My "bottom of the line" Murray mower with B&S engine has drain plug (which I use) But manual says preferred method is run engine dry of gas, tip mower over (away from carb and crankcase vent) to dump oil out dipstick tube... The may be concerned with DIY'er around blade? or leaving the plug out? Chuck
Bill,
I've been using the "tip it over to drain" method for decades and it works fine for me. I always do this down at the curb. I place the drain pan in the street by the curb and I roll the mower up near the street with 2 wheels on the concrete curb and 2 wheels on the lawn. I then tip the mower so that 2 wheels remain on the curb.
I usually let the mower idle for a few minutes before draining the oil so that the oil flows better. I refill with oil, mow the lawn, and then drain/refill again. That may be obsessive, but we don't change oil that often and the extra cost and effort is really rather minimal.
My first mower was a cheaps generic model with a B&S engine. It lasted
25 years with oil changes once per year and the engine looked fine when I tore it down before tossing it in the trash. I needed/wanted a better mower with self-propel since my 11 year-old son was starting a mowing business. Otherwise, I probably could have gotten another decade out of the old mower. (Note: I changed the oil once per month during the first year. See comments below about break-in.)If we still had 4 cycle engines on our main mowers, then I'd be changing oil at least once a month since the son is mowing about 10 lawns per week now. I switched to 2 cycle engines, so obviously we aren't concerned with oil changes anymore. We do have 2 backup mowers which seldom get used and they get the "tip it over to drain" treatment every fall, even if they haven't been used all season.
By the way, if your engine is well broken-in, consider a switch to "Mobile 1" or a similar high quality synthetic motor oil. I would consider the mower to be broken-in at the end of one mowing season, assuming that you are mowing at least once per week throughout that season. Likewise, if you are very concerned about optimal treatment of the engine, then you should consider adding a ounce or so of "Tufoil" along with the "Mobile 1". But only after the engine has been properly broken-in. Tufoil contains extremely fine PTFE particles (ie, "Teflon" particles) plus soluble molybdenum and is considered the best engine oil additive by many serious DIY types. Cheap PTFE additives have poor quality control and may contain poorer grades of PTFE (all "Teflon" is not the same) and improper particle sizes.
Also, if this is a new mower, then change oil frequently during the first season. There is no filter on a typical push mower engine and the engine produces a lot of very fine metal filings when it is going through the break-in period. This is a normal and necessary process, but it is important to minimize subsequent damage which can be caused by those fine metal particles. Draining and replacing the oil frequently during the break-in period is the only way to prevent the damage from this debris.
Good luck, Gideon
PS: Most advise that I have listed above is also applicable for auto engines, although I've had poor luck tipping the minivan over at the curb to drain the oil. But I'm still trying. :)
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Bill
You don't say what make of engine your lawnmower has, but tipping it over is exactly what some manufacturers recommend. Most lawnmowers also have a drain plug underneath, within a few inches of the blade shaft.
I'm curious about your concerns over using good PTFE products in automobiles. Early products with cheap PTFE's and poor particle size quality control were terrible for automobiles and such cheap products still exist. But I am under the impression that the high quality modern additives are fine for auto engines, auto oil filters, etc.
I'm not try to start any battles; I'm just interested in your concerns about using such additives on a well broken-in auto engine.
Thanks, Gideon
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Nice trick. I would have to use that, or something similar.
PTFE should not be a problem in mowers, but I would not use it in a modern automobile engine.
-- Joseph Meehan
Dia's duit
Why would you want to put impurities like PTFE products, sometimes known as "Snake Oil" into a good engine? Today's oils by themselves give the best protection.
If you want to "baby" an engine use a good synthetic like Mobil 1. Conventional oils use viscosity improvers to get multi-grade oils. The problem with them is that they are not good lubricants.. Synthetics do not thin as much as they get hot and do not need to add viscosity improvers.
You might want to read up on Oil:
The original problems were two fold. First they could and did cause damage. The second part is they did not work. It is just does not help in an automobile engine.
Now if I see someone telling me they fixed it and I can now use it. I must question the honesty of the whole message. I have yet to see and good evidence that the stuff has any benefit. I have seen many misleading (that is putting it nicely) advertisements for the stuff. I doubt if anything has changed.
It is a product without a need. Just use a good synthetic if you really want to do something that works.
Also.. on Briggs & Stratton web site.. they spell out not to use multi viscosity oil due to the high heat of air cooled engines vs water cooled car engines... Oil and oil type products don't like to be exposed to temperatures outside their favorite ranges..
Wrong: B&S recommends Multi-grade Synthetics are good for all temperatures:
There is a big difference between conventional multi-grade and synthetic.
Conventional uses viscosity improvers to obtain mult-grade whereas synthetic does not need them. Synthetics do not thin as much as they get hot.
You might think of it this way. A synthetic is a single grade oil that does not thin as much as it gets hot. Or you might think of it as a single grade that does not get as thick as it gets cold. Remember that all oils thin as they get hot.
Therefore a synthetic is really a straight weight that does not get as thick as it gets cold.
A 5W30 and 30 straight weight have the same viscosity at 100C (212F). A 5W30 and a 5 straight weight have the same viscoisity at 0C (32 F).
A 5W30 is thicker at 0C than it is when it gets hot. A straight weight 30 conventional is much thicker at 0C.
Which brings up another advantage of synthetic. Since a 5W30 synthetic does not thin as much when it gets to 100C it will continue to not get as thin as it gets even hotter.
Synthetics hold up much better under heat than conventional therefore are much better for use with hot air cooled engines.
I stand corrected.. the biggest thing I missed/forgot was the "non-synthetic multi-viscosity" from the following text copied from that link you posted.. which is the one I had seen earlier..
" CAUTION: Air cooled engines run hotter than automotive engines. The use of non-synthetic multi-viscosity oils (such as 5W-30 or 10W-30) in temperatures above 40°F (4°C) will result in higher than normal oil consumption. When using a multi-viscosity oil, check oil level more frequently."
It's the "non-synthetic" multi vis that they don't recommend above
40 F outside air temp (or at least say to expect to burn oil)That's the reason we've got to read behind one another here... ( I do like the way that they show owners manual, parts breakdown online in .pdf format.. I wish all companies would do this..) Chuck..
temperatures:
Yeah, I do the same type of reading.
It just stood out for me because I have used only synthetics for years. Way back when Mobil 1 first came out I started using it in my cars and trucks. Pulling a trailer over 13000 foot mountain passes I would be down almost a quart of oil. When I opened the filler cap fumes would come out. The stuff was vaporizing. I even tried 10W50. Switched to 5W20 Mobil 1 (That was the only weight available at that time). My oil usage almost disappeared.
Then one day went to change the oil in my mower. Only thing I had available was Mobil 1. Thought it over and came to the above conclusions, that it was equivalent to a single weight oil except it did not get a thick when cold and it doesn't get at thin when extremely hot.
I've got 2 mowers with no drain plug. There's a spot on the bottom where it would be, but the hole was never drilled out.
Bob
My Yardman, which has a top oil fill with a dipstick, has no other drain plug. It even says so in the manual. The method is to tip it on its side -- the only method listed in the manual, I might add. I tip the mower so the fill tube is on the bottom, next to the ground, and drain it into an old flat baking pan. It's actually easier than the kind with a drain plug.
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