Used oil smell

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Hi everyone,

I just changed the oil on a honda gx340 engine and I found that the oil that came out had a somewhat strong smell of alcohol.

Any idea what could be causing that and is that harmful to the engine?

Thanks
 
Hard to know what your sniffer is smelling and what was put in before. Heard of stupid things being added. Probably the worst one posted here was of washer fluid to a engine.
I know brake fluid smells of alcohol
 
Last edited:
No coolant for sure.

Dont think anything was added.

Maybe its gas and my nose aint the best haha
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
You sure it wasn't coolant???


On an air cooled engine that would be quite impressive.


That's funny.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Does this engine run at light loads regularly? Like a cement mixer?


Nope, its from a snowblower
 
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Hard to know what your sniffer is smelling and what was put in before. Heard of stupid things being added. Probably the worst one posted here was of washer fluid to a engine.
I know brake fluid smells of alcohol


I know the person that had the snowblower its on and I know he was only putting genuine honda oil and nothing else
 
Originally Posted By: ironman_gq
I'd say it's from ethonol fuel and probably nothing to worry about.


It makes sense, but is it normal it makes its way to the oil?

I'll be going ethanol free on all my small engine.
 
Originally Posted By: jbutch
Originally Posted By: ironman_gq
I'd say it's from ethonol fuel and probably nothing to worry about.


It makes sense, but is it normal it makes its way to the oil?

I'll be going ethanol free on all my small engine.


My oil smells the same way and I agree, it is from the ethanol. It isn't actually liquid fuel or ethanol getting in your oil, it is just the normal combustion byproducts of ethanol laced gas making its way into your oil, causing it to smell like alcohol.

HDEO's smell a little stronger than PCMO's and changing your oil a little more often as well as keeping your engine well tuned will all help to reduce the alcohol smell. Or if you can find ethanol free fuel in your area, you could always just use that. Then your oil will have slight regular gas scent at the end of an oil change
crazy.gif
 
Originally Posted By: AMC
Originally Posted By: jbutch
Originally Posted By: ironman_gq
I'd say it's from ethonol fuel and probably nothing to worry about.


It makes sense, but is it normal it makes its way to the oil?

I'll be going ethanol free on all my small engine.


My oil smells the same way and I agree, it is from the ethanol. It isn't actually liquid fuel or ethanol getting in your oil, it is just the normal combustion byproducts of ethanol laced gas making its way into your oil, causing it to smell like alcohol.

HDEO's smell a little stronger than PCMO's and changing your oil a little more often as well as keeping your engine well tuned will all help to reduce the alcohol smell. Or if you can find ethanol free fuel in your area, you could always just use that. Then your oil will have slight regular gas scent at the end of an oil change
crazy.gif



Thank you for the info!

I just found that my local Esso is ethanol free for the 91 grade, I will be going with that.
 
On some of those GX series Hondas the gas can overflow through the carb and run into the crankcase. Use the fuel shut-off whenever you're not running it. Just a thought.
 
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