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Chugbug

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I'm going to do my 10 oil change. My dealer said they put 10 - 40 in all their ZTs....anyone have a thought on that, what oil do you use. Again sorry for all questions, just wanna get it right.
 

bertsmobile1

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We need to know what engine you have in it and what the PEAK day temperature is and the MINIMUM temperature you will be attempting to start it at.
FWIW I Put SAE 30 Mower oil ( generic ) in everything except Honda push mowers & trimmers which get 10W40 generic mower oil.
My customer are running their engines in air temps between 20C & 40C
AFAIK there are no jetted oil ways in your engine so all you are worried about is keeping a minimum oil film .
Mower engines are very basic.
Put Opti oil in there and they will double the manufacturers warranty period that is how little viscosities really mean to a domestic mower.
In reality there is very little difference 10W 30 to 10W 40
However there is a massive difference 10W 30 to strait 30 or 10W 40 to 20W 40.
What is far more important in a 10 Hr service is to buy a pair of new rocker cover gaskets and check the valve lash followed by pulling the blower housing and checking the cooling fins are clean.
People with no idea about what they are dong obsess about oil grades as if they were the be all and end all of mower maintainance when in reality they mean SFA to a domestic mower engine.
Every season I repair or replace engines with severe damage due it poor cooling. I am yet to rebuild an engine because the owner used the wrong grade of oil.
Too little oil, daily repairs, too much oil almost as often, wrong grades , never.
Now if you want to be anal about it use nothing but the engine makers branded oil & branded oil filters and branded air filters.
but even having done that, come in with an overheated damaged engine and you will be told to "suck eggs ".
 

Chugbug

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Thanks for the response valve lash is a little above my pay grade but the oil cooling fins are blown out after every mowing as is the whole machine and under the deck is cleaned as well. The engine is a 32hp vanguard big block, I went with factory filters and HD30 Castrol. The reason I was asking about oil is my dealer recommended 10-40, knowing there is not a huge difference between that and 10-30.... Not sure why, called several other dealers and got a wide variety of different oil weights up to and including synthetic. All fluid levels are checked before every use as well as tire pressures.
 

bertsmobile1

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Thanks for the response valve lash is a little above my pay grade but the oil cooling fins are blown out after every mowing as is the whole machine and under the deck is cleaned as well. The engine is a 32hp vanguard big block, I went with factory filters and HD30 Castrol. The reason I was asking about oil is my dealer recommended 10-40, knowing there is not a huge difference between that and 10-30.... Not sure why, called several other dealers and got a wide variety of different oil weights up to and including synthetic. All fluid levels are checked before every use as well as tire pressures.

Oil is sold on volume basis.
The more I buy the less it costs
I get my mower oil in 44 gallon drums @ $ 500 to $ 900 a drum
Thus I only keep 2 grades
SAE 30 & SAE 10W 40
Same with bottled oil
Buy 10 bottles = full price
buy 100 bottles = 1/2 price
Thus you tend to recommend what you have a lot of in stock.

Mower engines are cheap so they are simple and will happily run with a wide range of oil grades without any problems
About 20% of mechanics actually understand oil .
About 0.5% of the general public actually understand engine oils.
Thus a lot of total BS gets spread about by advertising agencies to make you believe one oil is substantially better than another.
The rule of thumb is the more something is advertised the less value it is.
If there was a "magic" oil out there then professionals would use it.
Just because something works better in F1 race cars does not make it better for your mower.
Now the big problem is the "armchair experts" go & use some super dooper oil that claims it will work for 10,000 hours and actually expect that they will never have to change it cause they never will do 10,000 hours on their mower ( invented number )
Thus they run on dirty contaminated oil and end up buggering their mower.
Even worse is because this "super oil" is 10 x the price of Walmart oil they expect it to last 10 x as long.
For most average home owners, (about 50 hours mowing a year ) a single oil change every years at the end of the season will keep their mower running fine.
 

Chugbug

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Thanks for the response valve lash is a little above my pay grade but the oil cooling fins are blown out after every mowing as is the whole machine and under the deck is cleaned as well. The engine is a 32hp vanguard big block, I went with factory filters and HD30 Castrol. The reason I was asking about oil is my dealer recommended 10-40, knowing there is not a huge difference between that and 10-30.... Not sure why, called several other dealers and got a wide variety of different oil weights up to and including synthetic. All fluid levels are checked before every use as well as tire pressures.
 

bertsmobile1

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Thanks for the response valve lash is a little above my pay grade but the oil cooling fins are blown out after every mowing as is the whole machine and under the deck is cleaned as well. The engine is a 32hp vanguard big block, I went with factory filters and HD30 Castrol. The reason I was asking about oil is my dealer recommended 10-40, knowing there is not a huge difference between that and 10-30.... Not sure why, called several other dealers and got a wide variety of different oil weights up to and including synthetic. All fluid levels are checked before every use as well as tire pressures.

In that case take it to a dealer for the 10 hr service so if they don't do it properly you have a warranty claim.
Valve lash is dead simple there are a thousand you tube videos showing you how to do it.
Also important to check the head bolts & rocker pivot bolts for tightness as these will some times come loose.
The 4 mounting bolts for the engine to mower also need to be checked, + pulleys levers etc.
 
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