Straight 30 wt for kohler magnum air cool twins. Time to stock up on st 30 oil ?

Q

Quantico

Joined
Oct 10, 2021
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674
Location
Wisconsin
My 1986 simplicitys have kohler magnum engines. Only st 30 works. Multi grade gives low oil pressure. I have had 5 of the kohler engines and they all give low oil pressure on 10 w 30 or similar.
Is straight 30 oil getting hard to find ? I have heard its not in great supply.
 
You can still find straight 30 at walmart and most stores that sell OPE, but it's not like 30 years ago when you could walk into a store and there were several brands of straight 30 and you could get it in larger jugs, now it's mostly only sold in quarts with the exception of two stroke diesel oil which is still available and sold in gallons for the time being.
 
Schandyman said:
Tractor supply has qts up to 5 gal pails of 30wt .
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That has got to be the worst oil that you can still buy, it only claims CF-4/SG, those aren't even licensable service categories anymore to my knowledge, I think the oldest active licenses are CH-4 and SJ. I get why you find CF-2 oil, that's a specialty for old 2 stroke detroits, but to claim CF-4 seems weird to me, since it pretty much is just a recommendation at this point not a legitimate specification, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy that obsolete sludge.

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I haven't had any problems getting SAE 30. It's grass cutting time and people are buying 30 wt for their mowers. If you find it, buy a several jugs or a case or two. Farm stores are a good place to find 30wt.That's what has worked for you all this time and is what I would be running in your Kohlers.
 
Lots of SAE 30 Monograde oil in the mower section of the stores around me.

You have a 1986 engine, for context API SF was to 1988, and API SG was to 1993.
 
Quantico said:
My 1986 simplicitys have kohler magnum engines. Only st 30 works. Multi grade gives low oil pressure. I have had 5 of the kohler engines and they all give low oil pressure on 10 w 30 or similar.
Is straight 30 oil getting hard to find ? I have heard its not in great supply.
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Rotella T1 should not be at all difficult to find. Tractor supply sells it in 2.5 gallon jugs and my local walmart stocks it in 1 gallon jugs.
 
Home Depot sells Pennzoil SAE 30 and Menards sells Formula Shell SAE 30 in their automotive oil sections (in addition to a couple of other brands in their Lawn & Garden sections).
 
Quantico said:
I just ordered a case of 12 quarts from walmart . Castrol hd 30. About 8 dollars a quart. Yikes
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Tractor Supply has Traveller sae30 SP for $3.99 qt

5 qt SN $16.99

Traveller Lawnmower sae30 6x 1 qt for $21.99

They even have Pennzoil sae30 SN $7.49 qt.

I think a good dual rated oil will work great for you, I have a Deutz-Allis 613H which is the same as Simplicity 5212.5 just green paint and different decals, I've currently been using 1qt Pennzoil sae30 and fill the rest Shell RGT 5w30 and use that for top-off, this combo seems to work well for me but it's splash lubed. I've tried Castrol 30w but seemed to rap more, it has a Briggs opposed twin and anyone who is familiar with these engines will know what I'm talking about, the rap is more or less a slight knock. You can try a good 5w40, 15w40 such as Chevron Delo XLE, LE, XSP. They used to have LE 5w40 which is now XSP 5w40.
 
Last edited:
Quantico said:
My 1986 simplicitys have kohler magnum engines. Only st 30 works. Multi grade gives low oil pressure. I have had 5 of the kohler engines and they all give low oil pressure on 10 w 30 or similar.
Is straight 30 oil getting hard to find ? I have heard its not in great supply.
Click to expand...
Those Simplicity tractors are so nice. My 1986 Wheel Horse with the tiny 10 hp Kohler engine only lasted 20 years before the engine needed a rebuild. Between Tractor Supply and Rural King, you'll never run short of SAE30.
 
I have experience with Simplicity's in general but not with the Sunstar or that Kohler engine. I did some searching online and found another forum where someone asked about their Deutz-Allis 1920 Ultima which is the same thing, they had a problem with the oil light comes on for a a few seconds at startup and then goes off and was using 10w30, the general consensus was to try an actual oil pressure gauge to test and to replace the oil pressure sensor, I looked up the model online to see if it had an oil pressure gauge on the dash but it only has the warning light, does yours only have the light? That poster did end up replacing it on theirs and the problem has now been resolved.

Those warning lights are not really a good indicator of pressure, most times if they detect more than 5 psi they keep the light off and the sensor can easily go bad but they are typically cheap and easy enough to replace without breaking the bank so I suggest replacing it with a new one.
 
Mine is light only. But i tried 10 w 30 etc in several tractors. I owned 5 sunstar tractors. I now just own 2 of them. Great machines
 
I know it's a month old, but I was just at Walmart, I was looking for Rotella T4 10w30, they didn't have any but they did have Rotella straight 30 in 1 gallon jugs. I have some Napa (Valvoline) SAE 30 in both detergent and non-detergent in my garage, they should still carry both I'd imagine. I have a Kohler on my riding mower, although a bit newer than your's, and I have used Valvoline VR1 10W30, Rotella T4 10W30, Rotella T4 15W40, Delo 15W40 and Valvoline 15W40 in it with no problems and no oil consumption. If you're up for it, Rotella T4 15W40 is generally easy to find and might be worth a try. Hope this helps.
 
blufeb95 said:
That has got to be the worst oil that you can still buy, it only claims CF-4/SG, those aren't even licensable service categories anymore to my knowledge, I think the oldest active licenses are CH-4 and SJ. I get why you find CF-2 oil, that's a specialty for old 2 stroke detroits, but to claim CF-4 seems weird to me, since it pretty much is just a recommendation at this point not a legitimate specification, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy that obsolete sludge.

View attachment 97861
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SG for small engines, could be a very good oil, as it is not constrained by the rules of newer API ratings, it can have much higher zinc etc. Now I will admit that SL is probably the best for small engines, I wouldn't be surprised if SG is even better in some respects.
 
bchannell said:
SG for small engines, could be a very good oil, as it is not constrained by the rules of newer API ratings, it can have much higher zinc etc. Now I will admit that SL is probably the best for small engines, I wouldn't be surprised if SG is even better in some respects.
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Nope, SG offers nothing better than any current service categories mono grade oils are not constrained to any phosphorus limit.
 
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