Honda mower oil question.....

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I recently bought a honda self propelled mower. In the owners manual, genuine honda small engine 10w-30 is recommended, but other 5 or 10w-30s that meet modern oil specs can be used. Who would pay $7 a quart for the honda oil? For that price Id think mobil 1 would be a better choice, but im not a small engine guy. Is there any benefit to the Honda oil? This was a $400 mower, and Ill be trying to make it last a very long time.
 
We may have the same mower. I bought mine from Home Depot $400 in April or May. I dumped the break in oil after 5hrs as per the manual. I have PYB 5-30 in mine. All is well! I also have only used 93 octane hoping to combat the ethanol issues with 87.
 
I just use whatever 10w/5w-30 syn I have lying around in our Troy-Bilt with the Honda GCV. I kept the bottle that came with it and measure how much to put back in it. Come to think of it, ours came with Arnold 10w-30, not Honda.
 
Originally Posted By: BISCUT
We may have the same mower. I bought mine from Home Depot $400 in April or May. I dumped the break in oil after 5hrs as per the manual. I have PYB 5-30 in mine. All is well! I also have only used 93 octane hoping to combat the ethanol issues with 87.


Mowers, seem to like the higher octane fuel. They both have 10% ethanol unless you are near one of the few stations in NYS that sell pure gasoline for small engines and marine use. Keep an eye on the condition of the oil during the season. These OHV, splash oiled engines are pretty hard on oil.
 
I am using ethanol free fuel in mine. I have a feeling that ethanol killed my briggs and straton mower, although i got it to last 7 seasons. If i couldnt get access to ethanol free fuel id be dosing the fuel with mmo every time to prevent hardening of the fuel lines.
 
I sponsored a project to put this young retarded male to work cutting grass at various large homes near San Diego and a couple of horse ranches. I was really touched when this young adult, Tom, told me that he knew he was "stupid" and kind'a of "slow" but he could cut enough grass so that people would stop making fun of him and he could have good shoes that you purchased at a store where you could get ones that fit instead of used shoes that never fit. I purchased a Honda HRC216 if my memory is correct. A local farmer set up a maintenance schedule and we used Red Line 5w-30 engine oil because that's what the farmer uses in his air cooled engines for pumps, post hole diggers and stuff like that. Evidently that was an excellent choice because the engine outlasted the rest of the mower over 10 years of constant use. The farmer retired the mower and the engine is now on a well pump and is doing just fine. The young adult is now 10 years older and has learned to operate a lawn tractor that uses all Red Line products, and now does some or all of the service work. He also has a 2-stroke Echo weed eater and he will only use Red Line 2-stroke oil mixed with the gasoline based on his work with that farmer. Because of these two I use only Red Line oil in my Honda lawn mower and Echo weed eater. They are both also 10 years old and show no signs of wearing out at all.

The farmer's choice in oil was backed by periodic oil analysis and testing of several different oils just like he does with his tractors and other equipment, including tear-downs and inspections. Many farmers become excellent mechanics and engineers to keep their operations running and expenses under control. He told me you make choices based on facts, not anecdotal hearsay and you live on a budget.

If you only do a small lawn once a week or so it probably makes little difference what oil you use and saving a couple of dollars on a quart of oil every year may be more important than how long the mower will last. You might as well make your choice of oil based on what's on sale that meets the spec in your owner's manual and be done with it.

Tom now has 4 pairs of shoes including some very nice work boots, a Red Line cap and shirts, and no one around here makes fun of him, anymore. He has a waiting line of potential new customers. He told me he can't hire anyone because he's still working out how to read and write with his teacher. He also might not be as "slow" as people think because he asked me why government people do not like to see working people make their business get bigger and make more money so they can buy more stuff.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack


The farmer's choice in oil was backed by periodic oil analysis and testing of several different oils just like he does with his tractors and other equipment, including tear-downs and inspections. Many farmers become excellent mechanics and engineers to keep their operations running and expenses under control. He told me you make choices based on facts, not anecdotal hearsay and you live on a budget.

If you only do a small lawn once a week or so it probably makes little difference what oil you use and saving a couple of dollars on a quart of oil every year may be more important than how long the mower will last. You might as well make your choice of oil based on what's on sale that meets the spec in your owner's manual and be done with it.

Tom now has 4 pairs of shoes including some very nice work boots, a Red Line cap and shirts, and no one around here makes fun of him, anymore. He has a waiting line of potential new customers. He told me he can't hire anyone because he's still working out how to read and write with his teacher. He also might not be as "slow" as people think because he asked me why government people do not like to see working people make their business get bigger and make more money so they can buy more stuff.




This Tom guy seems like he may have more IQ points than the sheeple average
 
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Thanks, I thought today would be a good day to add this to the Honda post. We've been working with Tom for 10 years or so. What we do that the experts don't do is we work with what Tom can do and we don't use fancy words or explanations, just show and tell. We got him out of a lock-down facility and the people that told us he was lost in his own world. Sometimes I wonder about these over priced experts that know everything and tell the rest of us that we're stupid and that they'll explain everything to us. Even Tom told me that he did not think that his doctor could change the oil in his lawnmower or get the lines left behind by the mower all straight in a row and I think Tom's correct.
 
Love it. Thanks for sharing Tom. Hope he keeps growing his small business. There is wok for all!
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Thanks, I thought today would be a good day to add this to the Honda post. We've been working with Tom for 10 years or so. What we do that the experts don't do is we work with what Tom can do and we don't use fancy words or explanations, just show and tell. We got him out of a lock-down facility and the people that told us he was lost in his own world. Sometimes I wonder about these over priced experts that know everything and tell the rest of us that we're stupid and that they'll explain everything to us. Even Tom told me that he did not think that his doctor could change the oil in his lawnmower or get the lines left behind by the mower all straight in a row and I think Tom's correct.



I think that is true of a lot of know-it-all experts. What you and other people did to help this guy was far better than him being in some sort of facility standing in a corner. Heck, I know of a guy who is taking advanced science classes in college and he got under a car supported only by the jack intended for changing tires. And that guy thinks he knows everything.
 
Originally Posted By: Clubber_Lang
Is there any benefit to the Honda oil? This was a $400 mower, and Ill be trying to make it last a very long time.


i bought my hrx217 almost 10 yrs ago, it was over $600. i run basic 10w30 in it, castrol, penzoil, quaker state, change it when it starts to turn dark which is twice a year at most... mid summer then prior to winterization. i'm in ct.
you might still be able to find my post in here about tearing the hydrostatic transaxle apart, and i also did a voa oil analysis on honda hydrostatic transmission fluid which came back as nothing more than high viscosity hydraulic mineral oil... honda says use genuine honda hydrostatic transmission fluid other damage may result... key word being maybe
 
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Man, do I agree with this post. I bought my lawnmower a long time ago. It is a Troybilt lawnmower with a Honda engine. A lousy quality bottle of oil came with the mower. I told myself I was not going to use that oil. I used a higher quality oil. The oil they sent with the mower was hardly some high quality, special motor oil.

I don't think a person necessarily has to use some super quality motor oil in a lawnmower. But I think a person definitely should use a good quality motor oil. And I don't think a manufacturer of a lawnmower is necessarily going to include some high quality motor oil when you buy your lawnmower.

I even went to a nearby Honda small engine facility to try to buy Honda motor oil. I could not find any for a Honda engine lawnmower engine. The fact of the matter is a lot of people are probably using just abut any quality of motor oil in lawnmowers, and some people do not even change their oil. Some people do not even check their oil. I know a woman who destroyed her lawnmower engine when she ran it without oil. She did not check the oil level.

Merely using decent quality motor oil and decent OCIs will probably make a decent quality lawnmower engine last a long time. Compared to many people, you are probably going the extra mile just changing the oil at decent OCIs, and using a decent quality oil of the correct viscosity.
 
The above is good advice.

But, back to the original question. Honda oil or M1? I'd pick the M1. It's about the same price and M1 is a known performer.
 
Instead of Honda 10W-30, I'd use any HDEO 10W-30 ... they are getting easier to find than they were 10+ years ago. I just saw Chevron Delo 10W-30 in a Walmart the other day.

Nice story OneEye. I am not surprised the farmer has gotten great service life from the Red Line Oil. It has a base stock that you can't fry without an open flame and a super-robust metallic additive package. Those two factors ensure it is a good torture-test oil.

But that's not to say he wouldn't get the same service from another (less expensive) oil like a HDEO 10W-30. I don't think you mentioned the oil change interval.
 
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