lawnmower oil

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I'm using a 12.2 Cst Esso XD-3 full PAO Synthetic 0w-30 HDEO in my yard equipment. This oil has proven in UOA's to be very shear resistant, and starts out at almost a 40wt. It works well because our mornings can be chilly, but they can end up at 90+F.

Plus it's quite inexpensive. I think it's prettty much the ideal yard equipment oil for canadians. If you're hung up on the 30wt issue, the full PAO 0w-40 XD-3 HDEO is available at Wally world (in Canada that is).

I haven't noticed any consumption with the 0w-30 in the yamaha generator, the chinese honda clone pressure washer or the kawasaki/John Deere mower. I check the oil every time before I pull the starter.
 
When a lawn tractor or mower is burning oil, is there any other negative effects this causes the machine other than the loss of oil?
 
I use Syntec 0w30 in my JD mower, and I'm in the deep South. When I first started using 0w30, the B&S engine used a little oil. Over the course of 4-6 hours of use, oil consumption has dropped to zero. I have no worries about using 0w30 synthetic in my lawn equipment.
 
I run whatever straight 30w I can find that's SL or earlier in my Toro with a Tecumseh 6.5hp. I usually change my oil 2-3 times per mowing season. My mower sees about 50 hrs per season, give or take. Without an oil filter, I think frequent oil changes are more important than oil quality. Maybe I'm wrong...
 
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Actually, I just run whatever leftover auto oil I have from partial quarts.

I've been doing that too 5-40 & 10-40, mostly, but, I noticed a fair amount of blue smoke when I started it last nite.
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Now I'm wondering if I should just use a straight 30 weight. 6.75 HP Briggs on a Cub Cadet.
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go to Walmart and buy Rotella T SAE-30 at $8.88 a gallon and you will have 5 years of oil changes. That B&S engine will outlast every other part on that mower.
I'm off to Wally's!!
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"I use Syntec 0w30 in my JD mower, and I'm in the deep South. When I first started using 0w30, the B&S engine used a little oil. Over the course of 4-6 hours of use, oil consumption has dropped to zero."

Any idea why these motors start burning oil temporarily when one switches to synthetic oil?
 
Originally Posted By: OptsyEagle
"I use Syntec 0w30 in my JD mower, and I'm in the deep South. When I first started using 0w30, the B&S engine used a little oil. Over the course of 4-6 hours of use, oil consumption has dropped to zero."

Any idea why these motors start burning oil temporarily when one switches to synthetic oil?


I have no clue.
 
I must be the odd guy out. 16 HP V-Twin pressure lube with spin on filter likes 15W-50 M-1 or Motul 15W-50 best of all. 0-W-30 or 0W-40 showed higher wear metls on analysis and consumption.

Blackstone says "all wear metals read low" with 15W-50 M-1/Motul.

17 year old engine. 350 hrs. No oil consumption that is detactable with Motul 15W-50. Plugs are always clean. Sounds good. I let it warm up 2 minutes before mowing.
 
got several garden tractors. a john deere 210, 200. cub cadet 149 and a 1650. john deere 265 (just sold), and a john deere 108. i like to use mbil turbo diesel truck 5W-40 or delvac 1 in all of them. i use them all except the john deere 200 because it's fully restored and is semi-retired. have had real good results. on a further note, i was using amsoil 10W-30/30 in the john deere 265 and i wasn't really impressed with it as compared to the mobil. have been thinking about switching to rotella 5W-40 because it is so much easier to buy. as far as that goes, i'm thinking about rotella t 5W-40 in my silverado 1500 also. they start good in winter time and consumption is nil, except in the 149 because the rings are worn.
 
For small engines especially with no oil filter I like the delo400 30w. In lawn mowers the same as there is a lot of dust and clippings. You change the oil more often as the conditions are not ideal as in street driving. No cold starts here.
 
I tried Delo400 30w and the 15W40 in my various equipment for a few seasons. The small engines ran well, but they seemed to consume a lot more oil than I had expected. They do protect well though. Since I've switched most everything over to ASE I don't notice consumption issues. Delo400 hits the right price point/gallon though if you aren't putting on a lot of hours.
 
Small engines and lawn mower engines aren't high tech but old school. Fuel dilution is common. Dusty conditions like farm conditions is also a factor. A high quality synthetic oil may hold up longer and a lower viscosity will have less oil consumption with a quality synthetic oil and perform.

Unless you have proper filtering in small engines I can't see the protection on extended drainage given the factors involve.

On lawn mowers is there an oil filter at least!
 
Filtration...especially air in splash lube systems and keeping the fuel circuit happy makes them live long lives that's for sure. Golf course equipment I worked with sure loved the synthetic oil. It handles the fuel dilution pretty good, but if your the average joe with a plugged air filter (or no filter because you took it out when it was plugged), bad plug wire and just top off with synthetic you won't be get any benefit.
 
So it's the air filter that's more important as there are no oil filters on many small engines. A plug air filter is never good which will lead to higher fuel dilution.

The Amsoil ASE 10w-30 looks interesting. I'll give a shot and see how it performs.
 
While digging around at the Cub Cadet site, I found this:
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For most of our most popular Cub Cadet products equipped with four cycle engines (engines with separate oil and fuel fill locations), use high quality detergent oils in the following viscosity.

1. For Briggs & Stratton engines use an SAE30 oil above 40 degrees F (4 C) and below this temperature use 5W-30.
2. For Tecumseh engines use an SAE30 oil above 32 degrees F (0 C) and below this temperature use 5W-30.
3. For Kohler L-Head engines use an SAE30 oil above 32 degrees F (0 C) and below this temperature use 5W-30. For Kohler Overhead Valve engines use a 10W-30 above 0 degree F (-18 C), and below this temperature use a 5W-30.
4. For Honda engines,10W-30 is recommended for general use, and above 55 degrees F (10 C) you can use an SAE 30.


http://cubcadet.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cub...li=&p_topview=1

Interestingly enough, in my Owner's Manual (mine is a 173cc Briggs), it says "..service classification SG, SF.." and "10W-30 is recommended for general, all temperature use...."

And, of course, the reason I was digging around at their site was to find the Customer Service number to call to order a new Recoil Starter Assembly for my mower, since mine obviously wasn't installed properly, which caused it to self-destruct on Saturday, mid-mow.
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Fortunately, I had my faithful 15+ year old Lawn Boy sitting in the garage as a backup for just such an occasion.
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BTW - The CC tech guy I got was most helpful, and a new assembly is on the way.
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i have used 10w-30, mixtures of random oils, and also M1 0w-40 (believe it or not...), all seem to work fine, mower runs fine, great on the M1!

must add that 99% of the time i use the leftovers of whatever oil I used for my car OC's.
 
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