Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: Best F100
Originally Posted By: tig1
A friend is a Generac tech, and when he went to their school they reccomended M1 5-30. When he performs PMs this is what he puts in. If there hasn't been a long power failure run, and only the weekly start up is done, then he changes it every two years for his customers.
Mobil 1 5W30 is only a "weak" recommendation in my experience. This is ONLY because it is commonly available. The 992cc, air cooled, Generac I owned consumed it faster than other oils in a power outage of over 48 hours. A few other owners will vouch for this. At which point, the generator will shut itself off, due to a low oil level. It is only a passenger car oil.
The Rotella 10W30 and Amsoil recommendations last much longer in this application. Even a 5W40 is a better choice.
M1 5-30 is far from "weak". It does have the Honda HTO-06 spec which is a high heat low deposite turbo spec. My friend, the Generac tech, has had experience just the opposite of yours and and those you speak of. Even my daughter has a 17KW Generac and has several long runs of nearly a week with M1 5-30. No unusual oil useage. My tech friend has upwards of 40 customers he services with M1 5-30 and he reports no high oil consumption that he notices when he does his PMs.
I meant no offense when I used the term weak. "Weak" is relative. However, my point is there are better choices available, even in the ExxonMobil lineup. In the application Mobil 1 5W30 is used (liquid cooled engines), engine temperatures are not that demanding. Take the Honda HT0 - 06 specs, for example> engine temperatures are not out of the norm for a liquid cooled engine. So as a result, engine deposits would not be a concern on a generator. Generac techs are told to "toe the company generic 5W30 synthetic recommendation line." That's what my Generac tech said, who came to my house.
If you reside in a state like Arizona, Florida or Louisiana, and have a hot, AIR cooled generator running for weeks at a time in the summertime, you can do better than Mobil 1 5W30. If you wanted to stay with ExxonMobil, their 10W40 Motorcycle oil or their Delvac 5W40 would be still be working a lot longer. Who can argue that their applications are less demanding than what Mobil 1 5W30 was designed for? When your oil capacity is only 2 qts, why not pay a few extra bucks for better performance? The original question was asked from the state of NJ. Many folks who lost their power from Hurricane Sandy last year in NJ were without power for over a week. Those generators ran a lot hotter than our low oil temperatured, cars with Mobil 1 5W30.
So I still stand by my answer.