Which oil would you use

[Andya]

Hi,

I have a GCV160 Honda engine on my lawn mower. It's 5 years old.

I service it every year, at the end of the season. Ready for storage. I have convential oil 10w30 SJ category for small engines. Honda recommend the 10w30.

I also have a bottle of 5w30 fully synthetic.

Which one would you use? 10w30 convential or 5w30 fully synthetic?

 

[CharBaby]

Either one eill be fine.
I have the same engine and I use 5W30 conventional mostly.
However, most of my OPE have gotten a mix of oils(bottles/jugs) that I have turned up-side-down after my vehicle OCIs.

 

[JLTD]

If you're not a commercial lawn service (your post says, "Nope") then the conventional will do fine. I prefer synthetic in everything but using up the 'ole dino won't hurt anything, especially since you're on top of mx.

 

[demarpaint]

Either will be fine.

 

[Donald]

I would use the synthetic. Either will be fine however.

 

[Astro_Guy]

I've been running synthetic 5w-30 in my Honda GCV160 powered machines for many years. Either will be fine. Being from Pennsylvania, you may find that you need 5w-30 synthetic for a snow blower too.

 

[Andya]

Thanks everybody for your advice. Just happy that either the 10w30 or fully synthetic, will be fine.

 

[Andya]

Thanks for the advice. Have a one year old Ariens snowblower. Changed the oil after first 5 hours.

As you wrote. I did indeed put 5w30 fully synthetic in. Ready for the winter. I am also servicing all other areas of the snowblower, as written in owners manual.

Expensive machine. Must keep on top of maintenance, so I can have many years of work out of it!

 

[ChrisD46]

I have started using QSUD 10W30 in my Honda GCV190 HRX217 since new ... Seems to do well on this oil and weight .
Originally Posted by Andya
Hi,

I have a GCV160 Honda engine on my lawn mower. It's 5 years old.

I service it every year, at the end of the season. Ready for storage. I have convential oil 10w30 SJ category for small engines. Honda recommend the 10w30.

I also have a bottle of 5w30 fully synthetic.

Which one would you use? 10w30 convential or 5w30 fully synthetic?

 

[nbpt100]

As well said by many either is fine. Here is some food for thought. the 5w-30 will burn oil more, especially in warmer weather. Since you have a snow blower that would put the 5w-30 synthetic to good use why not use the dyno 10-30 in the mower.? With short OCI required on a mower with no oil filter and the the mower is for warm weather use, some of the synthetic benefits are not utilized. Again, just food for thought.

 

[FastLane]

I would use the 10W30.

 

[Astro_Guy]

Originally Posted by Andya
Thanks for the advice. Have a one year old Ariens snowblower. Changed the oil after first 5 hours.

As you wrote. I did indeed put 5w30 fully synthetic in. Ready for the winter. I am also servicing all other areas of the snowblower, as written in owners manual.

Expensive machine. Must keep on top of maintenance, so I can have many years of work out of it!
After this oil is gone, get yourself a 5 quart jug of a good 5-w30 synthetic and you should have enough oil to cover both the Ariens and the Honda for the next four years.

 

[Andya]

Thanks for your advice. I have 5 quart of 5w-30 fully synthetic unopened. Also have Briggs & Stratton Generator.

So I will use the last of the 10w30 in the lawnmower. Then the lawnmower, generator and snowblower, will be running on 5w-30!

 

[CT Rob]

I have the same engine on my Honda mower and i run T6 5-40 in it .once i run out of it ill find something to run in it.

 

[Astro_Guy]

Originally Posted by Andya
Thanks for your advice. I have 5 quart of 5w-30 fully synthetic unopened. Also have Briggs & Stratton Generator.

So I will use the last of the 10w30 in the lawnmower. Then the lawnmower, generator and snowblower, will be running on 5w-30!
Yes, you should be fine. I ran my Champion 3500 watt generator for it's first four years on Mobil1 5w-50 High Mileage. Our power outages in those years seemed to always happen in July or August when it was really hot. If I recall, we had at least one 8-hour continuous run on the generator in each of those years. In year five I switched it up to Rotella T6 5w-40, and wouldn't you know it, we had to run the generator in sub-freezing temperatures. It started easily (out of a 40F garage) and ran well while needed. Generators work harder than push mowers and they also work in higher ambient temperatures than snow blowers. Faced with the usual annoyance outages, synthetic 5w-30 will be fine for you. If you are concerned about the next hurricane Sandy like event, then a 5w-40 or 15w-40 might be worth considering.

 

[Oildudeny]

Both are fine, use em up..