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

I was changing oil on a GX340 engine on my snowblower. The manual says it holds 1.1 quarts of oil (which I read as about 35 ounces) Yet, the manual also shows that you fill up the crankcase until it's touching the threads for the dipstick. This is pretty common in the GX line (same in the GX160). However, if you add 1.1 quarters, the oil comes halfway up the dipstick, nowhere close to the threads. If you fill it until it reaches the threads, it's closer to 1.4 quarts, or 45 ounces. I am frankly baffled by how much oil this engine needs. Thoughts? Also, this winter is the first the engine has really worked for more than an hour, and when I changed the oil, I could see flecks of metal (microscopic) glinting in the sun. I am inclined to add a magnetic drain plug to the machine, and was wondering if anyone had any opinions on doing this.

MN_Runner wrote:

Yeah, the design of the engine looks to me like it's impossible to overfill unless you put the whole snowblower on a hill. I put in 10-30, and a magnetic dipstick, I'll run it a few minutes each week to cycle the oil through the summer, catch any remaining metal, and I have Mobil 1 5-30HM (high mileage) oil that I'll put in before winter. People have told me the high mileage synthetic is more appropriate for this engine in a snowblower. I don't see a downside to it.

   Many spec's have slight differences like that.   I have a few GX's and # of exact GX200 clones and go to the threads.  It's  not a big deal either way but when an option I go for whichever is more.  There is still plenty of oil to splash around when the oil level is at the end of those short level sticks.
   The silver sparkeling is not a big deal and expected.  For a new engine or rebuild I change oil at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 20 minutes.   I used to do a bunch so would recycle the oil after tanking for a week or run the oil through a filer before reuse.  I know about magnetic plugs but never heard of a magnetic dip stick which seems useful.
 

Mobil 1 High Mileage has more zinc (ZDDP), which is supposed to be better for typical small engines, from what I've read. This is because of the way the valves/pushrods ride on the cams; there are no roller-bearings riding on the cams, the way car engines do it.

I'm transitioning from regular Mobil 1 to Mobil 1 High Mileage in my small engines.

Amsoil also makes an oil specifically for small engines, which I believe has even more ZDDP. The ZDDP is apparently bad for catalytic converters, so they've been reducing the amount in car oils. But that concern doesn't apply to small-engine-specific oils.

Mobil's chart about the ZDDP levels in their Mobil 1 oils:

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Files/Mobil_1_Product_Guide.pdf

Admittedly, this likely counts as over-thinking it. I doubt I'll actually wear out any of my engines, based on how I use them. But it's kinda cheap insurance/peace of mind.