Kohler CV682 (22.5hp) Rotella T5 10w-30/58hours

[Eric502]

This is on my Kubota z723 zeroturn mower with a Kohler CV682 22.5hp engine. The oil has 58 hours of use, and unused Rotella T5 10w-30 synthetic blend oil. The engine has 153 hours total on it. I am new here to BTOG, and not as educated probably about oil as many on the forum. Blackstone stayed that chrome was a bit high and “....maybe....just maybe this is from break in.” SEE NOTES on oil report. This engine had a warranty issue that I did not tell Blackstone about and it makes me wonder if it is perhaps a cause of the high chrome number. The mower would smoke at times for no reason (basically a new mower). Long story short.... April of this year it went in to have a head gasket replaced under warranty as on cylinder had a leak. The shop could not explain why a mower (at 73 hours at the time) had a head gasket leak, suggested perhaps it was a factory defect. Anyway they replaced reed valves and head gaskets, topped it all off with fresh oil (don’t know what they used). And have it back to me. After running the mower for about an hour, I changed the oil again to the Rotella T5 10w-30 (filter also). Does anyone have anything additional to add about the chrome?

 

[krismoriah72]

Im running this now in a kawasaki teryx 800.. got the 2.5 gallon jugs at autozone for cheap.. there are a few UOAs on here and all look good..however i wouldnt actively search it out unless you get it cheap. Rotella 15w40 is just as good if not better in some ways.

 

[Eric502]

No doubt it is a robust oil, and a great reputation. Sure wish I knew if that chrome comment they made is a sign of something bad, or a residual thing left from the work that was performed.

 

[sunruh]

i read it all before i comment. ok a susvis of 70.7 is VERY interesting. as the stoners claim you oil went UP and is now firmly a 40wt. (68.2863 is the low point of 40wt) and did it with a trace of fuel. which there is more than a trace with a lowly flash point of 375. all of my uoa's with this low of a flash have between 0.5% and 1.0% fuel. that said, that would mean your 70.7 is actually even thicker. alum of 6 is nice and low, but what is there thats really alum? this is motor only right? no tranny? chrome could be rings or ??? not that high really iron of 27 could be high, but not really for 58hrs copper of 4 is low, but what copper is there? part of babbit bearings maybe? tin 7 could be the same as copper so at 74hrs this oil went in? someone's math seems all wrong or we dont know the entire picture. 153-58=95hrs when this oci was done. so was the oci before that from 74 to 95? (74 being the 1hr after head gasket change) 95hrs on this motor is NOT still breaking in. not this type/use of motor anyway. granted it can still have residual ppm from long ocis before it, but its way past broken in. what where the oci's from 0 to 74? omg i'm gonna agree with the stoners...58hrs is way to much on this oil unless the motor specs 30wt, i would run a hdeo 15w40 at 40hrs and worry that you die before the motor does. steve

 

[Eric502]

Thanks for the comments Steve. Ok let me get out my books and double check a few things cause it is likely when I made my initial post I had some of my hour information off some. When the mower was received back from the shop it had 94.9 hours on it. I received it back with fresh oil and filter, no idea what type of oil or viscosity. I immediately changed the oil even though it was just changed cause I didn’t know what they (the shop) used. It was that point I used for the first time Rotella T5 10w-30. So the Rotella was ran in the mower from 94.9 to 153.2 hours. So the oil was used for 58.3 hours. The color of the oil was not extremely dark upon its drain. Kohler recommends an oil change interval of 100 hours or annually, whichever is first. Prior oci: when new, the oil was changed initially after the first 8 hours of operation. It was changed at the end of each season after that as I never exceeded 100 hours in a year. At the beginning of this season (2017) prior to use the mower had 81.2 hours. Prior to using the Rotella, Kohler branded 10w-30 was all that I ever used. The engine oil system is a closed system and is not shared with any other mechanical attributes of the mower. Mowers with similar engines can exceed 1000 hours in operation easily.

 

[sunruh]

eric i know how many hours this motor is capable of. BUT you can greatly extend that value by a lot by merely doing more frequent oci's. you dont have an oil filter...probably not even a chunk strainer. the key to longevity on this motor is getting rid of the particles in the oil since you have no filter to remove them. if you were to do a 33hr oci with the cheapest 10w30 you can but it would still be better than the most expensive oil you can buy and doing 100hr oci's. ie your oil filter is the dump bucket like i said, if it were me...i'd do 33hr oci's with SRT 15w40 or supertech 15w40 steve

 

[Eric502]

I know there is nothing wrong with sooner OCIs, no argument there. 30 some odd hours seems really soon to me though. But this motor does have a spin on automotive style filter. Identical actually, I use kohlers, but I can get wix, Mobil, and many other brands.

 

[sunruh]

oh you do have a filter? my bad. think about this 50hrs at 60mph is 3000miles in a car. BUT (thats a big but) your car doesnt run that 3000 miles with it at the throttle stop wfo! this motor (like all mowers) barely gets a warmup and then its BAM to the throttle stop and go until you either stop and refuel or put it away for the next time.

 

[Eric502]

That is true, as it stands now the longest run is about 1 & 1/2 hours solid run time at one site. Somethings still puzzle me though, and apparently it does [censored] also.... how the oil changed viscosity. Now one thing that was disclosed to [censored], but I have not posted here was that when I was changing the oil I forgot that I was going to have an analysis done. So when I tool my sample it was by pouring what was needed from the drain pan and into their bottle. Now my drain pan was not squeaky clean, I am sure there was about a tablespoon or so of oil oil left in it, and probably various dust debris etc.... But the sample came off the top, as it were, but I still cannot help but wonder if that has a part in this. I just cannot see how, especially on the viscosity deal. This coming season I am trying some amsoil full synthetic 10w-30 that I had (signature series). I have kicked around also acquiring an additional machine. But it would have a briggs vangaurd 37 efi big block on it, and running their 15w-50 synthetic oil.

 

[Balrog006]

Originally Posted By: Eric502

That is true, as it stands now the longest run is about 1 & 1/2 hours solid run time at one site. Somethings still puzzle me though, and apparently it does [censored] also.... how the oil changed viscosity. Now one thing that was disclosed to [censored], but I have not posted here was that when I was changing the oil I forgot that I was going to have an analysis done. So when I tool my sample it was by pouring what was needed from the drain pan and into their bottle. Now my drain pan was not squeaky clean, I am sure there was about a tablespoon or so of oil oil left in it, and probably various dust debris etc.... But the sample came off the top, as it were, but I still cannot help but wonder if that has a part in this. I just cannot see how, especially on the viscosity deal. This coming season I am trying some amsoil full synthetic 10w-30 that I had (signature series). I have kicked around also acquiring an additional machine. But it would have a briggs vangaurd 37 efi big block on it, and running their 15w-50 synthetic oil.

Infitesimal contamination from your drain pan may very well be the culprit here. Run another OCI, sample and test again right from the drain before talking any drastic action.

 

[Eric502]

Yea I think that is my plan. Blackstone (abbreviated as B S earlier and censored) didn’t seem to think that the way the sample was collected would have had a huge affect. But there just seems like some weird stuff happening here.

 

[sunruh]

eric, with a response like that, now you know why i call them the stoners they are such a bunch of idiots that the phrase "they are a moron's moron" comes to mind. if your sampling changed the copper by just 1 ppm...that was a 25% change! now, when you pay for anything, would you rather pay 25% more or 25% less? if the doc says eric you have a 50% chance of prostate cancer. would you rather that really be 25% or 75%? its only off by 25% either way! yeah i know the answer you dont have to reply. i dont want to get into the math it to determine the contamination level...it would require the amount of time before the sample was drawn and even the time it took to take the sample. so...lets forget about it. however, know this, oils can gain susvis at the end of their life. this site has countless examples of it. to jump up a grade says a lot. with such low flash says even more (which could more so be from the contamination...ug i got back to it) in a nutshell this uoa was data, but ultimately it was a waste of money. sorry to say steve

 

[Eric502]

Yea it certainly seems like it. So... and I am sure this is covered all over here on the forum.... but what is a good lab to use that is an alternative to blackstone.

 

[stoan]

I'm on my second mower with a 24hp Kohler and have used various 30 and 10-30 oils. Put Rotella T6 5-40 in it last time, engine seems quieter and the oil stays cleaner looking for longer. Also switched to a Wix 51348 filter, not sure if that has anything to do with the oil staying cleaner, but it's a bigger filter with similar bypass setting.