Good afternoon all,

About six months ago, I bought a Champion Power Equipment 6.5HP engine when Costco was having their blow-out sale. It's basically a Chinese clone of the Honda 6.5HP engine, which I think is a GX-200. I also have a generator that uses one of these clone engines, but instead of being a "Champion Power Equipment" brand, it's a Jiang Dong brand. (For what it's worth, the generator runs extremely well and starts much easier than my twin-cylinder Vietnam-era 2A016 MEP-25 genset.)

Manual says to use 10W-30 and I initially filled it with Mobil1 10W-30 as that is what I had on the shelf. About that time, I remember reading an article/webpage on these Chinese engines, which highly recomended using xW-40, like Rotella T Synthetic, instead of the 10W-30 required by the manual. Apparently the 10W-30 yielded short engine life, while the 5W-40 yielded long life. (Or as long as you'd expect from a $120 engine.)

I've searched high and low for where I got this (including about three hours here manipulating the search) and can't find it! Anyone here familiar with these engines and the diesel xW-40 recomendation over 10W-30?

As an interesting aside, you can find many manuals for this type of engine online. Some say SAE 30, others 10W-30, and even some will say 15W-40!!! I'm not that concerned about using the 5W-40 Rotella T synthetic in - just trying to determine if my memory is anywhere near accurate!!!

thanks!
ben

My manual says 10W-30. And that's what I use. ACD SAE 30. Protects fine.

A 5W-40 should be OK, but might rob a little power - I know for a fact conventional 15W-40 will bog the engine.

Hi Pablo,

Thanks for the response. I see that the ACD is a 10W-30/SAE 30 rated diesel oil. Any reason to pick it over the ASE Formula 4-Stroke oil? I'm curious - next year I had planned to swap over my lawn equipment (John Deere STX-38 that uses 10W-30 both in the engine and the tranny and a Craftsman mower) over to ASE. Is ACD a better choice? Seems like it might be more economical. (BTW, I like the new webpage but it's difficult to find the ASE listing - there's a small pull-down that took me a while to notice.)

But before I swap over to ASE/ACD, I've got to use up my current stock of M1 10W-30 and then a jug of SuperTech synthetic 10W-30. I might put the SuperTech in the sister-in-law's car to use it up faster.

I'll stick with the 10W-30 in mt two Chinese 6.5HP's and use the Rotella T in my Vietnam-era generator. I can use the 5W-40 Rotella T Synthetic in the generator - at some point, the military lubrication order on the 2A016 engines went from an SAE 30 (as is called for on the dip-stick) to a 15W-40 recommendation. I'd bet it was for reduced logistical impact, as they could use one oil for diesel engines as well as the few remaining gas engines like this one. I've used both SAE 30 and 15W-30 in this generator set and in the eight to ten hours I put on it each year, the oil never even gets discolored. It gets changed before and after each use. It's got a one quart sump so that's only two quarts of oil - seems like a good investment for a piece of equipment that sits a lot and then gets pressed into hard service.

Anyways, thanks much!

-ben

No real difference in this engine. I have several gallons of ACD in stock, one a partial, so I didn't want to open a new qt of ASE.

You could always take the oil back to wal-mart and do a trade for whatever oil grade suits you. I have done this a few times after buying a car with different requirements than my stockpile could offer

Ben, we've got a few of these engines in the family too (portable generators). There was a post some time back from Lonnie I believe, where a 40wt substantially increased the life span of these engines over a 10w30. I don't recall if it was on a 6.5hp or it's 13hp big brother, but this engine was used in commercial service. They wouldn't last long with 10w30, but had yet to die running a 15w40 HDEO. I'm sure ACD would have the same effect, but 40wt HDEOs can be had off the shelf a tad easier and cheaper. I wouldn't run 15w40 for cold ambient temp starts, but 5w40 would fare well for that.

Joel

Hey fellas,

Thanks for the replies. Wow, great memory! I put in "Lonnie" and "Chinese" as search terms and found Lonnie's thread on the Chinese engines. The other day, when I was just searching on "Chinese," I found nothing at all. I'd post the link to Lonnie's post, but the link is a mile long, so I'll just quote part of it below:



I swear I remember reading something exactly along these lines, but with the conclusion being that a synthetic HDEO 5W-40 was the way to go. There are two of us that remember this, so I'm now thinking that I need to be looking for another Chinese engine thread besides Lonnie's. It seems to me that Lonnie's friend has something larger than the 6.5HP engine, so perhaps it is the case that the larger one does okay on 10W-30 while the 6.5HP prefers 5W-40? I will search/research this more.

I've got M1 10W-30 in both my Chinese 6.5 HP's now and I think I'll use that until I make the switch to something Amsoil next year. Good thing is that I've got lots of uses for 10W-30 that I've got on hand now. Sister-in-law's car is totally non-oil critical plus I do use a bit on the mower's over a year's time.

thanks much!
ben

Completely understand. Any advantage to ACD over ASE in, for instance, a Kolher Command CV12.5, 12.5 HP engine? Or the tranny in a Deere mower?

THANKS!
-ben

ACD has a better TBN, and probably better for a constant RPM's.

ASE has more rust inhibitor and I've been told better for higher/varying RPM's.

Neither have FM's.

So for the Kohler it depends on the usage. I'd pick the ASE for the tranny.

Hey Pablo,

Sounds great - will put ASE on my list for next year. The Kohler sees full speed all the time except for a few minutes of idle after start and before shutting down.

Thanks!
-ben