kawasaki oci?

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I have a gravely zero turn mower with a Kawasaki FX481V motor. This is a 15.5hp twin cylinder motor with an oil filter. So the mowers manual only mentions changing the hydro fluid and doesn't say anything about the motor oil, but I notice on the hour meter display it tells you to change it every 50, but the manual for the Kawasaki motor says oil every 100 and filter every 200hrs. I went ahead and followed what Kawasaki says. I'm going to use one of my Polaris labs Uoa kits that I bought and send in a sample, but what do you guys think? The oil is dark brown at the moment and I have 90hrs on the mower. I use delo 400 15w40. I also changed the oil after the first 8hrs like it said in the Kawasaki manual. Should I just start changing it every 50 from now on?
 
No, you are fine changing it every 100 hours.

Rule of thumb is 50 hour changes if you dont have an oil filter or 100 hour changes if you do have an oil filter.

And yes, running the filter for 200 hours is fine as well, if you want. I use a Motorcraft FL-910S on mine and change it yearly since the filter only cost $3.XX at Wal-Mart.

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
I use delo 400 15w40


Good choice.
 
I have the Kawasaki 23hp twin cylinder on my '06 Hustler Z mower. My manual mirrors what was mentioned above. I only put 60hrs or so on mine each season so I just follow a change every spring oci. Filter stays on for two seasons, running a Fram TG right now.

Run Rotella T 15w40 with zero problems. Did a uoa last year and everything came back fine.
 
The manual for my Kawasaki v-twin says to do a break-in change @ 8 hrs and change it every 100 hours after that.

The FL-910s works, but you can get even more capacity with the FL-400s
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Mantooth
I have the Kawasaki 23hp twin cylinder on my '06 Hustler Z mower. My manual mirrors what was mentioned above. I only put 60hrs or so on mine each season so I just follow a change every spring oci. Filter stays on for two seasons, running a Fram TG right now.

Run Rotella T 15w40 with zero problems. Did a uoa last year and everything came back fine.


So your mowers manual states change every 50hrs? My thinking is Kawasaki knows more about how far you can go on the oil than the mower manufacturer.
 
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I'd go 50 hrs- cheap insurance.
Exmark says the first change should be in 5 hrs. ( 24.5 hp)
I did so and the oil was already very funky.
If I don't do 50 hrs this season then I'll do it every mowing season.
We are only talking a hair over 2 qts anyway!
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Originally Posted By: Mantooth
I have the Kawasaki 23hp twin cylinder on my '06 Hustler Z mower. My manual mirrors what was mentioned above. I only put 60hrs or so on mine each season so I just follow a change every spring oci. Filter stays on for two seasons, running a Fram TG right now.

Run Rotella T 15w40 with zero problems. Did a uoa last year and everything came back fine.


So your mowers manual states change every 50hrs? My thinking is Kawasaki knows more about how far you can go on the oil than the mower manufacturer.


Sorry, my post was probably as clear as mud. My kawasaki manual says every 100 hrs.

I mow about 3 acres and my motor has never missed a beat. After 538 hrs, I can say that kawasaki makes a great lawnmower engine.
 
Originally Posted By: Mantooth
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Originally Posted By: Mantooth
I have the Kawasaki 23hp twin cylinder on my '06 Hustler Z mower. My manual mirrors what was mentioned above. I only put 60hrs or so on mine each season so I just follow a change every spring oci. Filter stays on for two seasons, running a Fram TG right now.

Run Rotella T 15w40 with zero problems. Did a uoa last year and everything came back fine.


So your mowers manual states change every 50hrs? My thinking is Kawasaki knows more about how far you can go on the oil than the mower manufacturer.


Sorry, my post was probably as clear as mud. My kawasaki manual says every 100 hrs.

I mow about 3 acres and my motor has never missed a beat. After 538 hrs, I can say that kawasaki makes a great lawnmower engine.


I ran amsoil in my smaller mower and at 1300hrs you could still think it was a brand new engine taking the valve cover off.
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
I don't put 100 hrs a year on my mower. the oil gets changed annually on the Kaw in my JD Zero turn, along with the filter.


I'll be changing it and taking a sample in about a week or so, coming up on 100hrs.
 
I might just run amsoil like I did before even if the uoa looks fine, I don't really like how dark the regular oil gets. It's more money, but I can easily cover the cost.
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
I might just run amsoil like I did before even if the uoa looks fine, I don't really like how dark the regular oil gets. It's more money, but I can easily cover the cost.
Why don't you use Rotello T6 5w40? Find some on sale and I would say, just as good as the Amsoil stuff.
 
At my workplace, I have an EXmark zturn with 23 hp Kawasaki. I put 80 -90 hrs/ year on it. I do one OCI per year. For fun, I tried the Exmark synthetic 30w/10w30 (similar to Amsoil's OPE oil). It did well, but the UOA showed it sheared a bit. Using Rotella T5 10w30 now, but no UOA's.

Our grounds dept. uses Shaefers 15w40 and with UOA's are doing extended OCI's of about 150 hours.
 
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