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The manual doesnt say anything about brand of oil to use but does recommend changing it at 8 hrs. (new machine). So....which Brand and weight oil are you guys running in your Kawasaki motors? BTW, mine is the FX730V motor.

I have moved your thread to General Mower Discussion.

jmurray01 said:

I have moved your thread to General Mower Discussion.

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Thanks:wink:

Homeowner here. I look forward to reading future posts on this subject. I recently purchased a Scag Cheetah (6'1", 31 Kawasaki). Scag's manual as well, only indicates oil weights, and not brands.

The manual also mentions "10w30 may allow the unit to consume more oil". SO, like many others, I'm very curious to see which brands of oil may serve me best....

In addition to the OP's question.

"DO YOU USE 10w30 OILS"...??? Do you know of someone who's mower is consuming oil.


:biggrin: :biggrin:

10w 30 sometimes 10w 40 currently because I got it on sale I use valvoleen high milage 10w30. But have had good luck with all brands of oils including store brands.

Use recommend type and change regular any will be fine

I run royal purple and pinzoil :thumbsup:

About everything I have from the stringtrimmer to my truck runs on Sopus stuff the last few years and I have no complaints. I do run a little Mobil and have always liked it. Over the years I have ran a bunch of different brands and all of them were just fine. I would doubt the brand will make you any difference. I would run the weight and grade the book calls for as long as the engine is under warranty. Then if you want to run something different that would be the time to try. KennyV likes the HDEO synthetics in his stuff. Ric likes the Mobil 5000.

gabowman said:

The manual doesnt say anything about brand of oil to use but does recommend changing it at 8 hrs. (new machine). So....which Brand and weight oil are you guys running in your Kawasaki motors? BTW, mine is the FX730V motor.

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I run jhon Deere oil all my stuff including my Kawi

Lohman mows lawns said:

I run jhon Deere oil all my stuff including my Kawi

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Why pay extra money just because it says John Deere ?

I been running the same oil for years but did just switch from a wix filters to K&N

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

Per chance have you read the oil recommendations in the Kawasaki owners manual?
Any quality engine oil SF or later as in SG, SH, SJ, SL------on.
SAE 30 is the best for outside temp ranges 32-95 degrees.
I personally prefer Valvoline products and they are readily available in my area.
75 hours on my new Hustler X-ONE and no oil consumption noticed on the Kawi FX730V, sweet running engine!!!
I strongly recommend using Kawi engine oil filters!!
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

Mad Mackie said:

Per chance have you read the oil recommendations in the Kawasaki owners manual?
Any quality engine oil SF or later as in SG, SH, SJ, SL------on.
SAE 30 is the best for outside temp ranges 32-95 degrees.
I personally prefer Valvoline products and they are readily available in my area.
75 hours on my new Hustler X-ONE and no oil consumption noticed on the Kawi FX730V, sweet running engine!!!
I strongly recommend using Kawi engine oil filters!!
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

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I use Kawasaki oil in my Honda engines. :thumbsup:

lawn mower fanatic said:

I use Kawasaki oil in my Honda engines. :thumbsup:

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Very interesting to here you say that any reason why or person preference??? :tongue:

K-Pro-Mowing said:

Very interesting to here you say that any reason why or person preference??? :tongue:

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Kawasaki Motor Cycle oil?

K-Pro-Mowing said:

Very interesting to here you say that any reason why or person preference??? :tongue:

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It was actually because the dealer that I prefer sells mowers with Kawasaki engines primarily and not Honda engines so that's all they had. But I just had to get new blades for my Honda so I also got some OEM Honda oil when I was there. Honda oil in Honda engines is better! :laughing:

Ohh I just talk to my echo dealer he is ordering royal purple oil so now I can buy it from him instead of buying it from amazon :thumbsup:

K-Pro-Mowing said:

Ohh I just talk to my echo dealer he is ordering royal purple oil so now I can buy it from him instead of buying it from amazon :thumbsup:

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Nice! :thumbsup:

What are the differences in brands? Different detergents? Post number 666 woot

exotion said:

What are the differences in brands? Different detergents? Post number 666 woot

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some is quality, some are crap, an most of all personal preference :laughing:

Hi LMF,
I've never seen Kawasaki 30, or 10W30, just motorcycle oil.
Mad Mackie in CT

Mad Mackie said:

Hi LMF,
I've never seen Kawasaki 30, or 10W30, just motorcycle oil.
Mad Mackie in CT

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What do you use in your ZTR's?

Usually Valvoline 30, sometimes Wolfs Head 30 and NAPA 20W-50 in the hydraulic systems as they stock it.
I'm probably going to change the Scag/Briggs to 5W-30 synthetic soon, but not sure!!
Mad Mackie in CT

K-Pro-Mowing said:

some is quality, some are crap, an most of all personal preference :laughing:

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This does not answer my question. What makes the crappy ones crappy? And the quality good? Different ingredients? The viscosity? The source?

Mainly what put is them when it come to them being crappy or them being good

All multi viscosity dino oils start out at the lower rating. Additives are what makes it multi viscosity. Not all additives are the same and vary widely in quality and cost which is reflected in the price that the consumer pays. Additives are also used in single viscosity oils and the same applies.
I stay away from store brands but I don't have any real basis for this. In a pinch I bought some Walmart 30 and it was a substandard product in my opinion although rated at SM per the label.
I don't use any Quaker State products, years back I had problems with QS and still haven't got over it!!!! HaHa!!!
Mad Mackie in CT

When I mowed commercially with two Onan powered Ingersoll GTs, I used Shell Rotella 15W40 in summer and Valvoline 5W30 in winter as I did snow removal. But now I don't have anything that can use Rotella 15W40, and everything except the Hustler can use 5W30 synthetic or 30 dino oil, so 30 Valvoline is what is in stock here at Mad Mackie's shop!!

I don't care much for the newer models of Briggs and Stratton engines(especially the Inteks), but I decided to use Briggs & Stratton SAE30 oil in my new Gravely that has the Kawasaki FX690V engine(I even asked the Gravely mechanic at my dealer and he gave me his blessing...and said that it definitely would not affect my engine warranty). Why B & S oil do you ask??? Well, my first lawn tractor a Lawn Chief from True Value with a 16hp B & S Vanguard got me in the habit(I used B & S oil and filters because they were readily available and not expensive...plus they were the same brand as the engine so I figured they would be fine). Well 20 years later that engine still ran like the day I brought it home and didn't use a drop of oil between seasonal changes!!!! My son retired the mower(deck falling to pieces, but engine still like new) and I gave him my 2006 Craftsman YS4500 that I bought when I gave my son the Lawn Chief in 2006. The Craftsman had a 24hp B & S Intek(I don't want to talk about the comparison of this engine to the Vanguard:0) Also used B & S SAE 30 in it for 7 years before buying my Gravely last fall and that engine also did not use a drop of oil between seasonal changes(that's about the only good thing I can say about the Intek engines:0)
Well......I think I answered your question about why I would use Briggs & Stratton SAE 30 oil in my brand new Kawasaki Commercial engine now didn't I???

Kawasaki does have their own small engine oil, but I've never seen it at any of the dealers that I frequent. I have no problem with Briggs engine oil other than the price which is $8.69/quart at local dealers and Walmart doesn't stock it any more and they were a little less expensive.
Lot of difference between Vanguards and Inteks/ELS engines. I repowered my Scag Tiger Cub this spring from a failing Briggs ELS to Commercial Turf Series and time will tell if it has more life than the Intek/ELS series engines. My Hustler has a Kawi FX730V and I had considered buying one of these engines to repower with but the cost to repower with the Kawi was $2,300 and the Briggs was $845 as I could use the same muffler, controls and battery cables from the ELS engine.
I'm going to check on line if I can buy case lots of the Briggs 30 engine oil, otherwise it will be Valvoline 30.
Mad Mackie in CT

Honestly I don't really think it matters as long as you follow the viscosity rating and change it regularly.

I run Quakerstate Synthetic 10w-30 in my Honda mower, its reasonably priced and I change often.

shurguywutt said:

Honestly I don't really think it matters as long as you follow the viscosity rating and change it regularly.

I run Quakerstate Synthetic 10w-30 in my Honda mower, its reasonably priced and I change often.

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How true, I will take clean (whatever the least liked brand of oil is) Vs dirty and worn out (whatever is the most favored brand is) oil any day of the week.
Willing to bet that quite a few brands of oil are made in the same refinery and just bottled with whatever brand the customer is asking for. Not so with the major ones like Valvoline or Quaker State but I am pretty sure that B&S or John Deere do not have their own oil divisions :smile:

I also use Quaker state Synthetic.

Homeowner here,

For years I have operated all my vehicles ('00 Toyota Tacoma, '00 Avalon, '05 Yamaha Royal Star, '05 Gold Wing trike), and the mower ('98 John Deere 345) on Shell Rotella T Synthetic. In the Kubota L2900 I use the diesel version of Rotella. No oil issues what so ever.

So... I'm wondering how Rotella oil would work in the brand new Scag Cheetah Kawasaki FX921V (31 hp).

Until I'm sure that Rotella is fine, I picked up 4 quarts of Castrol 10w30 for it's first 50 hours or so.....

I know the Kawasaki manual indicates 10w30 and such oil may promote oil consumption (listing 100 hours between oil changes), and 30w is best to avoid this issue. But, I'm about to do my third cut of 3.5 acres, and it takes me under two hours for each of the first two cuts. I expect to see about 30-35 hours per cutting season.

In changing the oil every cutting season, I don't feel that I will see any oil consumption, unlike using multi weighted oils for 100 hour oil changes...!!!

Any thought....???

My mower and snowblower both run G-Oil 10w-30 bio synthetic. Mower gets changed once a year, blower every other year.

Today I checked every brand of oil that Walmart carries (including the synthetics) looking at the API rating and the ONLY brand of oil that fit the catagory was Rotella oil, and that is recommended for deisel motors. So, after that, I went to the lawn mower dealership where I bought my Hustler and picked up two qts of Kawasaki brand SAE 30 weight oil. EVERYTHING in walmart was "SN"....which isnt in the list of the preferred API ratings.

gabowman said:

So, after that, I went to the lawn mower dealership where I bought my Hustler and picked up two qts of Kawasaki brand SAE 30 weight oil. EVERYTHING in walmart was "SN"....which isnt in the list of the preferred API ratings.

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Your lawnmower shop sells magazines? Cool.

DonCT said:

Your lawnmower shop sells magazines? Cool.

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lol took me a second

I run Rotila in all my mowers, I've never had an issue. I've been doing it for a few years, i was just tired of buying one kind of oil for the trucks 15 qts per truck and another for the mowers. So i just buy it by the 5 gal bucket, and use it for both.

Mad Mackie said:

Hi LMF,
I've never seen Kawasaki 30, or 10W30, just motorcycle oil.
Mad Mackie in CT

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Here's a link...Kawasaki indeed recommends their 4-cycle oil for their mower engines:

K-Tech

Mad Mackie said:

Kawasaki does have their own small engine oil, but I've never seen it at any of the dealers that I frequent. I have no problem with Briggs engine oil other than the price which is $8.69/quart at local dealers and Walmart doesn't stock it any more and they were a little less expensive.
Lot of difference between Vanguards and Inteks/ELS engines. I repowered my Scag Tiger Cub this spring from a failing Briggs ELS to Commercial Turf Series and time will tell if it has more life than the Intek/ELS series engines. My Hustler has a Kawi FX730V and I had considered buying one of these engines to repower with but the cost to repower with the Kawi was $2,300 and the Briggs was $845 as I could use the same muffler, controls and battery cables from the ELS engine.
I'm going to check on line if I can buy case lots of the Briggs 30 engine oil, otherwise it will be Valvoline 30.
Mad Mackie in CT

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Oops...saw where Mad Mackie noted later he knew Kawasaki had 4-cycle oil....but, the B & S SAE30 I use can be purchased at Lowes for $7.68 for a 48 ounce container. I still consider that reasonably priced oil. Did you ever find out if it could be gotten cheaper online by the case??????

I'm using Chevron Delo 15w-40 in the 7hp Intek on my newer snapper and Pennzoil SAE40 in the 3.5hp Briggs on my old snapper. The 3.5hp has been getting a lot of aluminum particals after only 4 or 5 hrs of run time and I've been changing it pretty frequently all summer to see if maybe it was neglected before I bought it and it might clear up once I changed oil a few times and cleaned it out, or if it was an issue with the rod or piston. Hasn't really cleared up, so I'm assuming its the worst. I'll hopefully get a chance to pull it apart this coming winter or spring and see for sure whats going on.

Rotella T6 5W40 full syn in all my 4 strokes including my truck. the 2 strokes get echo red armor oil at 50:1

The Kohler manual specifies 10W30 or 30W for my climate and says that synthetic is okay. Since I have an air cooled version, I use synthetic 10W30 to provide better lubrication if the oil temperature gets high. It's only two quarts and even at $6 or so a quart, oil is CHEAP compared to a new Kohler Command Pro at over $2,000.

My $0.02,
Larry

Just changed over to T-6 Rotella 5w-40 it has the Jaso rating. Autozone has a deal on the 5 gallon buckets at @104.00 plus a $25.00 rebate on this makes it a great deal. Limit 2 rebates which I took advantage of since my truck has the Cummings diesel and my JD 1020D tractor will also love this oil. Don't think it will be too heavy for the Kawasaki which calls for 10w-30.

I use the Amsoil SAE 30/10w-30 commercial grade in my personal equipment. The equipment I fix to resell gets the HD 30 Super Tech thats sold at Walmart.

Did anyone take advantage of the Mobil One Synthetic Oil sale at your NAPA Auto Parts Store.

For the month of September they had Mobil One Synthetic 10w30 at $5.98 a quart. I purchased two cases. That should carry me over for a while...



:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Boudreaux said:

Did anyone take advantage of the Mobil One Synthetic Oil sale at your NAPA Auto Parts Store.

For the month of September they had Mobil One Synthetic 10w30 at $5.98 a quart. I purchased two cases. That should carry me over for a while...



:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

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I did... they only had a case left which I bought. Advance Auto parts often has good deals on 5qts. of Mobil 1 and a Mobil 1 filter for around $36 bucks which is a great price. on synthetic oil. I switched everything I own to a Mobil 1 synthetic.

I don't think it matters a lot which oil you use.. comes down to preference - Just keep it clean and use the right oil grade per your owners manual. Though I do know there is a difference between the synthetics and the non-synthetic oils.

I change oil every 50hrs. and run synthetics - cars every 6k.

Right now there is a mixture of 2000-2003 vintage Mobil 1 5w30 in the push mower and snowblower. That will get changed out at the end of the mowing season for Pennzoil Ultra 5w30.

The Pressure Washer has Quaker State Advanced Durability 10w30.
The Generator has Pennzoil Ultra 5w30.
The lawn tractor has the factory fill, probably HD30 and a little Quaker State 10w30. At the end of the season it will get Pennzoil Ultra 5w30.

I'm slowly moving to synthetics for the lawn equipment. Mainly because I want the better cleaning and lubricating properties in the heat. I do change everything once or twice a season depending on the hours. And the $35 to do it all is worth the piece of mind to use good oil.

I run 30w from kawi in all of mine now :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

My lawnboy has Valvoline Maxlife 10w40 in it, my 78 snapper has Pennzoil sae40 in it, my 05 snapper has Chevron Delo 15w-40 in it, and the old coleman generator my father in law gave me has a what ever I had sitting around in it, I think its a mix of castrol gtx 5w30, quaker state 5w30 synthetic, and a little bit of the left over Maxlife from the lawn boy. I think next year I'm getting a gallon jug of Chevorn Delo 5w-40 for everything since walmart started selling it.

gabowman said:

The manual doesnt say anything about brand of oil to use but does recommend changing it at 8 hrs. (new machine). So....which Brand and weight oil are you guys running in your Kawasaki motors? BTW, mine is the FX730V motor.

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I run SAE 30 a shot of Lucas oil treatment and K&N filters ...Works great i use it in all my customers EQ as well

In all of my OHV's I use Kohler 10W30. All the flat heads get 30W off brand 4 cycle oil from Lowes.

Almost everything is on mobile one......extended life in a few. I also use Mobile one filters except my kawasaki which has kawasaki filters. My turbo car runs mobile one ... My generator is on M1 too. Pressure washer , Snow Blower, Rototiller - M1 , my diesel tractor is on Rotella.

I NEVER switch brands once they are broken in and on synthetics. I have changed filters. My two strokes get Royal Purple Syn. 91 octane. My diesel tractors fuel is also on additives. No winter issues....no gelling , runs like a bear. Mitsu 27hp.
Winter shut down I drain gas or use fuel stabilizer. I prefer the drain method. Especially with crappy ethanol.

Mad Mackie said:

Per chance have you read the oil recommendations in the Kawasaki owners manual?
Any quality engine oil SF or later as in SG, SH, SJ, SL------on.
SAE 30 is the best for outside temp ranges 32-95 degrees.
I personally prefer Valvoline products and they are readily available in my area.
75 hours on my new Hustler X-ONE and no oil consumption noticed on the Kawi FX730V, sweet running engine!!!
I strongly recommend using Kawi engine oil filters!!
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

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I have checked all of the engine oils for standard vehicles in my local Walmart and nothing meets the standard requirement you have stated (and my manual states) that meets the API ratings. I should mention that everything in my local store is multi weight oils. Looks like I will have to drive the 45 miles to buy a few quarts of Kawasaki 30 wt oil.

In season when the mower is being used a lot it matters not a rinkled rats rectum what oil you run.
Air cooled mower or motorcycle oil would be better but almost any oil will be fine.

It is when you bed it down for winter that the extra moisture protection & corrocion inhibitors found in specialist mower oils becomes important.
Brand is unimportant to your mower it can not see the can so put in whatever makes you feel good, just chane it before you put the mower away, not just before the season starts.
By then any damage that is going to happen has happened.

I use Rotella t-6 5w-40 synthetic in my zero turn, push mowers, pressure washer, generator, diesel tractor, atv and motorcycle.

Oils aint oils and that goes for all oils, crude oil included.
Cheap oils are built up on cheap crude ( or splits from cheap crude or bad splits from good crude ).
This stuff which would normally become waste & go on for further reprocessing into fertiliser gets diveted to make cheap oil.
Most of it have next to no natural lubrication, or so many impurities ( sulphur in particular ) that they are useless for most applications without a lot of expensive reprocessing.
So they get a lot of additives to bring them up to minimum permissible standards and sold to big box stores for house brand oil

gabowman said:

The manual doesn't say anything about brand of oil to use but does recommend changing it at 8 hrs. (new machine). So....which Brand and weight oil are you guys running in your Kawasaki motors? BTW, mine is the FX730V motor.

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I run the FX 651 and the FS 541 and run the Mobil Super 5000 10w30 in both and have for years, You don't need Kawasaki oil. Brand of oil doesn't really have anything to do with it. The manual will tell you OIL TYPE Detergent oil ( API service SF, SG, SH, SJ, SL or higher ) I actually wouldn't run the SF, SG, or SH because there obsolete for the newer engines according to the current ratings which are SL, SM or SN. Kawasaki like Kohler and the rest need to upgrade there manuals.

I use synthetic 10w30 in my two push mowers. One is a 2008 Poulan rear bagger with the 500 Series Briggs, and the other one is a 1992 Craftsman II with a 3.5hp Tecumseh it. The Tecumseh still fires up on the first pull with no smoking. The Poulan smokes a little at first, but it was beat on a little before I got it from my Brother-in-law. I use Rural King full synthetic oil now because I can get it for $2.79/qt there. I might try Royal Purple for the next change to see if there's any difference. L8R, Matt

I'm actually thinking about using synthetic in my Toro with kawi 180 it has a filter and so I only change the oil 3 times a year wonder if it'll pull a little extra power out of it

Mobil 1 Synthetic 10-30w from Walmart
Here in GA you can buy 5 qts for just over twenty bucks, I checked most places online and they had the best prices..

I have been reading some oil forums and while I never believed in synthetics on my 20 year old 10 hp Tecumseh, that I changed the oil once a year,, I used any quality 30w oil and it's still running fine.. With my new Intek my plan is to change in twice a year with synthetic.. I read most wear happens at startup and 10-30w helps lube better at starts..

I run the Rotella T6 5W40 full synthetic with good results. I used to run 10W30 conventional as specified by Kohler. It would consume oil and I would get significant smoking during heavy loading of the mower, especially in hot weather. Then I switched to the Rotella T6 based on some things I had read and I never add oil between changes and the smoke issue is no more. This says a lot to me about the oil's ability to handle stress and high heat in an air-cooled engine.

Conor

gabowman said:

The manual doesnt say anything about brand of oil to use but does recommend changing it at 8 hrs. (new machine). So....which Brand and weight oil are you guys running in your Kawasaki motors? BTW, mine is the FX730V motor.

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After a one year break-in with standard motor oil, I always use AMSoil, 100% synthetic in my Honda Lawnmower. Use only AMSoil products in my car, now at 240,000 miles.

MowerMark said:

After a one year break-in with standard motor oil, I always use AMSoil, 100% synthetic in my Honda Lawnmower. Use only AMSoil products in my car, now at 240,000 miles.

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I agree to run conventional during any break in period. It might be best to run a mower-specific oil at this time.

Conor

I have a kawi fx engine on my mower. I run royal purple sae 30 from april until the end of october. From nov until the end of march I run Mobil 1 10w 30.

wdrdoctor said:

I have a kawi fx engine on my mower. I run royal purple sae 30 from april until the end of october. From nov until the end of march I run Mobil 1 10w 30.

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I would have loved to be able to mow all year long. But this past winter, we were looking at temps hitting -13*! Not exactly mowing weather...

L8R,
Matt