mower oil question

[anthony1]

Fellas, you're talking about a lawn mower, yeah? Ok..... yeah, well, I bought one at kmart for $250. It came with motor oil! Has an awesome green paint job. Woohoo! Not a John Deere though...

[xdefender]

My younger brother bought a mower from bunnings, opened up the box. ripped the yellow "cation do not start until blah blah blah" sticker off, put fuel in it, stated right up. 10 seconds later splatter cough bang, Ting, ting ting! Couldn't work out why it blew. Reads rest of yellow sticker "filled with appropriate motor oil"

[black-xj]

Many years ago a customer brought his mower in saying it stopped on him and was jambed up...
He said he knew to put oil in it, but his mistake was that he thought that was for the life of the mower, and he was right, because it had seized and he decided not to fix it...

[rastus2571]

Originally Posted by black-xj

Many years ago a customer brought his mower in saying it stopped on him and was jambed up...
He said he knew to put oil in it, but his mistake was that he thought that was for the life of the mower, and he was right, because it had seized and he decided not to fix it...

Takes all types mate. It does make ya bloody wonder with some gooses. Their stupidity means more money in your bank account......lol.

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[tazwegion]

Originally Posted by roscoea26

Oils l.ike 30w will handle higher temperatures and loads while still protecting and lubricating the engine, lighter or thinner oils like 10w creates less drag and resistance so an engine starts easier and components are better protected and lubricated until the engine temperature rises. A 10w-30 oil protects the same as 30w at higher temperatures BUT it is actually thinner overall and that is the negative part of using a multi-weight oil in your mower. The larger tolerances between components in an air cooled engine work fine with a 30w oil but will allow a thinner multi-weight oil such as 10w-30 to bypass engine components and create higher temperatures than a 30w oil which will LESSEN the life of an air cooled engine.

Briggs & Stratton clearly state "Synthetic 5W-30 -20 to 120° F (-30 to 40° C) provides the best protection at all temperatures as well as improved starting with less oil consumption."

So shouldn't we be using what the manufacturers actually recommend?


Maybe we should just listen to Sol?

You Tube

[layback40]

Originally Posted by tazwegion

Briggs & Stratton clearly state "Synthetic 5W-30 -20 to 120° F (-30 to 40° C) provides the best protection at all temperatures as well as improved starting with less oil consumption."

So shouldn't we be using what the manufacturers actually recommend?

You can lead a horse to water, ................

Dont bother trying to discuss anything with a Stihl dealer because they know best !! They dont need to provide any support to what they say, its just correct.

Originally Posted by black-xj

Layback, you stick with what you have been told and experienced, and i will stick with my
12 years of first hand experience and knowledge of working/managing a Stihl dealership !

This is the attitude that causes me to take very little notice of the local stihl dealer here. Even when you provide information that shows what they are saying is wrong/out of date, they just tell you of their 12 years of experience.
From my perspective its not 12 years experience, more like 1 years experience practiced 12 times & still getting it wrong. Oils have changed a lot in the past 12 years. Many that were recommended 12 years ago are no longer manufactured. It looks like a dealer hasnt bothered to take notice of the B&S updates.

[roscoea26]

Originally Posted by tazwegion

Briggs & Stratton clearly state "Synthetic 5W-30 -20 to 120° F (-30 to 40° C) provides the best protection at all temperatures as well as improved starting with less oil consumption."

So shouldn't we be using what the manufacturers actually recommend?


Maybe we should just listen to Sol?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JmpyBkuHQ

Yes we should be using the manufacturers recommended oils and this is what I have been saying all along. anthonygubbin started this question and I understood the manufacturers recommendation was SAE30.

layback40 challenged what i said and advocated the use of multigrade 5w 30, normal engine oil from what I understood. Air-cooled engines require air cooled engine oil and there is no doubt about that as far as I'm concerned.

Yes Briggs and Stratton do specify their fully synthetic oils but you are quoting from an american site not the Australian site.The Australian site recommends their synthetic SAE 5w 30 for use in all their air-cooled SMALL engines. You can't just go and use fully synthetic water cooled engine oil in their small-air cooled engines.

I can't use that oil in my John Deere B&S engine. While the recommendation says all air-cooled small engines my advice from the local B&S dealer is that for optimum performance B&S SAE 30 should be used unless the engine's manual says Synthetic 5w 30.