dnewton3
Staff member
I consider all of Pennzoil's products to be of very good quality.
However, I have no interest in the "bottle shake" test methods; means nothing other than your ear and hand are working in concert. I'm not trying to pick on you or call you out, but I believe there's nothing important to glean about lube performance from the shake test. I hold it in the same regard as oil color and odor. There are technologies that far surpass our human senses when it comes to tribology.
I would presume the Kohler spec's a 5w-30, but a 0w-20 might do OK.
I suspect you're also over-thinking this a bit. You're only going to have one cold start each workday. The engine is likely to see hot and cold cycles, depending upon your welding loads. Being air cooled, the engine may have a tendency to "over cool" itself at times if you let it run with little or no load. I mention this because the wear from a cold start is only going to happen once a day, and people often become overly concerned about that one start. Yes - it's important to plan for a cold start; just don't get TOO concerned about it. A diesel engine has to overcome its compression to get a good start for ignition heat. Not so for a gasser; if it will crank over, it should start. I presume it's carb'd and not FI? FI would be even easier to start. My point being this: you're not going to need a super-duper ultra-thin oil to get the engine going. So don't try to find the "thinnest" oil at the risk of other desireable characteristics.
You might consider getting a cylinder head temp probe and track temps for the fun of it. That would really help you decide what oil to use. If the engine temp drops into a cold state often, even when running at times like idle or no load, a thinner 0w-20 might be OK. It if get's up to temp and stays there most of the time, I'd tend toward a 5w-30 syn. And either the Platinum or Ultra products from PZ would work well if you have easy access to them.
I'm sure Kohler has a help line or tech support contact; why not ask them for advice as well?
However, I have no interest in the "bottle shake" test methods; means nothing other than your ear and hand are working in concert. I'm not trying to pick on you or call you out, but I believe there's nothing important to glean about lube performance from the shake test. I hold it in the same regard as oil color and odor. There are technologies that far surpass our human senses when it comes to tribology.
I would presume the Kohler spec's a 5w-30, but a 0w-20 might do OK.
I suspect you're also over-thinking this a bit. You're only going to have one cold start each workday. The engine is likely to see hot and cold cycles, depending upon your welding loads. Being air cooled, the engine may have a tendency to "over cool" itself at times if you let it run with little or no load. I mention this because the wear from a cold start is only going to happen once a day, and people often become overly concerned about that one start. Yes - it's important to plan for a cold start; just don't get TOO concerned about it. A diesel engine has to overcome its compression to get a good start for ignition heat. Not so for a gasser; if it will crank over, it should start. I presume it's carb'd and not FI? FI would be even easier to start. My point being this: you're not going to need a super-duper ultra-thin oil to get the engine going. So don't try to find the "thinnest" oil at the risk of other desireable characteristics.
You might consider getting a cylinder head temp probe and track temps for the fun of it. That would really help you decide what oil to use. If the engine temp drops into a cold state often, even when running at times like idle or no load, a thinner 0w-20 might be OK. It if get's up to temp and stays there most of the time, I'd tend toward a 5w-30 syn. And either the Platinum or Ultra products from PZ would work well if you have easy access to them.
I'm sure Kohler has a help line or tech support contact; why not ask them for advice as well?
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