I bought an older used snowblower tonight. It's a Mastercraft machine, 33 inch cutting width with a 10 hp electric start Tecumseh engine. I paid $650 for it, plus 20 bucks to have the guy deliver it since it wouldn't fit inthe trunk of my Accord. I haven't really had a chance to get out and play with it, but I did start it up before I paid for it. It started up fine, but puffed a bit of blue smoke from the mnuffler. Whatever, it's an old engine, I'm not too concerned. In a week or so I'm going to change the spark plug, air filter and the oil, of course. What oil should I use? The person at the shop where I bought the snowblower said a good 10w30, or even a 5w30 would do the trick. I was thinking maybe a 10w30 HDEO would be a good pick. Irving Oil makes their IDO diesel engine oil in a 10w30 flavor, and is CH-4/SL rated. Would that be a good choice for this older engine? Or maybe a good synthetic would be better. Since this engine probably only takes 1 quart of oil, cost isn't really a factor so something like Mobil 1 or even GC isn't too far out of the question. The snowblower will be stored inside a small unheated shed and probably won't get used more than twice a week for maybe an hour at a time. My plan for when I need to use it is to fire it up, let it idle and warm up for 5 minutes or so then get to work. The guy who sold me the snowblower suggested that last part.
Picked up a used snowblower tonight
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My 25 year old John Deere snowthrower uses nothing but Shell Rotella T 5w-40. It loves it and oil consumption is virtually nil. I would not use a thinner oil.
I run my engine as lean as possible to get as much power out of it. As long as the temps are below freezing the engine won't overheat. With a 10w30 in it, I had to top off after every tank of gas.
I run my engine as lean as possible to get as much power out of it. As long as the temps are below freezing the engine won't overheat. With a 10w30 in it, I had to top off after every tank of gas.
So...how old is "this older engine"? How old is the machine? I agree with the 5w.whatever oil, especially in an unheated area.
Remember when it snows the temp is usually only a few degrees below freezing. You don't have to go super-arctic with your oil. But you should be able to rope start the thing in case you lose electric start. The Irving 10w30 will work well; the rotella 5w40 probably slightly better.
Sounds to me like using a good synthetic would be almost a no-brainer.
what are you going to put in transmission and diff?
just took it apart no transmission but can you lube the dif, i just bought mine also?
I used 10w-30 Maxlife in my 20 year old 5hp Ariens and never had to top off. This blower has had a VERY tough life and I still beat it.
I looked at the snowblower this afternoon and I saw a Tecumseh Snowking tag on it, so I guess it's an older Snowking engine? I didn't look for the serial number, but I should do that tomorrow. Tecumseh's basic service information PDF file on their website says a 0w30 synthetic is OK for use from -30 F to 40F. The 2 top oil choices in my head for the snowblower right now are GC and conventional Maxlife 5w30.
You won't get an accurate compression reading because of the compression release. Without it, you would be able to pull the rope.
I never thought about a compression release, I thought only newer chainsaws had them. I do find the snowblower easier to pull over because of that. It's also a lot easier to start than our lawnmower, I suppose because the snowblower has manual choke control and a primer bulb. Like I said in my previous post, I'm never going to try a compression test on the snowblower again. I believe I'm lucky that there wasn't any serious damage to the engine.
I'm a **** bonehead. I was playing with the snowblower again, and I was going to do a compression test on it just for fun. I grabed my brother's compression tester and screwed it down into place and pulled the starting cord. BANG! BANG! OH FU$##@! The piston is hitting the end of the tester fitting! DAMMMMMNN! I hard a hard time getting the tester out of the sparkplug hole. I figure the piston striking the tester fitting drove the fitting up a tiny bit and chewed up the threads in the plug hole. I put the sparkplug back into the engine and started it up. THANK ***, it still runs just like it did before. I figure some metal flakes from the threads most likely got down into the cylinder, so I drained the oil, filled it back up with 3/4 quart of QS winter synthetic blend 5w30 I had on hand, ran it 5 minutes, drained again and filled it back up. Man, I am never doing that again. Funny thing though, I used the compression tester in my parents 3.75 hp B&S lawnmower with no problems like that. Oh well, when I get some money, I'm gonna change the oil in the snowblower again and put some GC into it, plus change the spark plug and get a bottle of MMO for the gas.
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