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

I found this information which i thought was most interesting.Normal oil consumption for a air cooled small engine can be up to 1 oz per cylinder per hour.This would be under full throttle conditions.So if you use your old Briggs or Tecumseh snow blower for a few hours and you use 1 oz or 2 it is most likely normal oil consumption !

relics wrote:

Honda simply recommends: "Use a 4-stroke automotive detergent oil

[...]

Honda recommends that you use API SERVICE category SJ or later (or equivalent) oil"

I suspect most of the discussion of synthetic advantages revolve around the theoretical advantages of synthetic especially in OPE. I don't believe OPE engines are in any sort of high-stress environment (although I'm sure people can come up with exceptions) and in fact, I'll bet if you left most snowblower oil in the crankcase for 3-4 years at a time, it wouldn't make a lick of difference for snowblower longevity compared to more obvious forms of abuse like "leaving the snowblower outside year round under a cover" or "leaving gas in the snowblower and not starting it for 2-3 years".

There are a couple of guys here who rebuild snowblowers (like trout and borat). I wonder if engine wear is the reason most snowblowers are abandoned? Or is it "won't start" or "belts are broken" or "rusted to h*ll"?

That's not to say this isn't an interesting or useful discussion, but I think we need to keep it in perspective of what these engines are and how they're used.

FWIW - I had my HS624WA for 10 years and it never consumed any oil. I always check my oil before every start-up - just a habit I have with all of my OPE. I switched over to synthetic at about my 7 year mark and again, never had to add any oil. I always change my oil once/year regardless of how hard a winter we have although there have been 1 or 2 times that I changed twice because of extraordinary useage. I'm running conventional 5w-30 in my new to me HS928TA and honestly see no need to switch over to synthetic even after I log the 50 or so hours most seem to suggest is the required "break-in" period. I store my machine in an unheated garage and never have any hard starts as it usually never even gets below freezing in there (garage is located underneath my house).

I don't rebuild snow blowers as Trouts does.  I will fix one for a relative or friend but I'm not in the business of recycling snow blowers. 

However, from my experience, I've yet to see a scrapped snow blower with a blown engine.   I've seen some very old (30+) machines with tired engines yet they kept doing their job while other components of the machine failed.   We put far too much emphasis on engine oil selection when it's not really necessary.  Any decent conventional oil of the proper viscosity changed one a year will keep the engine running well beyond the life of most machines they're mounted on.