A-RX in Riding mower engine

[Oldmoparguy1]

I've got a Polan Riding mower,1998 model, 14.5HP B&S OHV engine. It has ~800 hours on it. Doesn't use any oil. Runs great. Lately I only put ~75 hours a year on it, So change oil once a year.

I'm going to do an A-RX clean and rinse in it. How many hours should I run it before changing the clean oil and start the rinse?

 

[GMorg]

Good question! I recently purchased a rotiller (late 60s vintage) and thought it could use some cleaning. I started the AutoRX treatment a couple of weeks ago by starting it up and letting it high-idle an hour at a time. My plan was to start the rinse when I began to see the oil becoming "soiled". I have run it about 4 hours now and have not seen any change in the color of the oil. I too would appreciate any small engine AutoRX information. Without further input, I am just going to run it for the season.

 

[muddawgs]

pull the cover off and take a look.. i bet its pretty clean..

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

They are usually clean inside, but the rings can get pretty badly coked up. I'll probably run it till fall then change to TropArtic semi syn with a little VSOT for the rinse. Right now I have M1 semi syn in it. I need to pull the valve cover off to fix a little seepage that collects lots of dust. Maybe I'll do that first and take a picture before I add the A-RX.

 

[dbdeland]

Oldmoparguy1

I have a Ariens 11 HP Briggs&Stratton motor riding lawn mower I used 3oz of Auto-Rx for about 18 running hours befor I changed the oil.Before I used ARX I was burning 3oz of oil every 3 hours of running time after I completed the ARX cleaning my usage was O it worked for me.

Daryl

 

[XB70]

In an attempt to clarify things a bit, does anyone know the formulas for:

a) ratio of ARX / oil for clean and rinse phases

b) time to run clean phase

c) time to run rinse phase

d) ratio for a maintenance dose

* Do push and riding mowers use the same formulas? I ask this because it seems to me that the riding mower's engine is experiencing greater stresses.

 

[MolaKule]

Since LE stuff runs a bit more under severe service, here is my (personal) recommendation:

Use any oil you want and run it for 5 hours with 1 oz./Qt. ARX and then drain.

Use any oil you want and run ARX at 1oz./Qt therafter for up to 25 hours.

I can't see worrying about clean and rinse phases in ODE.

And keep those air filters clean.

 

[kgb007stb]

I have also wondered about AUTO-RX and super small engines, but since my briggs-stratton engine is a 5hp push mower with a ½ qt capacity I said let’s try LC instead. I wish I had the before pictures, clear oil, but after adding 2oz of LC which corresponds to the 4OZ per qt of oil for the flush phase I ran the engine for three 45 minute sessions (the time it takes to cut a ¼ acre of grass) After the first session, the oil darkened so I added 2oz more of LC just for the heck of it. After the second run, the oil turned pitch black and after the third session I changed it out. I will try to post pictures as to what the contaminants in the oil looked like because on top of having a black oil, I had very fine black sediments (carbon deposits) settle to the bottom of used oil. The old oil was M1 10W30, now that I have the new oil in with 2oz of LC, I will take pictures one more time just to compare and see what will happen to the oil.

Interesting to note that the before adding LC, oil looked normal with very minor usage.

 

[Rodbuckler]

quote:

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Originally posted by kgb007stb:
The old oil was M1 10W30. Interesting to note that the before adding LC, oil looked normal with very minor usage.

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What oil have you been using in the mower over its life? Was this the first time you put M1 in it, or have you been using it all along? Thx.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

quote:

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Originally posted by GMorg:
Good question! I recently purchased a rotiller (late 60s vintage) and thought it could use some cleaning. I started the AutoRX treatment a couple of weeks ago by starting it up and letting it high-idle an hour at a time. My plan was to start the rinse when I began to see the oil becoming "soiled". I have run it about 4 hours now and have not seen any change in the color of the oil. I too would appreciate any small engine AutoRX information. Without further input, I am just going to run it for the season.

---

Hmm, with something that old, if the oil isn't dirty after 4 hours, you might as well run it until it is. If I don't get some experianced answers, I'll probably do the same. I changed the oil last fall before the leaf sucking season. Oil has about 25 hours on it now and is starting to show a little color. At least we know that A-RX won't harm the engine.

 

[MolaKule]

I use one ounce as a maintenance dose in all my ODE stuff.

There's not a lot to get dirty in a small air-cooled engine, except for the ring pack. I like to keep the ring pack free to insure top compression and good ring sealing.

 

[kgb007stb]

First oil was the dino oil that came with the lawnmower, ran it for one year to break it in. Then used M1 10W-30 since that time changing the oil every two years, each time the oil came out clear so hence the question that maybe the air cooled engine ran hotter causing the oil to break down, say around rings or other hot spots around the engine.

Off the topic, I have the pics, what's a good website where I can upload them and link them here, since uploading pics here is not as easy as I have thought.

 

[muddawgs]

http://imageshack.us/ is really easy to use.

 

[Rodbuckler]

Had you been draining the M1 out of the mower hot right after it was run?

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Well now, that's interesting. I put 2oz. A-RX in the engine last evening. After I finish with the A-RX, think I will use LC from then on.

 

[kgb007stb]

Yes oil was drained hot right after shut down, this way any debris in the oil did not have a chance to settle down.

 

[Rodbuckler]

quote:

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Originally posted by kgb007stb:
Yes oil was drained hot right after shut down, this way any debris in the oil did not have a chance to settle down.

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Then I am very disappointed in the M1, especially given the fact that I have been using it in my Kohler powered lawn tractor and push mowers for the past few seasons. I'm using GC this season.

 

[kgb007stb]

Here are the pics

 

[kgb007stb]

Here is the blog test