Molasses for oil

H

hrdman2luv

Well-Known Member
I picked up a little Huskie push mower the other day. Not sure of the model number. But for this, I don't think it's important. When I pulled the dip stick, there was some nasty, hard molasses type stuff on the end of it. So, I pulled the drain plug, and almost nothing that resembled oil came out. I added some oil used oil, that had some gas in it, and let it set for an hour or so. Then drained pulled the drain plug again. Still almost nothing come out, until I stuck the hole with a short nail.

Can someone give me an idea on what to use to loosen this up? Straight gas? Fresh oil changes (a lot of them)

Note: I added some new oil to it, cranked it, and let it run for about 10 minutes. Drained it out. Still lots of that stuff in there.
 
With the modern lubricants this is something I haven't seen in years now. Back in the pass (my younger years) we would make a mix of kerosene and oil and run the engine till warm and drain it then refill with fresh oil.
 
That's probably the original fill of oil and possibly non-detergent to boot.

I, too, have used kerosene in the crankcase to rinse out dirty engines. That used to be a common practice but now an unneeded one with today's detergent oils.

There's no substitute for a tear-down and manual cleaning and that's really the only way to be sure you got it all. Short of that, it may be better to let sleeping dogs lie, depending upon the value of the mower and your time.
 
That's probably the original fill of oil and possibly non-detergent to boot.

I, too, have used kerosene in the crankcase to rinse out dirty engines. That used to be a common practice but now an unneeded one with today's detergent oils.

There's no substitute for a tear-down and manual cleaning and that's really the only way to be sure you got it all. Short of that, it may be better to let sleeping dogs lie, depending on the value of the mower and your time.
 
IIRC, All of this happened last week. When I parked it, I didn't drain the oil out. So, I'm gonna drain it again today and see how it looks. I hope it's a lot better. Because I found a used gas tank for it. (new ones are like $55). This is a clean machine. Lots of bells and whistles. The resale should be at least $100.
 
reynoldston said:
So you parked the mower one week and the oil got like molasses??? Something doesn't sound right here. Maybe someone doesn't like you and did a bad deed to you??
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LoL. No, I parked after doing all I described. I'm gonna take a look see at it later today to see if the other oil I put in it has loosened it up.
 
I'm thinking that acetone might be an effective solvent. Fill the crankcase and let it soak, with a few slow pulls on the starter rope from time to time (spark plug disconnected, of course). Tip the machine as far as you can in all directions and let it sit for a couple of days. If that doesn't dissolve the gunk, it's probably not worth messing with any further.
 
Mr. Ed said:
I'm thinking that acetone might be an effective solvent. Fill the crankcase and let it soak, with a few slow pulls on the starter rope from time to time (spark plug disconnected, of course). Tip the machine as far as you can in all directions and let it sit for a couple of days. If that doesn't dissolve the gunk, it's probably not worth messing with any further.
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If there's anything plastic in that engine, acetone will attack it.
 
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