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

I would have to assume I already have 5 hours and being its 50 degrees outside, I figure its a great time. When I bought the machine I had the dealer put in B&Stratton 5w30 synthetic oil but it was the last one. Called around to a few places but seems nobondy has it in stock. Do I buy it online or can I use Mobil 1 synthetic 5w30 in its place. My plan was to stick with one oil for the life of the motor. My second question is does this motor have a filter, I would say not. Just trying to make sure. Is there anything else I should do after the first 5 hours?

There's no need to run synthetic oil in a snow thrower.  There's no advantage to it.  You pay twice as much, if not more for the oil but do not get the advantages that a synthetic oil is designed to provide.  That is, extended oil change intervals.  You should change your oil every year so why waste synthetic? 

In addition to the above, my Simplicity snow blower has a 305cc B&S Kool Bore engine on it.  After initial break in with conventional oil, I switched to Mobil 1 5W30 and that's all I ran it for three years.  My engine consumed it at approximately one oz. per hour of use and the spark plug looked awful after the first couple seasons.  See pic below.  

This year I switched to Castrol 5W30 High Mileage oil to see if it would reduce oil consumption.  Although my machine hasn't seen the extreme hard use it did in previous years, it does not appear to be consuming this oil.  I suggest you buy any decent quality, name brand conventional 5W30 or 10W30 and go with that.  You'll have all the protection you need at a fraction of the cost.







  

Borat is correct.  No need to use synthetic oil if you change the oil on regular basis (i.e., once a year).  For me I use Mobil 1 since it is only $3 more dollars per year and mentally I feel slightly better.  However, if my engine consumes oil then I may use conventional oil.  If you store your snowblower outside where the temperature is below 0F then synthetic may be better but if your snowblower is stored inside the garage then conventional oil is just fine.  Just change the oil on regular basis and check the level before each use and you will be fine. 

Borat, can you please crop your picture to be a reasonable size, convey what you want and not blow out the thread?

trouts2 wrote:

Anyone experiencing the same blowout issue?

Borat, that spark plug looks nasty. Are you attributing it to the synthetic oil blow by the oil rings?

This kinds of paint a bad light for synthetic oil, and maybe unnecessarily so.  Would conventional dino oil produce the same results?  I suspect that oil type is not the root cause of the problem.

aa335 wrote:
Yes.

I'm really not sure what the image of the nasty looking spark plug is supposed to represent.  If you are/were using synthetic oil and your spark plug looks like that, there are clearly other engine/maintenance issues going on.
In any event, there are other advantages to using synthetic oil besides extended oil change intervals...even though most synthetic oil manufacturers will tell you to follow the OEM guidelines on when to change the oil.  Aside from a few niche brands like Amsoil or Royal Purple, most synthetic oils on the market don't really push the idea of extended oil change intervals. 

Even though these are only  basic/small engines....You're dealing with machines that are really only subjected to extreme conditions, the coldest temps of the year...an advantage synthetic oil has over dino oil.  Especially when starting a cold engine.  Also, these are engines that typically have no filter, with the additives synthetics have, your engine is better protected.
The fact is, a quart of a quality full synthetic oil will cost you some where between ~ $7 - $9.  Is that more expensive than dino oil...absolutely?  But what's the point of penny pinching on machines that people are spending $1000, $1500, $2000, $2500+ etc on?
Sure I'll buy  an $1800 snow thrower but I won't waste an extra $3 or $4 dollars on a synthetic oil for it?  That's ridiculous... imho

I'm not implying you'll see a night and day difference between synthetic and conventional/dino oil...but there really is no advantage sticking with dino oil unless your intent is to save $3-$4  every which way you can.

Unless the manual/OEMr explicitly says not to, you can't go wrong with synthetic...and change the oil when manual says to change the oil.

The original detail in a reasonable size would get the point across without blowing out the thread.

Looks like you need a tuneup or check the rings.   MTD did not always order the best components in their engines.  There Craftsman products carried lesser 8hp engines than used in better brands like Ariens.  All Tecumsehs are not alike.   Murray did the same thing. 

Possibily Briggs who as turned to mass marketing their products is doing the same things with their offerings of Deere, Snapper and Simplicity.  I would guess Briggs could put what they want in their winter OHV's and still call them by the same name.  The Briggs Murray line is now showing up at ACE and other places.  If that's oil fouled maybe you need a ring job.

The origina cropped and enlarged to 640.  Plenty of detail.