general, for every increase of temperature of 10 degree C (18 degree F) chemical reactions in general happen twice as fast, and for every decrease of temperature of 10 degree C (18 degree F) chemical reactions happen half as fast.
One thing this points out is that if the ambient air temperature is 18 degree hotter where you live than where someone else lives, you can expect a significant difference in the way an oil is able to protect a similar engine under similar loads. Or in other words, as little as an increase of 18 degree F is a big deal. Someone who lives where it is cooler may very well be able to use a thinner oil without any problems. But when it really gets hot you want that added protection, so when that oil that started out thicker does thin out some from being hotter that the oil than someone else is using in a cooler environment, it is still thick enough to provide the protection the engine requires.
As Cujet has posted years ago, his air cooled outdoor power engines continued to run without problems in hot weather for long outages with M1 15W-50 in them, while his neighbors engines using thinner oils suffered severe damage.
One note, when I first looked to buy some M1 15W-50 I was not able to find it. So I bought 2 quarts of M1 V twin 20W-50 motorcycle oil from Pep-Boys. I still have that also. In hot weather the M1 V twin 20W-50 would also be a good go to oil if you could not find the M1 15W-50.
Sure these oils are more expensive than many of the other oils, but if you are really going to run an air cooled I.C.E. in hot weather, they hold up and provide the kind of protection you need to keep the engine(s) reliable.
Don't let the nay-sayers who preach using lower cost thinner oils talk you into trying a lower cost thinner oil in very hot weather. Sure those oils work fine when the ambient temperature is lower than 80 F. But when it gets above 80 F and maybe even around 100 or more, you definitely want that extra protection that the thicker M1 oils provide.
BTW, there is a rough general rule regarding chemical reactions that is good to know regarding anytime you are making engineering decisions related to temperature: In general, for every increase of temperature of 10 degree C (18 degree F) chemical reactions in general happen twice as fast, and for every decrease of temperature of 10 degree C (18 degree F) chemical reactions happen half as fast.
One thing this points out is that if the ambient air temperature is 18 degree hotter where you live than where someone else lives, you can expect a significant difference in the way an oil is able to protect a similar engine under similar loads. Or in other words, as little as an increase of 18 degree F is a big deal. Someone who lives where it is cooler may very well be able to use a thinner oil without any problems. But when it really gets hot you want that added protection, so when that oil that started out thicker does thin out some from being hotter that the oil than someone else is using in a cooler environment, it is still thick enough to provide the protection the engine requires.
I honestly think the recommended 30 grade is Okay for most situations, but for a prolonged period of time in hot weather (FL, LA), 40 or 50 is the way to go. I run Delo SDE 15W-40 in mine.
The crazy thing is the storm passed Wednesday night, and Thursday morning a cold front passed, it was in the 60s and yesterday it was 57. First time in my 29 years of life have I experienced a hurricane this late in the season and also for it not to be ridiculously hot the day after.
Nice to hear you have the power situation covered. That's amazingly important after a storm. I still have all my generators, 6 of them at last count, and they all run well on the 15W-50 M1. After the storms here, we had stupidly hot and stagnant weather and the more viscous oil was a life saver. Some of you may remember I lost 2 Honda powered water pumps when I de-watered my yard 2 decades ago. I used the recommended 5W-30 and both engines failed and were covered by warranty. It was FL summertime hot, humid and the yard was jungle-like, so no real airflow. The switch to 15W-50 solved the problem.
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I might step it up to Redline 15W50 Powersports oil with 2200 ppm zinc, but it seems pretty thick compared to the M1 15W50.
That NAPA 15W-50 that mattwithcats posted a link for is less than half the price of the M1 15W-50. Probably a very decent hot weather oil also.
Dont forget also on its valves...
petepowerblog.wordpress.com
Concerned about valve burn on LPG converted generator engines? by Peter Noble
Its something that people tend to be concerned about. My experience is that if the gas conversion is properly set up with the correct jetting then its a bit of a non issue. Nevertheless I can see s…
petepowerblog.wordpress.com
Kameleon, I was actually reading about that last night, the article I was reading says I should use an oil that produces ash as part of the combustion process to “lubricate” the valves, as natural gas is a dry fuel. Should I have any concerns with my Honda?
Dont know for OPE....but would say yes....since OPE valves are subjected to valve recession over time.....even when you use regular gasoline...
Same with LPG cars....But there the mechanics have a list which make/engine is prone towards burned valves
Same with LPG cars....But there the mechanics have a list which make/engine is prone towards burned valves
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