Oil for a genny

[geoff]

I bought a little 900W genny the other week

It says to use 10/30 oil, I've got some SAE 20 fork oil lying around, should that be OK ?

[Clot]

When are you most likely to use it? Power outage in the winter and wishing to run a critical unit? Might be a bugger to start. For the amount of oil involved, I think I would spend the pennies on some 10/30.

It really depends upon the intended use, I guess.

[geoff]

I was more thinking that for running it in, if I change the oil after 8 hours for initial bedding in crud removal, what I have sitting on the shelf would be adequate

[Clot]

If I read you right, what you are intending is to use SAE20 for running in and then go to 10/30? Do you think you need to "run it in". I have to confess I do not know about light engines these days.

Bought my wife a new 206cc for Christmas in 2006. I was shocked to find that Peugeot did not require a first service until either 12k miles or two years! She's only done 5000m in it so far.

I'm of the old school and prefer to have an initial service to remove any possible crud.

[geoff]

Yeah, it's just a cheap and nasty one from Costco and the manual does mention running it in

Just had my knuckled rapped for even thinking of using fork oil in UKRM, so I'd better get some engine oil tomorrow

[John]

I guess Fork Oil is a hydraulic oil - and lacks any engine additives.

[Clot]

Cheapskate ;)

[Mark]

i thought all small Costco geneys were 2stroke?

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[geoff]

More that I have the stuff lying around , having managed to get the old GS750 through its MOT without having to use it

Now with the blade, I'd leave it to someone else

[Frank Erskine]

I'd have thought that fork oil isn't intended for high-speed engine lubrication/cooling use. Besides, if you use a non-approved oil any warranty claim would be very likely contested.

10/30 oil is so cheap that it would be daft to use anything else. Keep the SAE 20 stuff for the bike. Horses for courses, as they say...

I used to use Duckham's Q 20/50 oil - 7/6d a gallon from the Motorists Discount Centre locally ...

[Bob Eager]

So did I! I said it was obvious it was a detergent oil - just look at the colour!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say not - specialist oils won't be to the same formulation as engine ones. There's more to an oil than the viscosity.

Think Halfords had a good brand 10/30 on offer the other day in 5 litre containers.

[Andy Dingley]

No, no heat resistance and it will carbon up in no time. As sticky rings are a big problem for littl engine failures, that's bad.

Use convenient random car (petrol) engine oil. Approximating 10/30 is good, but it's not going to complain too loudly if it's 10/40.

[geoff]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

it takes 0.4l

I bought a litre of 10/40 for a silly price at the garage on the way to work this morning

That'll do

[geoff]

In message , Mark writes

THis one's 4 stroke

[Mark]

Out of curiosity how easy is it to start.

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[geoff]

In message , Mark writes

Gi'us a chance

playtime tomorrow ...

[geoff]

In message , geoff writes

and the answer is ...

once I remembered to turn the fuel tap on, very easily

I have run it three times under a light load today and each time it started first pull

as for the oil, putting in the 0.4l it says in the manual, causes it to overflow from the filling hole, even after it's been running

It seems to want about half that