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briggs and stratton with normal oil change

#1

D

dan1

Hello is there a push mower on the market with a briggs and stratton motor that does not have the never change oil feature?


#2

ILENGINE

ILENGINE

You can change the oil in the no oil change engines just like the normal engines.


#3

Russ2251

Russ2251

Any Briggs & Stratton mill that is not designated the new EXi engine will not have this feature.


#4

S

SidecarFlip

What is a 'no oil change' feature? Sounds like impending doom for an internal combustion engine to me or are the motors built so cheap that they will only last one oil fill? Sounds wacko to me.


#5

Russ2251

Russ2251

What is a 'no oil change' feature?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=exi+engine


#6

S

SidecarFlip


Sounds to me like a guy I know that bought a new Chrysler Pacifica and never changed the oil in 80K miles. It cost him 3 grand for a new engine when that one threw a rod. I would never consider not changing the oil in a small engine, they don't hold that much in the first place.


#7

Russ2251

Russ2251

It's called progress.
I applaud B&S's boldness.
I often wondered why this was not possible.


#8

S

SidecarFlip

It's called progress.
I applaud B&S's boldness.
I often wondered why this was not possible.

You can do it with ANY engine actually. Run it 'till it blows and buy another. Pretty simple really if you want to go that route.

Guess if I was flush, I'd do that with my farm tractors, blow one and buy another for 90 grand.....duh


#9

cpurvis

cpurvis

What is a 'no oil change' feature? Sounds like impending doom for an internal combustion engine to me or are the motors built so cheap that they will only last one oil fill? Sounds wacko to me.

If an engine burns enough oil and must have it replaced, there is no need to 'change' the oil--it's being changed all the time. It's called 'make-up' oil. Caterpillar truck engines had a table in their operations manuals that showed how much the normal oil change interval could be extended depending upon how many gallons of 'make-up' oil is added between changes.

That's the only way I know that the oil change interval could be extended to infinity--have the engine consume a lot of oil.


#10

S

SidecarFlip

If an engine burns enough oil and must have it replaced, there is no need to 'change' the oil--it's being changed all the time. It's called 'make-up' oil. Caterpillar truck engines had a table in their operations manuals that showed how much the normal oil change interval could be extended depending upon how many gallons of 'make-up' oil is added between changes.

That's the only way I know that the oil change interval could be extended to infinity--have the engine consume a lot of oil.

Sure that was Caterpillar and not Detroit? I drove Cat powered Class 8 Stars for over 30 years hauling steel and machinery and hardly ever added crankcase oil between changes. Now, Roadway Express used to meter a set amount of crankcase oil into the fuel tanks as the engines ran and then added make up oil as needed. That way, they never changed the lube oil, just kept adding.

I read the caveat on the Briggs website..'just add oil as needed' without changing it. Sounds to me like they plan on enough lube oil getting by the rings that there will be no need to ever change it.

Years ago, I had an Ariens Rocket rear tine tiller with a Tecumseh HH mosquito chaser that I ran for many years and never changed the oil, I just added as needed. Guess Tecumseh engines were ahead of their time....:laughing:

I suspect problems will arise when owners never check the oil level but then I would suspect the motors have a low oil shutdown feature. Some of the posts I read on here leads me ti suspect just that... Don't know where the dipstick is besides running the equipment....lol


#11

B

bertsmobile1

There is a bit of a difference between large diesels with a lot of oil, which is managed, pumped & filtered and an unfiltered splash lubed petrol engine.
The Macks my mate ran & the Kubota excavators all had very large sumps, multi stage oil filtering & oil cooling .
Thus most of the solid contaminates are removed so the main objective of topping up the oil is to replenish consumed additives .
So they got a 1/3 oil change every 200 hours ( 5 gallons )

On a splash lubed mower engine there is no way to remove the particulates as there is no filter.
Early engines used sludging to allow solids to agglomerate & settle in the remote oil tank.
This of course can not happen with detergent oils as the detergents are there to prevent solids from agglomerating and keep them in suspension so they can be easily filtered out

OTOH more than a few push mowers come in with oil so thick I need to run the engine with solvents in there to dilute the mud thin enough to get sucked out.
So I rather think that the small push mower engines were somewhat over lubed from the start so with better research & more accurate computer modeling Briggs have worked out their engine will run 5 + years without an oil change before contaminates build up to a dangerous level


#12

ILENGINE

ILENGINE

the full to add mark on the dipstick is 20% of the oil volume in the engine. that 20% is enough to replenish the additives in the oil. the engine has a life expectancy of 125 hours which equals 10 years for the average use.

the catch 22 in this is the engine requires regular air filter and spark plug maintenance. But the problem is the people that ignore the oil will also ignore the air filter and the spark plug. the engine was designed with tighter tolerances inside the engine to help prevent combustion contamination of the oil along with better air filtration and regular maintenance to help preserve the oil condition according to briggs. If they come into my shop I change the oil in them anyway.


#13

B

bertsmobile1

You and me both .
$ 5 worth of oil is a lot cheaper than a warranty claim for a new engine.
And what do you mean by plug maintanance, "it was sparking OK before I brought it in why are you charging me for a new plug when the old one was still working "
Took a while to nut it out so now they get a standard fixed rate $ 75 service which includes a free plug , air filter & oil change in place of the old $ 45 + parts


#14

cpurvis

cpurvis

Sure that was Caterpillar and not Detroit?
Yep, Cat 3406B manual was where I first saw it.

It never burned oil, either, until an air cleaner element failed. After that, it drank oil. Had to do an in-frame on it.

The Cats were good engines. Too bad they got out of the class 8 truck market.


#15

S

SidecarFlip

Yep, Cat 3406B manual was where I first saw it.

It never burned oil, either, until an air cleaner element failed. After that, it drank oil. Had to do an in-frame on it.

The Cats were good engines. Too bad they got out of the class 8 truck market.

Not by choice, by Federal Mandate. Still have a 3406 E in my Barnyard Buick doublebunk with a 13 double over on 355's. Great engine. Expensive to work on but a great engine anyway.

Getting back to the Briggs. I think B&S banks on the fact that the engine will go 5 years (warranty) before it pukes anyway and post warranty they bear no responsibility.


#16

cpurvis

cpurvis

Getting back to the Briggs. I think B&S banks on the fact that the engine will go 5 years (warranty) before it pukes anyway and post warranty they bear no responsibility.

You're undoubtedly right but I hate to see it come to that. We're already too much of a throw-away society.


#17

S

SidecarFlip

You're undoubtedly right but I hate to see it come to that. We're already too much of a throw-away society.

Part of the 'mantra' of how our society works today. We live in a me first disposable society where nothing is supposed to last any length of time longer than the warranty period and is then discarded and a 'new and improved' model takes it's place.

Personally, I don't Believe B&S 'improved anything tolerance wise on this no oil change engine. They might have changed some components like a plastic carb or whatever but the basic principles of a 4 stroke splash lubed engine remains unchanged and I watched their ad blurb and I find it BS from B&S.

Any small engine will go 5 years with no oil change so long as the oil isn't cheapo stuff. After 5 years it's a crapshoot but why would B&S care anyway. They are all about selling mew pressure die cast motors, not repairing old ones.

Gone is the good old cast iron Kohlers and Onan's that can be rebuilt and run forever, I know, I have one.


#18

ILENGINE

ILENGINE

Getting back to the Briggs. I think B&S banks on the fact that the engine will go 5 years (warranty) before it pukes anyway and post warranty they bear no responsibility.

The average replacement interval for push mowers is 3.5 years and 4.5 years for riding mowers. So they are built to those standards.


#19

B

broo

I have one of those EXI engines but I still change the oil yearly.


#20

G

gladiator801

The average replacement interval for push mowers is 3.5 years and 4.5 years for riding mowers. So they are built to those standards.

I guess my 30 year old Toro rider with over 3000 hours is over the hill


#21

B

bertsmobile1

Yes over the hill and down the road a full mile in place of everything else that cab be bought today.

I call this problem the "Magic Pudding Syndrome"
Because most people are so far divorced from manufacturing & mining there is the belief that resources are unlimited.
And because there is the belief that "technology" will magically make everything that the most important person in the world, ME , wants , affordable to me so no one will pay for durable quality.
Add to that the " Youth Obsession " where we randomly elevate nobodies to god like status just because they are young & pretty.
So added together you get generations who believe that they have to have a new product every year that costs less.

We have been tanking about adding an enviromential levy on manufactured goods for decades and untill this happens people will believe that the purchase price is the actual cost of an object to the planet.
manufactures are force to make rubbish because rubbish is all the population will pay for.

An interesting statistic that I came across decades ago.
If both China & India used the same amount of toilet paper as the residents of the USA do , per head ( or should that be tail ) of populaton, then they would consume all of the waste paper in the world in less than 6 months then every tree standing in the next 12 months.

Sort of goes to show just how wasteful we really are and I am not USA beating, apparently we down here are just as full of Schitt because the same thing done using OZ as the base only adds a couple of months to the totals above.


#22

D

deriter

Hmmm, Bert, does that mean their butts are not as clean as ours here in the usa? Not that I really care if they are not. ;-)

Now getting back to the no change oil, if you ever look at the oil after a season of mowing, I don't see how you could ever think that it is ok to ignore that. I cannot imagine what the oil could look like in 3 or 4 years of no change. I just wonder how many think or believe that no change oil works.


#23

Boudreaux In Eunice La.

Boudreaux In Eunice La.

Not by choice, by Federal Mandate. Still have a 3406 E in my Barnyard Buick doublebunk with a 13 double over on 355's. Great engine. Expensive to work on but a great engine anyway.

Getting back to the Briggs. I think B&S banks on the fact that the engine will go 5 years (warranty) before it pukes anyway and post warranty they bear no responsibility.

I had the 3406 B in my truck with a 13 over and 370's ..... I got it to 105 one time then backed down .... You got some get to the house gears on yours LOL..........

We call the 3406 B the 3 million mile engine down here............

Plus Tard Mon Ami ~!~!


#24

Boudreaux In Eunice La.

Boudreaux In Eunice La.

You can change the oil in the no oil change engines just like the normal engines.

Yes correct.... A person will have to tilt the mower over to empty the oil like on a Honda engine..........

Plus Tard Mon Ami ~!~!


#25

Boobala

Boobala

AWWwww Cmon guys, if ya'll think oil is expensive enough to NOT change annually, then go price a set of OEM Ink-Jet Printer ink cartridges, and compare the cost per ounce ... better be close to the crapper because you WILL schitt !! .. :mur:


#26

B

bertsmobile1

AWWwww Cmon guys, if ya'll think oil is expensive enough to NOT change annually, then go price a set of OEM Ink-Jet Printer ink cartridges, and compare the cost per ounce ... better be close to the crapper because you WILL schitt !! .. :mur:

Another case of people being robbed by their own ignorance & cheapness.
Laser printers cost more up front so cheapskates buy bubble jets then pay through the nose for ink, most of which gets used up in the self cleaning because most do not print enough to keep the jets clear.

Another case of
"He who buys cheap pays thrice"


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