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

Can you use engine oil that you buy for your car engine, for your snowblower engine?

Coldfingers wrote:

I have read that synthetic oil doesn't allow for proper break-in.  Can't say one way or the other if it's true or not.  Many engines from cars to motorcycles come from the factory with synthetic oil in them.  Don't know if the engines were broken in at the plant or not.  I broke my engine in with normal mineral oil.   It's cheap and easy to do for peace of mind if in fact there is any truth to the theory.    

Hey Coldfingers,
I have a new Ariens 927LE and just finished my first oil change after using it for just under 3hrs. Spoke to my dealer and he said it was perfectly fine to use synthetic from the get-go so I topped it off with Castrol synthetic 0W-30, though 5W-30 works just as well.
Hope this helps.

My new snow thrower uses a 305cc B&S snow series OHV engine, and the manual recommends the first oil change after just 2 hours use. That’s when I switched to 5w30 Mobil 1, but any brand of full synthetic oil would work. You’ll really notice the difference when starting in subzero weather, which is what some parts of the country often get following big snow storms.

In my owners manual for the B&S 305 it said to change after 5 hours.  In the Tecumseh 358 (Ariens) it says two hours for the first oil change.  On some cars that were older the rings needed to seal first so regular oil is what they need to run on first.  I've been running Mobil One for well over 10 years now in all of my vehicles.  I put it in the lawn mowers and garden tractor and brush cutter that I have as well.  For some reason, Mobile One is unavailable in our area right now.  Not sure of the reason, but no store has it in this area and hasn't for months.  When I changed the last oil change in the car, I put in Penz full synthetic and when I changed out the oil on my B&S 305 I put in Castrol Syntec another full synthetic.  It costs more but it is the way to go.

Rick

Speedbird, thanks for the info. My briggs says to change it after the first five hours so I will put in the same synthetic blend castrol that I have been using in my old snowblower.

Coldfingers

As specified in the owners' manual, I drained the oil in my Ariens (with 11.5 Tecumseh) after the first 2 hours. I refilled with Mobil 1 0W-30. I change it after each season. At this time there are 40 hours on the engine which has consistently started and run very well.

I am using this Amsoil 5W-30 in mine.

https://www.amsoil.com/storefront/asl.aspx

So here is the recommendation for my snow blower's briggs

http://faqs.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/faqs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1419&p_created=948406560&p_sid=6X7QqCmj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=1419&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0yODYsMjg2JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

And here is mobil 1 5-30 specs

http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/PDS/GLXXENPVLMOMobil1_5W-30.asp

Can someone explain to me what this means? "Use a high quality detergent oil classified "For Service SF, SG, SH, SJ" or higher."

What's mobil 1 classified as? What classification are we talking about, is there a wikipedia page about this?