Recently purchased a Scag Freedom Z zero-turn mower for my 2.5-acre yard. Scag has 26-hp Briggs ELS engine with the updated canister air filter that solved the air intake problem on these engines. Anyhow, I changed oil at recommended 5-hour interval with Castrol HD 30-weight. I plan to run the Castrol for 50 hours and then switch to a stash of six quarts of SJ rated Pennzoil Synthetic that I was going to use in the mower, changing it every 50 hours, about once a year. Sound reasonable to you guys? I need to make this rig last a long time. By the way, this is my first ZTR mower and I'll never go back to a lawn tractor. I used to roast for almost four hours in the L.A. heat and humidity cutting with the lawn tractor. With the Scag, it takes an hour and 45 minutes.
SJ rated PZ synthetic
- Thread starter rainman49
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What weight is the Pennzoil synthetic? What does the front label say on it. Does it say Performax?
Johnny: It's 10w-30. Pennzoil Synthetic with Penzane on the bottle. Not Performax, which I understand is the holy grail of synthetics. B&S manual says use SJ oil 30W, 5W-30 or 10W-30, dino or synthetic. It states if dino oil is used in the multi-grades to expect some consumption.
I don't know about holy grail but the Performax was some great stuff for sure. The synthetic you have is a Group III synthetic and should work well in your application.
Johnny: I used 'Performax" a lot back in the mid 1990's. It sold for 2.97 at WM. I didn't know it was so good at the time and I usually drained it by 5K. What made it so good (I'm not being a smart-a** but I am curious) Was it a good oil for extended drains? Was it as good as recent GC?
Performax was a PAO/Ester blend with one heck of an additive package. Before it hit the market we would run it in company cars for as long as 20K to 25K without any problems. It was never advertised as an extended drain oil, but it had what it took to be one. They did a poor job of marketing it and due to the cost of mfg they changed to a Group III base stock that they made at their refinery in LA. The rest is history.
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