Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Well, i finally got around to my end of the season oil change last weekend (yeah, a little late - my excuse is that i had to find a siphon to drain the gas out of the tank).  I only had 1.5 hrs of run time on my still shiny Ariens 926DLE - what a shame.  Now imagine my surprise when the oil draining out had the black/brown look of well-used and well-aged oil.  It ran fine (for the 30 mins it ran each time), and seems none the worse for wear, but i was still shocked at how dirty the oil was.  No apparent grit of metal shavings in the oil either.  It now has a nice fresh synthetic 5w30 and i'll probably be changing it again halfway through the season just to see what's become of it.  No wonder they recommend a change after the first 2 hours of run time.