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Two-cycle oil in four-cycle snowblower! Help ...

I have a Craftsman Snow Thrower (247.88190) and I have an unfortunate problem. My son put replaced the oil with oil for my leaf blower. He put four 3.2 ounce bottles of Craftsman Professional Synthetic Blend 2- Cycle Engine Oil w/ fuel stabilizer (#71-36560) instead of the correct

4-cycle oil I normally use. Luckily he didn't mix it with gas and he didn't start it up (as he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't show up on the dip stick!). So at present I've got the blower propped up a bit and I'm draining that oil out. I'm going to let it drain all night. But are there any other precautions I should take before filling it up with the correct oil? The amount he added (12-13 oz) just barely showed up on the dip stick. Any advice would be much appreciated as I really like this blower and want to nurse it back to machine health as smoothly as possible. Thanks in advance.
Reply to
dougg9999
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Put in the right oil. Run it for a minute or two, then change it. You will be fine. There is nothing particularly bad in 2 stroke oil, it just has a different viscosity and a different additive package so it burns cleaner.

Reply to
gfretwell

What's left will be insignificant. Just fill it up with the right oil and run it. It won't hurt anything.

Reply to
Van Chocstraw

You're draining it out right? Then what could the problem be? It probably wouldn't have made any difference anyway. Just refill with what you'd rather use and go.

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Reply to
Steve Barker

I agree with everyone else--I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't even worry too much if he'd put 2-Stroke oil in the gas--I've even seen it recommended for boaters etc, at the end of the season, to use up 50:1 in a four-stroke engine that will otherwise just go bad and have to be dumped. I wouldn't use mixed gas in a fuel injection engine though.

Reply to
Ulysses

It will be ok it was a good quality oil, when I was 7 or 8 I used cooking oil, mower lasted another 10 years. You drained it dont worry. Running some oil is the gas woth hurt either if its like 200-1. Actualy I start equipment sitting a long time on a cup of 2 stroke gas, when it takes 20-30 seconds to hear it get oil and quiet down you know its being ruined.

Reply to
ransley

No problem with fuel injection - it's just the catalytic convertor and O2 sensor issues.

Reply to
clare

Never mind the snow thrower (it'll be fine, just replace the oil), I'd be concerned about your son: Is he "maintaining" a car yet? It's when he fills the power steering fluid reservoir with motor oil that you'll have a REAL problem. Windshield washer fluid in the radiator is probably bad, too. At least, tell him to RTFM before performing ANY future service.

There IS hope for him: At least he knew when to quit.

Once refilled with the correct oil, it MIGHT help to run the engine long enough to mix everything then drain it again and refill.

The engine is probably tougher than you think. It probably would have done fine had you simply "topped-off" the sump with approved oil and proceeded normally. As it is, you caught the mistake before the engine was first started and have replaced the wrong oil with the right type.

My less-than-mechanically-inclined stepfather once ran a 2-cycle Lawn Boy mower on "straight" (unmixed) gas. The engine finally ground to a halt. The mower repair place simply filled the gas tank with properly mixed oil, started it up and away it went. It ran perfectly for YEARS thereafter.

Reply to
Jim Redelfs

It always amazes me how people think these are living breathing animals and that somehow simply touching it with a "wrong" substance will cause it to get "sick" like an allergic reaction or something.

Your snowblower is an inanimate object. It has no idea your son put the "wrong oil" in it, especially since you didn't even start the engine afterwards. It's not "sick." It's not "hurt." The 2-stroke oil was simply STORED in the engine for a short period of time.

Even if you had started it you wouldn't have caused any damage. 2- cycle oil is still OIL. It's still wet and slippery. It still lubricates, probably better than normal motor oil. The only reason you don't want to use it is because it costs about the same per 3oz bottle as a quart of regular motor oil.

You can even re-use the 2-stroke oil for its intended purpose. Just put it in a well-marked container so your son doesn't use it by mistake again.

Reply to
mkirsch1

It always amazes me how people think these are living breathing animals and that somehow simply touching it with a "wrong" substance will cause it to get "sick" like an allergic reaction or something.

Your snowblower is an inanimate object. It has no idea your son put the "wrong oil" in it, especially since you didn't even start the engine afterwards. It's not "sick." It's not "hurt." The 2-stroke oil was simply STORED in the engine for a short period of time.

Even if you had started it you wouldn't have caused any damage. 2- cycle oil is still OIL. It's still wet and slippery. It still lubricates, probably better than normal motor oil. The only reason you don't want to use it is because it costs about the same per 3oz bottle as a quart of regular motor oil.

You can even re-use the 2-stroke oil for its intended purpose. Just put it in a well-marked container so your son doesn't use it by mistake again.

Concur. Only thing I'd add to the above is after refilling with correct oil, start her up and let it run for maybe 5 minutes till it's warm. Then drain and discard the barely used oil (to flush out any residue)-- and refill with fresh correct oil.

You're only out the cost of one quart and no harm to the engine. Also, sit the young lad down, thank him for doing the maintenance but 'splain to him about oil.

Reply to
Sharp Dressed Man

I had an 86 Chrysler that was ingesting about a quart of oil per tank of gas (no leaks, no smoke). The computer was simply adjusting the burn to use it all. That works out to around 50:1, what you would be burning in a 2 stroke outboard. It ran great but the price of the oil was killing me. I didn't worry that much about changing it tho. It was always fresh.

Reply to
gfretwell

Two cycle oil should run just fine in a four stroke. Since you've drained it, just fill er up with your good brand of motor oil. I like Castrol, have had good results with that. The trace of twostroke oil in your crankcase won't hurt anything. Actually, it would have run just fine on two stroke mixer oil.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I had an 88 that did the same. The catalytic converters were too expensive to let that go on very long (disconnect the cat and it was spewing blue smoke big-time). It needed valve guides replaced (second time in 160,000km) - 3.0 MitsuShitty engine. The 2.6 usually needed rings when it happened on them.

Reply to
clare

Draining and refilling now is totally un-necessary. He was using high end 2 stroke oil - which unless it was pre-diluted (some is - most today is not) it would have been just fine in the crankcase. Expensive

- so I HOPE he didn't throw it out - still perfectly good to use in the 2 stroke. Straight grade SAE30 non detergent was the RECOMMENDED oil in a lot of older 2 stroke engines.

Reply to
clare

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