Newbie with small engine oil?

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woody367

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Aug 11, 2020
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Hello all, I am new to the site and need some advice on pil for my portable generators. Soory if this has been asked already. I have 2 generators, 1 id a Generac XP8000e which now has 65 hours on iy after our last storm. I want to take the best care of it and wondering if I am better running conventional or synthetic oil int it. It does not get used much and I am in NY so want a yearround oil. Do not care how offen I change it or cost. If I use synthetic what brand, Generac, Mobil 1 or something else? I use Mobil 1 in all my trucks and cars. The other gen is a ALL POWER 7.5Kw but while it was being used and not around the oil fill cap broke and lossed the oild and sirzed. I have it soaking with PB Blaster to see if I can free it up and see how much damage was done and if I can rebuild it.
Thank you for any advice.
 
For air cooled wngine i would run nothing but synthetic. i run 5/30 pennzoil plat in my lawnmower and generator.
 
Personally I prefer Rotella T6 5w-40 or Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w-30 in my generators. I've had to run them in conditions ranging from 32 degrees and up to the mid 90s. I keep a generator in the garage. The oil temperature at start up is never very much below freezing. The cost of the oil is irrelevant in these seldom used applications. Purchase a name brand synthetic in the recommended viscosity range and sleep well.
 
sae30/40, 15w-40, 20w-50, 25w-40, but again my lowest start temp is 50.
My primary at the business is a mid-90's coleman tecumseh ohh5.5, thousand hours give or take.
My new genny is a champion 1400/1800watt, love it but stilllow hours, it is getting 10w-30 because I have a ton of it.
to be honest both are due for a oil change, this go around will be traveller 20w-50 and stp.

harvey
 
Rotella T6 5w-40 in anything with Over Head Valve (OHV) / Over Head Cam (OHC).

Or

Any brand 15W-40 diesel oil in all flat head air cooled small engines.

These will allow you to have proper oil at start, and allow for a heavy enough grade when blistering hot.

Note: Most small 4 cycle engines need frequent changes and level maintained, and that is all the matters. Type, brand, weight does not seem to be a factor like with other engine types. All engine failures I have put my hands on resulted from bad manufacturing (Kohler Courage counter weight explosions), lack of oil (most common) or someone that did not change the oil at all.

Quite a large number of small engines and generators especially will consume oil without any visable smoke. This is a real issue as people will run them low unintentionally.
 
I've run a small engine repair business on the side for 15 years now. Realistically, any SAE 30, 5w30, 10w30, 10w40, 15w40, 5w40, 20w50, or 15w40 will do, regardless of synthetic or brand. All of them will be fine as long as the oil level is kept full. If the engine burns oil you can run a thicker oil to reduce the burn off. I would recommend running a 5w40 synthetic like Rotella for generators just considering how long they run at a time to reduce oil burn.
 
I've run Mobil1 10W-30 in my generators and lawnmower for the past dozen years. When my last few quarts of that are used up, I'll use whatever 10W-30 or 10W-40 I have from my motorcycle oil stash.

Your generator is on the larger side and you my want 5W-xx in it in order to pull start that beastie in the winter.
 
Yes it is a air-cooled engine OHV. I can do the Rotella T6 5w-40 , but is Mobil1 5-30 just as good? I have a few cases of it. If Rotella T6 5w-40 will give me the best protection I have no problem buying that.
 
Mobil1 5W-30 should be fine so long as the owner's manual recommends 5W-30. New York's climate is not like Florida or Texas where engines die in the heat after a hurricane.

I'd keep things simple, use what I had in the garage and not buy another flavor of oil. Just check the oil level whenever you stop to fill the gas tank until you get a sense on how your engine likes that flavor of oil. If it consumes oil, try a thicker grade or different brand. My engines don't use hardly any oil between changes, so I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing with 10W-30 (and because I have a case of it in the garage).

In my vehicles, I'm a Mobil 1 fan. But, my van drank it, so I switched brands to Castrol and consumption was reduced to less than half. Tried Supertech on last oil change and consumption is high again. You never know until you try.
 
Lots of Chonda motors are spec’d 10w30 ... yet Briggs own synthetic is 5w30 ...
I tend to use 10w30 or 5w40 synthetic to deal with the heat a generator makes ...
 
About a month ago I had some electrical issues with my main panel in the house. I pretty much ran the fridge, AC and lights on my 4000W genny for a week. I had Royal Purple 5W30 in it, but it was already getting old so I swapped it for Castrol HD30 as I have a bunch ($1/quart sale). It was in the 90's with high RH and it didn't skip a beat. Now that it's time to switch again due to run hours, I'll be going back to 5W30.

I think Mobil 1 5W30 is a great choice and offers 1 stop shopping for you.
 
Zaedock said:
About a month ago I had some electrical issues with my main panel in the house. I pretty much ran the fridge, AC and lights on my 4000W genny for a week. I had Royal Purple 5W30 in it, but it was already getting old so I swapped it for Castrol HD30 as I have a bunch ($1/quart sale). It was in the 90's with high RH and it didn't skip a beat. Now that it's time to switch again due to run hours, I'll be going back to 5W30.

I think Mobil 1 5W30 is a great choice and offers 1 stop shopping for you.
Click to expand...

All 4 of mine presently have RP HPS 5-30 in them because I may need them for anything from a Summer hurricane to snow or ice power outages.
Tri-fuel 9K, permanently hooked up to NG and hooks into the main house panel via a main panel lockout.
Yamaha ISEB3K - heavy AF
Yamaha 2K inverter - easily portable and set up with extended run gas hook up so I can turn the big NG gen off at night and use the 2K on extension cords to pwr the fridge and freezer
Coleman 3500...only purpose is to serve as a second way to power the well pump if the 9K were to be OOC for some reason.

Except for the 9K, they are all stored with treated E0 fuel even though the 2 Yamis have fuel cutoff valves so I can run the carbs dry
 
Welcome Woody!

Frankly, engine longevity is not high on the list of reasons that portable generators go to the scrapper. Any quality 30 or 40 weight oil is going to be fine if you change often enough and keep it full. Mobile 1 is an excellent choice.

Instead of worrying about oil, spend your extra effort on maintaining the fuel system. Replace stale fuel with fresh regularly. Start it at least monthly to flush stale fuel out of the carb so it doesn't have time to turn to varnish. Fuel stabilizer and E0 fuel if you can find it are good, too. The other really important thing to watch out for is to correctly size your generator. Overloading is the best way to let the magic smoke out and find yourself generator shopping again.
 
Thanks, I do maintain my equipment offen. I have a Homelite 5K gen that is 35 years old and still runs great. It is a old cast iron unit that has alot of hours on it and will not skip a beat.

Now the ALL-POWER 7.5K unit that seized when the fill cap came off while not aroud, I worked on today. Drained any oil. put in new oil. poured oil down the spark plug hole and oiled the rockers. I got it free with not much effort. I did soak it with PB Blaster for 4 day first. I now need to see what the cyllinder walls look like. This problem should never have happened as it has a low oil shut off.
 
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