Winter Storage Push Mower

[actionstan]

Hello All,

Winter is around the corner, so.. I have been reading up on how to store my newish push mower.

Everything makes sense so far except many of the things I have read/watched say to change the oil prior to storage.. To me this seems counter intuitive.

I feel like it would be better to leave the old oil sit during the winter, this should prevent any rust or other nasty things that could happen, then when preparing for the spring let the old oil run a few minutes to heat it up, dump it out and put new oil in. But.. if you changed the oil before storage you would have brand new oil sitting and "degrading(?)" due to the temperature, and to me this seems wasteful.

In the grand scheme of things, this probably wont matter much either way on a small push mower engine, but I just wanted to question what the best routine typically is, let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[Brule]

I've just kept the old oil in through the winter, and change in spring, like you describe. About 6 yrs doing this no problems. The key is not to leave gasoline in gumming up the carb. If you don't run the mower dry of fuel prior to storage another choice is to add Sta-bil to the fuel.

 

[The_Jeff]

Your old oil would have to be completely shot to not be protecting against rust. I figure carb problems are the biggest and change the oil about every other year, whenever.

 

[Boomer]

I run the gas out and while the mower is hot, then I drain and replace the oil with Rotella straight 30 wt. I put in a new plug and while the old one is out, I spray storage fogging oil into the opening while a buddy pulls the starter rope. I replace the air filter and scrape and spray the bottom of the deck. Since it is self-propelled, I inject Mobil 1 grease into the gear set to fill it up. I clean off the top of the mower, make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight and away it goes. Usually starts on the first pull in the spring.

 

[The_Jeff]

yeah you gotta scrape off the bottom of the deck.

Sometimes I mist the whole shebang with WD40.

 

[demarpaint]

I clean it up and run mine until it's good and hot, with a full tank of gas treated with MMO and Stabil. I fog the engine, shut it off and change the oil, so it has nice clean oil in it. I've been doing this since I bought my first house back in the early 1980's. The mower always starts in one or two pulls next season.

If you plan on storing it for a year or more then I would suggest draining the gas and running it dry as your fogging it. Everything else would remain the same. Opinions vary.

 

[Propflux01]

The reason of changing the oil and leaving the new oil in during the winter is twofold: One, is to get the acids and such out of the engine from the last seasons oil usage. 2nd, is to have clean oil in crankcase to lube parts and keep rust at bay.