Briggs Alloy Bore- what oils for longevity ?

[Shannow]

Hi all,
feeling great, as I am back owning a petrol mower... after 2 battery mowers in just over 4 years (12 month warranties should have been a dead givaway), and the demise of my Briggs Quantum powered Victa being killed by the Ex at separation(the one I did the temperature tests on all those years ago).

Mower is again, a Victa 18" mulch or catch, engine is Briggs O9P6

What properties of an oil will maximise the life of this aluminium bored engine ?

 

[FordFETruck]

Oh man, I'm still using my dads lawn chief push mower with an aluminum bore 3.5 HP briggs he bought new 47 years ago. It's had everything under the sun put in that thing over the years. In 2009 the mower body was shot and I took the engine apart for a project, it still had factory crosshatching with no ring ridge and the crank, rod camshaft and valves looked brand new still. I cleaned everything up and put it back together only replacing a few gaskets and I still use it every week ever since on a newer mower deck. The best things you can do for those aluminum bore engines are keep the engine FULL of clean oil and keep a really good air filter on it and keep the cooling fins clean. My dad was about my age when he bought that thing, he's 72 now and it runs just as good as it always has and it's been run through the ringer and hit solid objects that should've killed it long ago. Did some quick math years ago, it hit 1000 running hours in 2004 and more math has around 1500 hours on it today.

 

[fantastic]

Hello there & sorry about your mower loss in the seperation. 20w-50 or 15w-50 or even 15w-40 w/frequent oil changes. Keeping the engine cool & not mulching if you can help it but if that's what's needed then so be it. Very good info posted above about cleaning the fins regularly & keeping the fluids level but this isn't anything new to you.

 

[Lubener]

15w-40 or SAE 30 would be my choice. Changing the oil on a regular basis is more important than the oil used. Change it when it due and you will easily get 15-20 years out of it.

 

[facility1]

put mobil 0w-40 in new toro with briggs engine,,seems to be fine,time will tell,,,low resistance on pulls starting is a plus

 

[PontiacHO]

What does the manufacturer recommend?

 

[Slick3914]

15w-40 or SAE 30 would be my choice. Changing the oil on a regular basis is more important than the oil used. Change it when it due and you will easily get 15-20 years out of it.

Air filter maintenance is key as well.

 

[facility1]

it came with #30 wt non synthetic oil,,ran a couple of hrs and installed the 0w-40, & ,ran quieter when lugged dowm

 

[thastinger]

Air filters have improved on these small engines over the years but that is the most important aspect of longevity for these, and clean cooling fins.

 

[Cujet]

I use 15W-50 M1 in all my OPE with the exception of the Kawasaki powered water pump (for fire hose) and Kawasaki 18HP John Deere garden tractor. Which get 5W-40 T6.

The generators and mowers all get the 15W-50. Decades of use and no problems what so ever. Unless you consider stupidly hitting the same stump with my Snapper mower and bending the crankshaft multiple times, an oil related problem.... Haha.

The engines remain spotless inside, and never consume oil. Even 25 years down the road.

 

[thastinger]

I use 15W-50 M1 in all my OPE with the exception of the Kawasaki powered water pump (for fire hose) and Kawasaki 18HP John Deere garden tractor. Which get 5W-40 T6.

The generators and mowers all get the 15W-50. Decades of use and no problems what so ever. Unless you consider stupidly hitting the same stump with my Snapper mower and bending the crankshaft multiple times, an oil related problem.... Haha.

The engines remain spotless inside, and never consume oil. Even 25 years down the road.

Can't go wrong with M1 15-50. I use it in my hydrogear units in my Ferris ZTR and my Wright stander mowers.
I use Rotella 15-40 in the motors because the Wright is a pull start and I use it when it is still cool outside.

 

[ripcord]

What properties of an oil will maximise the life of this aluminium bored engine ?

What everyone else has said... keep the oil clean and full, and maintain a well functioning air filter. These engines are not picky about oil.

 

[FordFETruck]

put mobil 0w-40 in new toro with briggs engine,,seems to be fine,time will tell,,,low resistance on pulls starting is a plus

I put that oil in the push mower I mentioned above, and it definitely came out looking better than any oil I've ran in it in the past. Didn't consume any of it, and my home made magnetic drain plug had less fuzzies on it as well. Yes, the low resistance pull was nice on colder days. I'll probably stick to using that from now on.

 

[jeepman3071]

I typically use 15w40 HDEO in these engines, and it seems to work well. The engines stay clean and they seem to consume less oil over the oil change interval than with PCMO from my experience. With any splash lubed engine, the most important things are to keep the oil level full, and change it at appropriate intervals to remove the contaminants.

 

[LongTime_Lurker]

When I was just a young lad, I chopped a fist-sized rock in half while mowing the lawn with one of these 3.5 HP Briggs engines (it survived). I would use HDEO but I don't think these engines are picky.

Shear stability!

 

[Shannow]

What does the manufacturer recommend?

Bit all over the shop really...it's more complicated than my old Briggs manuals, makes some sort of sense in some ways, but a 15W down to -7 while a 10W to -18 doesn't gel with me (no pun intended, and an SAE 30 bottoming at 4C.

My Dexos2 5W30s could pull it off, as could either the mineral or synthetic 15W40s HDMOs in the shed.

 

[FranklinJL]

I use leftover redline 5w40 or someone's half bottles of VR1 50w. Works awesome..My nieghbor uses Rotella 5w40

 

[DemoFly]

It's splash lube so 10w30 or SAE30

I wouldn't worry about going thicker unless you're worried about losing oil pressure from your non-existent oil pump at 10k rpm on the mulsanne straight.

 

[Shannow]

First thoughts were to use the product on the left, which could best be describes as a receptacle of all sorts of leftovers to empty bottles....

Second thoughts was to make an appropriate mix (not blend) of the second two (BRZ went the same way as the old mower, had to sell it)...some good synth, decent zinc, significant brightstock, and MoTDC

Will probably do the latter...target 11Cst

 

[Fordiesel69]

Secret sauce.....keep the air filtration top notch for briggs aluminum bore.