M1 5w40 in B&S Intek 190cc "8.75"?, Snapper paint

[Benedikt]

I've got a 4-year-old Snapper self-propelled with a B&S Intek 190cc "8.75" engine. I've just finally switched to a mulching blade, which is said to tax the engine even more than the Hivac setup.

I've been changing the oil, probably not often enough, with whatever xw30 I had around, usually (perhaps always) GC.

Trying to maintain it better, I just did another change with my last leftover GC after washing amazing amounts of carbon splinters out with B-12. The oil that came out wasn't all that old, and came out (by vacuum pump) as thinly as if it was hot, which it wasn't.

(I also washed some paint off with that B-12. With what do you prime a Snapper non-commercial deck? Are these alu or steel?)

I started reading around here and found mentions of everything from "cocktail of leftovers" to GC and M1 5w40 being used in B&S engines.
This one spends much of its mowing time at 85-95 degrees ambient in high humidity and lots of grass/dust, and I don't have any way (except a garden hose? is that safe?) to clean dust off the cooling fins, so it probably runs pretty hot when it runs (not a huge lawn(1-2 hours when not bagging), but very frequent mowing due to Bermude grass).

I always have 5w40 around due to my TDI. Would 5w40 be a simple, good choice given these conditions? Or am I better off changing something cheaper like 0w40 or 5w30 more often?

 

[Lead Shoes]

Any 30 weight oil will work fine and the engine will give you years of great service.. you are over thinking it too much, I just dump what ever 30 weight oil I have left over from my oil changes into my parents rider, anything from Castrol GTX to PYB to M1 to PP, and it hasn't died yet.. in fact I would say it runs better since I have been putting random quarts in it vs B&S oil they used to put in there.

 

[JTK]

Did you go with the "Ninja" mulching blade?

Just curious if you find it obnoxiously LOUD.

Mine doesn't make the roar you'd generally hear from a clogging deck, but makes a crazy loud air rushing noise. It's the first push mower I've ever owned where I have to wear hearing protection.

Joel

 

[Benedikt]

I couldn't say for sure whether it's any louder, but it certainly isn't extremely much louder. I've only mowed twice since the change. I've got the mulching plug in the Hivac tube; the first time I put the bag over it like the manual says (which seems to deform the bag flange), the second time I didn't, and I was more concerned with the silly amounts of dust it threw up (worse without the bag between it and me).
The grass got way too tall during a heatwave, so I'm slowly working my way down, and the distance between dirt and deck edge worsens the dust - and possibly quietens the air rushing noise?
Also, due to the tuning-up, the mower (I thought) was runnign fast; maybe it's just the blade noise I'm hearing...oops.

This is the Ninja blade that came separately with the mower.(I've seen references to it somewhere as having 6 cutting edges, when it clearly has 4.)
It came out of the box dull as a stick, so Ifinally bought a Dremel (after 15 years of occasionally using a Dremel bit in a drill), whose Garden tool attachment works on about 1/2 of the main blade length as the rest has a reinforcement bend that makes it too thick for the Dremel guide, and the secondary blade has the main blade in the way. Even so, it works pretty well, though I haven't used a grinder in 20 years, and have never sharpened a mower blade before. It could probably be quite a bit sharper (as it was, in some places it was just sharp enough to catch but not cut paper), but I put it on like this just to see how it would do, compared to the now fairly dull (and quite rock/root-bitten) Hivac blade.
So far, so good. I might take it off and sharpen it some more before the next mowing.
But how long does knife-sharpness last on a mower blade anyway?

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: Benedikt

I couldn't say for sure whether it's any louder, but it certainly isn't extremely much louder. I've only mowed twice since the change. I've got the mulching plug in the Hivac tube; the first time I put the bag over it like the manual says (which seems to deform the bag flange), the second time I didn't, and I was more concerned with the silly amounts of dust it threw up (worse without the bag between it and me).
The grass got way too tall during a heatwave, so I'm slowly working my way down, and the distance between dirt and deck edge worsens the dust - and possibly quietens the air rushing noise?
Also, due to the tuning-up, the mower (I thought) was runnign fast; maybe it's just the blade noise I'm hearing...oops.

This is the Ninja blade that came separately with the mower.(I've seen references to it somewhere as having 6 cutting edges, when it clearly has 4.)
It came out of the box dull as a stick, so Ifinally bought a Dremel (after 15 years of occasionally using a Dremel bit in a drill), whose Garden tool attachment works on about 1/2 of the main blade length as the rest has a reinforcement bend that makes it too thick for the Dremel guide, and the secondary blade has the main blade in the way. Even so, it works pretty well, though I haven't used a grinder in 20 years, and have never sharpened a mower blade before. It could probably be quite a bit sharper (as it was, in some places it was just sharp enough to catch but not cut paper), but I put it on like this just to see how it would do, compared to the now fairly dull (and quite rock/root-bitten) Hivac blade.
So far, so good. I might take it off and sharpen it some more before the next mowing.
But how long does knife-sharpness last on a mower blade anyway?


About 20 minutes of operation.

 

[Cujet]

TDT is a very robust oil and will work exceptionally well in your Briggs. It's about as close to an ideal oil for that application as you can get. I run TDT in many of my outdoor engines.

 

[rainman49]

+1 on what Cujet said!

 

[boraticus]

What is TDT oil?

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: boraticus
What is TDT oil?


Mobil 1 5W-40 Turbo Diesel Truck (TDT). Has North of 1100PPM ZDDP, it's a group IV oil and quite robust in turbo applications. Us turbo guys have discovered that it provides excellent UOA results in everything it's used in.

The VW TDI guys rate the oil among the best in wear metals per mile. My own experience mirrors those results. In general, there are a few oils that match it's overall performance, and all of them cost much more.