break in hints?

Boit4852 said:

The owner's manual for my Kawasaki engine says to change the oil every 100 hours of use and filter every 200 hours. In my opinion, that is beyond insanely stupid! These engines are subjected to extreme duty with heat and dirty environment. If you want to follow Kawasaki's maintenance schedule, that's your choice. I would never want to buy a used machine from you. I don't want to be disrespectful, but to believe that a manufacturer is 100% correct 100% of the time defies logic. It that were true, there would never be recalls.

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bertsmobile1 said:

Try reading it again.
I says to change the oil every X hours and the filter every Y hours OR MORE OFTEN IF RUNNING IN VERY DUSTY CONDITIONS.
So 100 & 200 hours are the MAXIMUM oil change intervals, not the minimum intervals.
The intervals also change according to the size of the machine.
Push mowers usually have oil changes at 50 hour intervals, 50 hours being around an annual average mowing hours for places where it does not snow.
As for filters the only reason for replacing them is to prevent them going onto bypass.
Most could happily run a thousand hours being that many of them are identical to those used on car engines that do 9000 rpm and run a lot leaner than a mower ever will .

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cpurvis said:

Do as you see fit. I'm sure you're more qualified than the Kawasaki engineers who designed, built, tested the engine and wrote the manual.

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Boit4852 said:

There is this little thing called "designed obsolescence" which simply means that sheeple will follow the manufacturer's recommended schedule with no common sense questioning. 100 hours between oil changes and 200 hours between filter changes for an engine that is subjected to extremely dirty and hot use is beneficial only for the manufacturers. They sell more units when those units wear out prematurely! Here's a shocking concept. Change your oil/filter at 35 hour intervals and see how much longer your engine lasts vs 100oil/200filter hours intervals. Not only the oil and filter, but the air filter and clean under the air shroud often to make sure the air cooled engine performs at it's maximum and longevity.If I'm wrong, shoot me.

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chainsaw69 said:

changed oil and filter at 5 hours. the oil drain plug seems to be made of plastic and i'm afraid to tighten it too much as to strip it. hard to get to unless i remove the back engine guard. no big deal doing that but i wanted to see if i could drain the oil w/out removing it. so since i only tighten it to "stop", and then a hair more w/a small wrench, it drips a drop of oil occassionally. not a huge concern but wonder if others have run into this??
as for oil and filter change intervals, my opinion is that i would rather over change than under change. and since its my money and time, whether needed or not i'm gonna over change. doesn't mean i'm right, but it makes feel better about the machine.

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Boit4852 said:

Since when does a mower not operate in dusty conditions? As far as only changing the filter going into bypass, that's at the extreme end of it's service. Besides, why would you want to change only the oil only to have dirty oil in the filter being mixed in with fresh? A filter is cheap insurance for preventing excessive wear, in my opinion.I'll readily admit that I am persnickety about my expensive mower's maintenance.

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chainsaw69 said:

little hot stuff about 20 or so called me one day maybe 5 years ago from the next property down as her car wouldn't/turn over. i got there and the batt was dry. asked her why she isn't regularly checking the water level and the look on her face was priceless. total confusion. what? batterys have water in them are you SURE? i showed her the dry plates and she said WATER goes in there? i added water and jumped her (her battery) and she drove into town and got a totally enclosed battery. called me and said you were right! he said batterys DO have water.

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