The neighbour came over yesterday and asked me for help starting up a gas pressure washer that his friend gave him. I went over and looked at it. The thing looked as if it has seen better days. I wondered if the thing would actually run.
Before I did anything, I took off the oil cap and had a look. The was some oil in there and it was a little dirty. I checked the level on the dipstick and it didn't even register on the dipstick. I told my neighbour that it needed oil. He said he had none and asked me if I had any. I told him I had oil, but not the recommended oil for a small engine. I told him to run downtown and get a quart of 10w30 oil. He didn't really want to do that and said that he would just run it as is.
The oils I had in stock were 5W-20 for my car, 10w-40 JASO-MA motorcycle/ATV oil that I use in my quad and 2-stroke oil for the chainsaw. Obviously, I couldn't use the 2-cycle stuff, so that left me with either 5W-20 or the 10W-40 atv stuff.
I grabbed the 10W-40 stuff as I figured that it would be better for summer usage as people tend not to run pressure washers in the winter. I dumped in half a quart to bring it up to the full line on the dipstick. This tells me that this thing was really low on oil because they usually take close to a full quart.
I put the choke on and on the second pull it fired right up. After 1 minute I disengaged the choke and the thing ran smooth without problems. My neighbour then proceeded to wash his truck without issues.
I am going to make an assumption here that JASO-MA oils will not hurt small engines???
Before I did anything, I took off the oil cap and had a look. The was some oil in there and it was a little dirty. I checked the level on the dipstick and it didn't even register on the dipstick. I told my neighbour that it needed oil. He said he had none and asked me if I had any. I told him I had oil, but not the recommended oil for a small engine. I told him to run downtown and get a quart of 10w30 oil. He didn't really want to do that and said that he would just run it as is.
The oils I had in stock were 5W-20 for my car, 10w-40 JASO-MA motorcycle/ATV oil that I use in my quad and 2-stroke oil for the chainsaw. Obviously, I couldn't use the 2-cycle stuff, so that left me with either 5W-20 or the 10W-40 atv stuff.
I grabbed the 10W-40 stuff as I figured that it would be better for summer usage as people tend not to run pressure washers in the winter. I dumped in half a quart to bring it up to the full line on the dipstick. This tells me that this thing was really low on oil because they usually take close to a full quart.
I put the choke on and on the second pull it fired right up. After 1 minute I disengaged the choke and the thing ran smooth without problems. My neighbour then proceeded to wash his truck without issues.
I am going to make an assumption here that JASO-MA oils will not hurt small engines???
