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

Hi,

I got a snowthrower with a Tecumseh snow king 4cycle engine 8hp.

Do I need to use snowthrower tecumseh 5w30 4cyle oil or a 5w30 4 cycle standard engine oil will do the job?

What is the difference between a snowthrower engine oil and a standard engine oil?

Thanks!

Vincent

you can use any 5w30.  "snowthrower oil" is probably just rebranded crap.  do yourself a favour - after break-in, buy the cheapest synthetic you can find - it'll be better than "snowthrower oil" and still pretty cheap.

Thanks for your reply!

AMSOIL 0W-30 Series 2000 Synthetic Motor Oil

or

AMSOIL Formula 4-StrokeŽ 10W-30/SAE 30 Synthetic Small Engine Oil?

my snowthrower will be stored in a garage heated between 10-15°c, but outside will be expose to 0°c to -30°c

Whats the best synthetic oil to choose?

i don't fall for that amsoil crap.  just find the cheapest 100% synthetic in the right viscosity.  if your blower says 5w30, don't put 0w30 in it.

Big difference in running between Standard Oil and Synthetic oil?

synthetic runs better at colder temperatures, so  better protection on startup.  not only that, but it lasts longer, so if you forget to change it, you're still protected.

Basically what Oakville said.  I have a friend that "works in the oil industry".  He says that full synthetics are superior in every way to conventional motor oils, and I'm sure that he's right.  I use full synthetic 5w30 in my early 70s and late 80s Ariens 8HP Sno Thros (with the Snow King engine).    The engine manual states to use 5w30 below freezing or "in Winter" or something like that. 

It is a lot easier starting an engine at 5F when it has a synthetic oil in it.   I'm sure it's better for the engine at start up in those temps, too.  It is Valvoline synthetic purchased at Walmart. 

However, I still use conventional oils in my cars and change every 3k since a: the manufacturers don't require synthetic, and b: In my experiences of car ownership, all of my cars have had close to 200k (one at 286k), and none "burned" any oil or had lubrication problems.  I also had two turbocharged cars in that group.  I just can't get past the "10,000 miles between oil changes" hype of synthetics. 

Good Luck,

Ralph

cadwarrior wrote:

synthetic runs great  but I think it's really for the racing cars. It's 4X costly than regular oil. For regular and daily use machine , normal5W-30 is good enough. Make sure it has "SAE" printed on the bottle to ensure the quality. 

I finally bought Canadian Tire Motomaster formula 1 100% snythetic 5w30 oil 4.59$ in special, not too much expensive! and it take half bottle!

I will flush my old standard used oil, then add the new syn. oil, start engine, then flush again to remove all contaminents, then refill with syn. I also changed the spark plug

the one that was on it was probably the original!, full of dirt and rust.

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