Bundled oil w/ new small engines - Yea or Nay

[DirtyApe]

This is a question about the usually-generic oils (1qt or so), that are bundled with a new small engine. It says 'high quality 4 cycle engine oil, 10w-30'.

It is a Subaru 210cc OHC.

It has a 20 hour break-in period to dump the initial oil - am wondering if I shouldn't pick up a quart of PYB or use some of the 10-30 QS synthetic bottle I have in the basement instead?

Any drawbacks to synthetic right out of the gate?

We're talking 18oz. to fill btw.

 

[JTK]

I'd use it, but would do the first dump/fill around 5-10hrs.

Joel

 

[scurvy]

No downsides at all, but I would dump the initial fill after an hour (at most) of hard running. If you'd rather run your QS synthetic, go right ahead, it will work perfectly.

Do try to break it in with several hours of continuous hard running and it will last much longer.

 

[TFB1]

At only 18oz to fill, no doubt doesn't have a filter so there are going to be some metal particles in the oil...

I agree with scurvy, change it after a hour and maybe again at 10hrs...

 

[electrolover]

alot of down sides!! mainly the fact that the oil that came with the small engine is break-in oil. if you dont want to use it then get a high zddp oil like a motorcycle oil, or hdeo for break-in. royal purple makes a synthetic break in oil as well

 

[spasm3]

i run it about ten minutes in new ope then i fill it with rotella 15w40 or t-6 5w 40 if i have it around.

 

[3311]

Originally Posted By: JTK
I'd use it, but would do the first dump/fill around 5-10hrs.

Joel
+1

 

[Unleashedbeast]

I had a new 6.5hp Briggs that I used the cheap 20 oz. fill that was included. After ~10 hours of use I dumped and refilled with Amsoil 0W-30. I couldn't believe how much easier the pull start was after the change.

 

[johnachak]

I also agree with scurvy, change it after a hour, but then I did another fill of dino for 2 hours and particles were still in the oil. After that I went with 10W 30 Advance auto synthetic with a couple of ozs of dino HD 30 to hopefully keep it thicker in the summer. Starts much easier and after about 5 hours on the oil it is still pretty clear on the dipstick.
The first 2 changes had a bunch of wear metals. Glad I did it the way I did. Good Luck!

 

[DirtyApe]

Well had a bit of a change - the triplex pump on the clearanced subaru from HD went kaput after about an hour.

So.... no more of those so I coerced the manager into letting me have a Cat branded, with Cat pump and a Yamaha MZ300.

I've got about 30 minutes on it so far, it still specs the 10w30, should I use the rotella hdeo 5w-40 or 15w-40? This one has a 36oz fill.

On a side note, would the 5w-40 or 15w-40 work well in a Kawasaki 20hp mower engine pretty well? It specs 10w-30 also.

Thanks!

 

[steve20]

nice job on the CAT. What's wrong with 10-30?

 

[SOHCman]

You could use the Rotella T5 10w-30 HDEO, its almost a 40wt at operating temp anyway.