(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

New JD with Briggs

R

Russ from MN

Well-known Member
Location
Bemidji MN
Yesterday we got a new JD zero-turn with a Briggs engine, and I had the dealer bring some oil for it. On our Husqvarna with a Kawasaki 30 wt was recommended, so that is what I asked for. Last night I was reading the new owners manual and nowhere does it recommend 30 wt, only multi-viscosity. Any thoughts? Thanks!
 
Hope you have better luck with your Briggs than mine. I am stuck with a gator on its second engine and the dealer can not get it to run right.
 
I know that for both gators I get JD turf guard for them - it's 10-30. I was always under the same impression as you and run 30 wt in all other little engines. The older engines they say multi-vis will cause them to use more oil.
 
It might not mean much since my JD 111 is probably 25 years old but I have always run 10w-30 oil in the 11 hp Briggs engine. As far as I know the engine is still original and burns a little oil but not excessive. It has cut a lot of grass.
 
I've always used 10w40 in all my air cooled engines. Never an issue. I did try 10w30 full synthetic in air cooled. Not really impressed. I think the full synthetic isn't what it's cracked up to be. Mine started using oil earlier than 10w40 regular, which is somewhere around 60 hrs. My Kawasaki 4010 mule recommends 10w40 motorcycle oil, it's water cooled. I don't see what the big deal is. I change it every 100 hrs. Only 350 hrs on it. geo.
 
I would use nothing but multi weight synthetic oil in your Briggs or any other air cooled engine without an oil cooler. They run very hot, really too hot for conventional mineral oil. I have used nothing but Mobil 1 multi weight synthetic in all my air cooled engines from 3-20 HP . No engine problems and oil use is near 0, and they start easier with the thin oil.

Click on the link below to go to the B&S oil recommendation page, as you see, a multi weight synthetic is the only oil they recommend for all loads at any temperature
Briggs oil chart
 
I'm always amazed to see this sort of question; how can I save 35 cents on a quart of oil and risk damage to a thousands of dollars machine? Go with what the manufacturer says. I asked the manager of our public works department once, and he just looked at me, and that's what he said. The manufacturer knows best.
 
Big thing with these small engines is that the ones I have dealth with, the ones without oil filters, 25 hours is the life expectancy of oils. This can go quick on little engines running for long periods (like generators & pumps).

Pete
 
(quoted from post at 10:41:04 06/15/16) I would use nothing but multi weight synthetic oil in your Briggs or any other air cooled engine without an oil cooler. They run very hot, really too hot for conventional mineral oil. I have used nothing but Mobil 1 multi weight synthetic in all my air cooled engines from 3-20 HP . No engine problems and oil use is near 0, and they start easier with the thin oil.

Click on the link below to go to the B&S oil recommendation page, as you see, a multi weight synthetic is the only oil they recommend for all loads at any temperature
Briggs oil chart
Click to expand...


Strange.According to that chart, I've been using the wrong viscosity oil in my 4 year old B&S powered lawn tractor/mower.I'm using 10W40,non syn. per the owner's manual for temp.conditions.Mineral(non syn.)is acceptable in almost any engine provided it's of the proper viscosity and changed at the proper interval.
 
I just repowered a couple of conventional mowing machines running around 8-900 hours of hard mowing. ebay had B/S 656 cc V twins in the 18-20 hp range for $5-600 new with free shipping. Nice engines, replacements for Kohler Courage 20 single and Command 17.5 single; much much smoother running and powerful.

Currently running around 50 hours on them and was running them hard last week. So I thought I'd whip out the HF non-contact infrared thermometer gun and have a look see as to how a non-broken-in engine of today's design was holding up to some serious stress. Immediately after hard runs of an hour or so, in high, thick grass on very hilly terrain, I drove each in turn in the shop and measured several points. Highest reading was 187F near the bottom of the crankcase on one, the other didn't get that hot. Will admit the crankshaft fan runs a lot of air but I had no idea a new engine could do that kind of work and stay that cool. The heads and cylinders were around 130....plenty of air on them. Exhaust pipes-mufflers were 5-600F.

So, my feeling that air cooled engines run hotter and need syn. oil to help in preventing pre-mature breakdowns due to excessive heat just flew out the window......but I'll keep using it anyway in 10-30 viscosity.
 
Put in it what they recommend. Engine oil these days is an important part of engine design as the materials they are built out of are very different from years gone by. Machining tolerances are very different too. The wrong oil today can be detrimental to engine life where 30 years ago not so much.

Greg
 

Texasmark1,my experience regarding operating temp.is the same as yours.I checked the temp on another piece of equipment and got very close to the same readings as you did.I was always suspect of reports of high operating temps of air cooled engines. Maybe many are running hot but none of mine are.
 

I was very surprised. Seems I have been going by the wrong impression for who knows how long. B/S and other mfgrs. possibly have improved their cooling without our knowing/paying attention to it. Anyway, I'm happy about it.
 

Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
 
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
 
(quoted from post at 04:16:46 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
Click to expand...

Based on their criteria as to what they want for results. So you have to ask yourself what is their criteria? Well if you are a stock holder or employee, or director, seems things that will keep the money flowing, whatever that is.
 
(quoted from post at 10:29:47 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 04:16:46 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
Click to expand...

Based on their criteria as to what they want for results. So you have to ask yourself what is their criteria? Well if you are a stock holder or employee, or director, seems things that will keep the money flowing, whatever that is.
Click to expand...

Get that silly conspiracy theory out of your head. Briggs recommending erroneous service data would land them in court and in a lawsuit.
 
(quoted from post at 00:16:01 06/19/16)
(quoted from post at 10:29:47 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 04:16:46 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
Click to expand...

Based on their criteria as to what they want for results. So you have to ask yourself what is their criteria? Well if you are a stock holder or employee, or director, seems things that will keep the money flowing, whatever that is.
Click to expand...

Get that silly conspiracy theory out of your head. Briggs recommending erroneous service data would land them in court and in a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

Baloney. How many years has synthetic oil been out and just now is starting to show up in OEM owner's manuals as the preferred all temp oil......for a case in point. How many years did GM have a nylon/aluminum cam drive gear on their V8 engines that just happened to break around 85k miles and bury a valve in a piston for a case in point.......
 
(quoted from post at 23:50:17 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 00:16:01 06/19/16)
(quoted from post at 10:29:47 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 04:16:46 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
Click to expand...

Based on their criteria as to what they want for results. So you have to ask yourself what is their criteria? Well if you are a stock holder or employee, or director, seems things that will keep the money flowing, whatever that is.
Click to expand...

Get that silly conspiracy theory out of your head. Briggs recommending erroneous service data would land them in court and in a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

Baloney. How many years has synthetic oil been out and just now is starting to show up in OEM owner's manuals as the preferred all temp oil......for a case in point. How many years did GM have a nylon/aluminum cam drive gear on their V8 engines that just happened to break around 85k miles and bury a valve in a piston for a case in point.......
Click to expand...

Parts breaking due to inferior design is not instructing the operator to perform substandard service .
 
(quoted from post at 19:28:50 06/19/16)
(quoted from post at 23:50:17 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 00:16:01 06/19/16)
(quoted from post at 10:29:47 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 04:16:46 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
Click to expand...

Based on their criteria as to what they want for results. So you have to ask yourself what is their criteria? Well if you are a stock holder or employee, or director, seems things that will keep the money flowing, whatever that is.
Click to expand...

Get that silly conspiracy theory out of your head. Briggs recommending erroneous service data would land them in court and in a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

Baloney. How many years has synthetic oil been out and just now is starting to show up in OEM owner's manuals as the preferred all temp oil......for a case in point. How many years did GM have a nylon/aluminum cam drive gear on their V8 engines that just happened to break around 85k miles and bury a valve in a piston for a case in point.......
Click to expand...

Parts breaking due to inferior design is not instructing the operator to perform substandard service .
Click to expand...

Now you have moved off your original quipe: Law suit due to company liable.
 
(quoted from post at 08:37:30 06/20/16)
(quoted from post at 19:28:50 06/19/16)
(quoted from post at 23:50:17 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 00:16:01 06/19/16)
(quoted from post at 10:29:47 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 04:16:46 06/18/16)
(quoted from post at 19:43:22 06/17/16)
Probably because Bubba is right here and the OEM's have their design/test criteria buried somewhere and who knows the circumstances and desired outcomes of the testing, including who knows what idiot is writing the tech manual. Additionally, Bubba is real world. OEM testing may not be.

Case in point: Bought a Generac household generator a few years back. Reason was Generac is named for the function, designed and manufactured the V twin running mine...made for the function, not somebody's grab an engine and stuff it, have sold over 1 Million units of the sort and on and on. The owner's manual said to use 30 wt. HD oil. That's it.

Well it happened to be February when I installed it and I don't put 30 wt. in any of my equipment, especially in the winter.

So I dumped in my 0w-30 Mobil 1 and flipped them the audios. That's interesting too as they test run their engines before they ship them for a pretty good length of time to break them in for you. Been over 2 years and still haven't had to add oil.
Click to expand...

How is that an unbiased quantitative test ?
Click to expand...

Based on their criteria as to what they want for results. So you have to ask yourself what is their criteria? Well if you are a stock holder or employee, or director, seems things that will keep the money flowing, whatever that is.
Click to expand...

Get that silly conspiracy theory out of your head. Briggs recommending erroneous service data would land them in court and in a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

Baloney. How many years has synthetic oil been out and just now is starting to show up in OEM owner's manuals as the preferred all temp oil......for a case in point. How many years did GM have a nylon/aluminum cam drive gear on their V8 engines that just happened to break around 85k miles and bury a valve in a piston for a case in point.......
Click to expand...

Parts breaking due to inferior design is not instructing the operator to perform substandard service .
Click to expand...

Now you have moved off your original quipe: Law suit due to company liable.
Click to expand...

It was you that came up with a conspiracy theory while the topic of proper motor oil viscosity was being discussed.
 

I've run 30wt oil in my old Wards garden tractor and my rotary
mowers for years. If it's extremely cold I use a dip stick heater
on the tractor.

Hal
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

I
more JD 2020 questions
Replies
14
Views
915
BillCinNY
B
S
Water in my Hydrolic fluid
2
Replies
24
Views
819
Tx Jim
Tx Jim
M
New-to-me JD-A and JD-B Repair Tips
Replies
13
Views
847
Fixingfarmer
Fixingfarmer
D
You have a new JD convert. I'm gonna need some on-going advice
2 3
Replies
41
Views
2K
Poppy Johnny
Poppy Johnny
N
Weekend hay, JD is price gouging
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
RodinNS
R
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top