What brand/type of oil to use????

[scollins]

These questions may stir up some controversy.
1) What brand/type of oil is the best for our Cubs? I have been using Castrol GTX. I see that some people use Mobil 1.
2) Is there oils to stay away from?
3) What about oil additives like Slick 50, Lucus products, etc. are they good for the engine? (I see Marvel Mystery Oil has positive feedback)
4) The tranny filters--is there a brand/type that is the best at what it is suppose to do?
5) Does the choice of oil type vary with the age of the engine?
6) What about our autos? Is there a good-better-best for the oil, oil filter, tranny fluid, tranny filter, air filter, etc.
7) How about Question #3 again dealing with autos this time.

Thanks for your help,
Seth

 

[wcompton]

1- Use oil, period. Use what weights are recommended in the manual. Don't use synthetics until the engine is broken in (50 hours or so)
2- Stay away from whatever's not recommended in the manual
3- Marvel Mystery Oil has been said to be good to prevent a sticky exhaust valve. Myself, I don't use it.
4- Cub Cadet brand or Fleetgard
5- Synthetics might be a little more friendlier to an older engine, but if it's burning a lot, cheap oil's going to help save $$ for a rebuild.
6- In my vehicles I use Mobil 1, in my fords I use all motorcraft filters and fluid otherwise (!@##$ Mercon-V), if I drove a GM I'd use Delco, if I drove Chrysler, I'd use Mopar. That's what they were designed & engineered with, not much reason to run otherwise.
7- If the additives were better, why wouldn't Mobil 1 run them all, they're already getting $4-$5 a quart!!!!

 

[kweaver]

1) the slippery kind !
2) don't care
3) don't care
4) don't care
5) don't care
6) don't care
7) don't care

 

[craymond]

Ooh, the most devisive question there is among motorheads.
I use Mobil 1 synthetic in almost everything with only a couple exceptions.
My '96 Dodge Dakota had about 110,000 miles when I switched it over, it was leaking about a quart of conventional oil every 500 miles from the rear main seal. Now it leaks about a quart of synthetic every 2000 or so and starts easier in the cold.
My '83 Mercedes 240D was almost impossible to start below 20 degrees with conventional 15w40 oil, with 5w40 or 0w40 synthetic it starts good down to -10, still needs the block heater below that but only for about 1/2 hour down to -20 which is about as cold as it gets here.
My old (uhh, '88?) White lawnmower was on its last legs, would barely start and barely cut grass before I put the Mobil 1 in. Now it starts without being jumpstarted off the truck and cuts reasonably well. Its not a new mower but its a new lease on life. My theory is that the rings were carboned up from years of negelect (even though it got fresh oil every year) and the Mobil 1 freed that up.

Now, the generator doesn't get Mobil 1 and neither will my Cub Cadet 72 when I get the new motor in it. Reason? Both are too new and I want the rings to seat properly. The generator has had its oil changed twice already but has only got about 20 hours on it. Once it hits about 50 hours I'll consider Mobil 1. Same for the Cub Cadet.

My motorcycles get conventional oil but this year I'm seriously considering synthetic, the problem is you need to use "motorcycle" oil because the friction modifiers in the regular synthetic car oil will make the clutch not engage and of course motorcycle oil is way more expensive. I don't ride the bikes a terribly large amount and I don't push them hard so the synthetic is probably not needed. By the same token they'd probably only need one fill of synthetic a year so I should probably just do it even if it is $8 a quart...

 

[wcompton]

Curt-
Good call on the 50-hour non-synthetic time. The some company that makes green & yellow tractors put out a service bulletin recommending a 50-hour non-synthetic use time, and on the tractors that use the water-cooled Kawasaki engines (a very robust engine IMHO) the recommendation was out to 75 or 100 hours. There's even troubleshooting advice on newer tractors that if the customer complains of oil burning before 100 hours, to go back to using dino oil until the smoking stops.

 

[tschweizer]

They recommend the same thing with cars during break-in. I ran synthetic in the 982 and it started using oil bad. I'm going to switch back to conventional.

 

[craymond]

Wyatt,
When most every oil and engine manufactuerer recommends not using synthetic in a new engine who am I to argue? I also change the oil several times during the first 50 hours (probably 3 or even 4 times) especially on engines that don't have a filter.
Older engines though I'll always put synthetic in. The expense is the only downside. On lawnmowers we're not even talking a full quart so its a no-brainer. On my pickup I run about 7,000 between oil changes. The car goes 6,000 because soot accumulation without a bypass filter is the limiting factor. The truck could probably go 8,000 but I don't have the oil anylzed so I figure its a balance...

 

[sblunier]

Load has more to do with it than hours. I would bet that my 782 engine is just as broken in after 5 hours running at Plow Day than it would be after 50 hours of mowing...BUT I'll still go at least one more 25 hour oil change before even considering putting synthetic in it. Either way, you need to wear the rings into the bore and get them seated well......babying a fresh engine isn't the way to do that.

 

[wcompton]

Steve-
So true. Same tech bulletin I refered to also states that the engine must be broken in under load, and specifically mentions that just pulling a lawn cart around for 50 hours WON'T break in an engine.

Probably depends on the rings you use too, if the rebuild kit has some sort of chrome barrel-faced rings the engine will take longer to break in than if you were to use plain iron rings.

 

[wheinsohn]

Steve, my 149 is about the same. It has 10.5 hours on it now and I bet over 7 of them are in front of a moldboard plow. And I know the 2 drivers that ran it at your dad's and at Travis's place did not baby it at all, especially my brother at your dad's. Now if I could just get the idle jets cleaned out on the carb so it would idle would be great. 2 soakings of 1 hour each and it still will not idle. And yes, it has a new carb kit and throttle shaft kit in it.

 

[sblunier]

Wes,

Pull the main needle and clean the two little holes in the hollow shaft with a tag wire...make sure you can blow through them, and they it again.

 

[sblunier]

Wyatt,

Back when the CIH Magnums came out, I was working at the dealer one summer and a guy came in complaining to dad about the excess oil consumption on his new 7120. Dad realized that all he had done with it was pull the sprayer. Dad suggested a nice long work-out on the disk and true to form, it cleared right up........one of those things you never forget.

BTW, that Mag 18 didn't use a drop of oil, even seating the rings and working it HARD. Makes me happy

 

[dfrisk]

STEVE - The Engine Break-in instructions for IHC's D & DT-series 400 engines was pretty specific as to RPM & load in the operator's manuals. I'm sure C/IH's instructions were similar. Been a couple years since I read them but I think it was 5 or 10 hrs at full load RPM & 50% load, similar time at FL RPM & 75% load, then Pour the Coal to Her! Thing that scared Me the most breaking in My PSD was "How to load the engine enough" Son & I made a few laps around Madison the night I picked it up.... Occasional sprints up to 80 mph after warm-up in the first 100 miles must have worked. Truck burns off the top quart of oil in about 800-1000 miles and then the level stays there till I change it at 3000 miles. And it turns over 280,000 miles about next Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

[digger]

Wrong page, Grrrrrrrr

(Message edited by cproctor on April 21, 2005)

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bad Charlie! Baaaad Charlie! )

(Message edited by kmcconaughey on April 21, 2005)

 

[jegstad]

Break-in - I hate to even mention this but a long time ago when I worked in a KF garage they were having trouble with people who drove too slow. The result was never getting the rings to seat and high oil consumption. The engine they used was a Continental made for taxi use and it had a hard block that would glaze over before the rings seated.

The factory bulletin/solution was to pour 1 teaspoon of a powered mild abrasive (Bon-Ami) down the carb with the engine running about 1500 rpm. The oil consumption dropped within a couple of days and we gave them a free oil change.

If the alternative is to do a tear-down just to score the cylinder walls, you might try it. The 1 teaspoon was for a 6 cyl engine so don't overdo it.

JimE

 

[tschweizer]

We used to break in everything on the sileage blower!!! Nothing like hearing those turbos whining at full throttle with a straight pipe!!

 

[sblunier]

Music.......

 

[tschweizer]

856 with a M&W turbo was still the best sounding one!!!

 

[craymond]

I put Castrol (at least I think it was, white bottle anyway) HD30 in my 72 for its first fill. I couldn't put my hands on any CaseIH lowash without a 90 minute round trip drive. It was reasonably priced. I've used that same brand but in 15w40 in my diesel car before and it was just fine.