What oil do YOU use?

That's amazing, and near-unbelieveable. But hey- If it works for ya, it works for ya, right? And why mess with what works?

Doc Sprocket wrote:

That's amazing, and near-unbelieveable. But hey- If it works for ya, it works for ya, right? And why mess with what works?

Right on! I honestly don't know if a lower weight oil with the lucas treatment would do the same but it works so im going to stick with it!

in my ATV, i run Yamalube 20W-40 in the summer. its like maple syrup, but the ol' honda likes it...

On my mowers I'm gonna run Royal purple with some Hyper Lube oil treatment, Hyper lube actually works, a friend of mine had a older Pontiac or "Ponitac" car and it had main bearing problems and put some hyper lube in it and he never touched the mains for over two years or till the motor blew from other reasons, Now he did change the oil often,5000 miles.

I have never changed my oil actually.... I just top if off with used stuff....

BlackMountian88 wrote:

I have never changed my oil actually.... I just top if off with used stuff....

*cough*

(That might have been me. Might have been your engine.)

I use only the best. ARCO graphite, From my personal stash of oil that isn't made anymore.

Actually, I just use whatever's available.

the cheap stuff.

10w 30

now im using industrial 10w-40, my engine doesnt leak oil anymore, plus my step-dad gets it for free from work,

The book recommends straight 30SAE. I honestly use what ever I get a hold of to a certain degree...


--- 5W30 is a little to thin for me, so if I'm all out of oil I will use it. I can hear valve train ticking and a tad bit of a knock.


--- 10W30 is fine to use but I can still hear a tiny bit of ticking and knocking ( Valve train isn't out of adjustment. Neither is rod to crank journal clearance ) I also have a decent ear for this kind of stuff and I'm a hard ass on engine noise.

--- 30SAE is my first choice. It's a good thickness.

--- 40SAE is what I use on the engines that have a little bit excessive rod clearance that are older and still have noise with 30SAE.

One engine I have has straight 40W oil and 90W equivalent oil thickener added to it. When I first got this tractor I thought it was going to blow up any second it was so loud, but after I threw thick stuff in it the clearance was taken up by the thickness of it there's almost no noise at all. Of course its going to kill a little bit of power, but I'm not running it on a dyno anytime soon so I'm not too concerned. As long as she aint makin noise I'm happy!

Anyone on here who has read some of my other posts will know that I'm pretty cheap so replacing a rod and crank is avoided at all cost. Also, when you get down to it, as long as its not making noise technically speaking, nothing is being stressed in terms of excessive clearance pounding. The whole point of engines being rated for a certain oil is to allow the oil to properly penetrate all of the engines clearances properly. If there's too little there will be friction and any friction in an engine... well lets just stop there. LITERALY. Basically if the oil is too thick it wont be able to properly penetrate the rest of the engines clearances ie; where the tappets meet with the valves, or the piston in a cylinder. So don't run straight 90W thinking it will get rid of a knock.

Having oil that's too thin isn't any better. It will seep past the piston rings causing blue smoke which can make people sometimes think there rings or valve guides are shot but the truth be told there's just excess oil being left behind that's burning. It will also make the whole engine noisy, valve train, rod(s)... and the noise is the sound of all the internals pounding on each other because the oil isn't taking up the clearances properly and its putting too thin of a friction layer. The pounding can break, chip, crack and or lead to an internal failure.

Bottom line is that these small engines aren't made with the same clearances as a car engine. These engines have more play tolerance which is why the book recommends 30SAE.

Now the question is... synthetic or conventional...  

- Conventional should only really be ran in an engine that is being broken in due to fine impurities that make the very important break in process possible. Running it all the time isn't going to make its life super short but it will put wear on components prematurely. The good thing about it is that for some reason it doesn't have a tendency to leek out of small passages even with the same rating (viscosity) as synthetic.

- Synthetic is good because there's no impurities and after the break-in is done synthetic should be ran for the life of the engine. It's not good to run synthetic when its brand new, or being broken in for any reason. Its doesn't allow for a proper break in and things wont be seated properly. Future problems can occur and oil consumption is common because the rings wont be seated with the cylinder properly causing improper wear over time. Synthetic also makes it seem like the engine leeks oil that conventional oil never used to. A problem that sucks because you always need to watch your oil level anticipating it to be low.

- Conventional/Synthetic mix is good to run long term because it's a mixture of both worlds and it also doesn't leek as much as plain synthetic oil.

if i am in a hurry, i use what i have lying around, which is usually sae30, when i buy it, i get 10w40 atv oil, its a little costly, but it runs better thsan most ive ran in these engines,

I run our own proprietary Multi-Multi-Mystery grade.   

It comes from the 5gal bucket that we use to drain the empty quart bottles into (the last drops of all the quarts used for all the oil changes). There is 5w20, 5W30, 10W30, 10W40, 10W50.... Pretty much everything in there. It's fresh new oil, IT'S FREE and it works great!   

Remember that the first number is what the oil acts like when cold (what the W stands for is WINTER). The second number is what the oil acts like when hot.

You can adjust the oil grade (viscosity) you use dependent on what your motor needs and the weather it encounters.

I like multigrade oils because I live in a highly variable climate. It can be -10 to 50 in a few days.

A 5W40 will act like a 5wt oil when cold so it will still flow on cold startup and get to where it's supposed to go. But at running temp it will act like a 40wt oil and not be so thin that it allows damage to occur inside the bearings and between lifters / tappets and cam.

10-30w Or whatever is the cheapest lol

quaker state 10w30 with lucas oil stabilizer

straight 30 weight here.... as hot as it is usually when mowing season comes, there's no need for multiweight. For the offroad mower, I will be using multiweight, as I will be driving it in the winter (after all, Red Fox is gonna be my farm truck) and it will need oil that behaves properly when cold.

joshualee3d wrote:

Doc Sprocket wrote:

That's amazing, and near-unbelieveable. But hey- If it works for ya, it works for ya, right? And why mess with what works?

Right on! I honestly don't know if a lower weight oil with the lucas treatment would do the same but it works so im going to stick with it!

so tried this for about 2 weeks and it ran fine the engine sounded great no tapping nothing but it smoked in the morning alot like crazy

You tried the 20/50 with Lucas Oil Treatment? Or ATF?

I'd be surprised that a 20/50 would smoke when cold, but I don't really know what the Lucas stuff does to the viscosity.

I would expect ATF to smoke a little as most ATF's are about 15w viscosity.   

i tried 20w50 smoked like crazy

Well, I guess if you're in FLA there's no need to go as low as 20w50. Try 30 or higher.   

just a small tip, i learned this last week during weekly truck checks at the firehouse. on flatheads, youre supposed to use 5-30 regardless of temp or whatever. on OHV, you can use 10-30 or straight 30 weight. i always run Marvel Mystery Oil with them, in both gas and oil. im gonna try Castite Motor honey here next time i can swing by Advanced Auto

T-Dub13 wrote:

Well, I guess if you're in FLA there's no need to go as low as 20w50.  Try 30 or higher.    

Yeah right now im using 10w40 high mileage supertech walmart brand. and it seems good but i can hear the engine making more noise now when i accel. heres a ticking noise ... must be the valves. oh and i did use 20w50 with lucas oil maybe that was just to thick..

i change oil in mine when i rebuild/fix them that involves cracking open the case.. thats pretty much all... I run Non Detergent Valvoline SAE 30 and cheapomatic Traveller sae 30 in my engines.. These engines are commonly ran 10 years on no oil change.. so i honestly dont care lol.

I run only Rotella diesel oil(zinc baby) in my opposed briggs. Either t5 or t6, what ever is on sale. I also change it every 10 hours or so. It's a non pressure lube and I beat the piss out of her so I don't want to risk frying the top rod. Sometimes I will even run a very lean mixture of 2 stroke oil in the gas just to keep the bore happy. That and it just smell good.  I know, I'm crazy haha.

No, you're VINsane!

Im running Advance Auto 10w-40 now since I buy it by the case for my truck. Seems to work fine.