Safe to store new engine with "Break-in" oil over the winter ?

slomo

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  • / Safe to store new engine with "Break-in" oil over the winter ?
Those 10 links remind me of the joke that was funny when I was four
" Eat poo because 50,000,000 flies cant all be wrong "
One of the big problems with the web is rubbish keeps on being repeated till it becomes fact.

A detergent molecule is one that is homophobic at one end & homophillic at the other
To put that in laymans terms,
One end will attach to anything that is not itself and the the other attaches to only to itself
The homophobic end has a stronger bond potential than the homophillic end
SO the detergent attaches to particulates in the oil and totally envelopes it so the particle can not join onto another contaminant particle.
Because the detergent is slightly less dense than the base oil the entire contaminant particle & detergent cluster "floats" in the oil and remains in suspension till it encounters the oil filter .
It does not & can not scour the engine and remove all of the debris that has accumulated over time inside the engine.
For this to happen you need solvents , which are in fact added to a lot of oils for exactly that purpose.

A non detergent oil, may or many not have a molecule that is homophobic at both ends so it grabs onto 2 contaminant prticles, one at each end and thus helps them get bigger.
In this case this molecule is denser than the base oil to start with so it aids to formation of sludge.
Sludge blocks up disposable paper filters so you don't use non detergent oils in engine that have disposable filters.

You use on detergent oils in things that have a remote oil reseviour , like for instance a hydraulic system on a tractor , which is where ne of the misguided posters got the wrong idea about.
Remote oil tanks re generally called settleing tanks because that is what they are designed to do, settle out the sludge, allow the oil foam to collapse and usually allow the oil to cool .
Generally tey are found on dry sump engines and stationary engines.

Using a detergent oil in an engine designed for non detergent oil is worse than doing the opposite as the contaminants will continue to circulate in the engine rather than dropout into the bottom of the settleing tank.
Using a non detergent oil in an engine designed for a detergent oil will cause no damage to the engine what so ever, All that will happen is the oil filter will tend to clog faster than it should and of course sludge will settle out where ever it can do so , This is no problem unless it is allowed to remain in the engine till so much has accumulated that it cloggs or restricts the oil pumps intake screen.

So there you have it, what a detergent is, how it works & why nearly all of your citations are worthless.
Just so you know, there are thousands of detergent molecules out there, many of them occur naturally in nature, including in your own body .
So it is just a mater of the blenders finding the right package to add to an oil to achieve the desired results and hopefully not defeating each other.

The problem is washing up liquid & cloths washing powders used the word "detergent" to describe themselves when the actual amount of detergents in them is quite small.

It is also some what dissapointing that you chose to cite anything other than Wikkipedia , a resource that is self correcting or any oil company which would be considered a primary resource.

Way back when I bought the repair business I realized that there was a lot I did not knoe so I joined over 200 different mower , chain saw & similar forums.
Only 2 general mower forums were worth the effort of being on, one of which was this one.
Most were frequented by idiot ego maniacs with little to no understanding about what they were writing about but strong passions & prejustices , which is why I stopped visiting them.
I am yet to find an "Answers" site that actually provides good factually correct answers, they are all just click bait designed to drag you to the funders pages.
Because they are vy profitable they spend a fortune on SEO so they will always on the top of any search and the lazy will go to them first.

After reading through your comments, I find zero credible evidence, from any "mower"engine manufacturer, stating we should be using non-detergent oil in a lawn mower. Thanks for agreeing with me Bert.

slomo
 

slomo

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  • / Safe to store new engine with "Break-in" oil over the winter ?
No
Does the engine have a remote oil tank ?
If you look at , OK remember , the old Galaxie engine, it had a really deep sump with the oil take off about 1/2 way down.
Rockers were adjusted every 5,000 to 10,000 at which time you are supposed to clean the cover /
I am old enough to remember those days when saturday morning when every second drive had the family car in it bonnet open while the dads did the rockers & points before changing the oil.
Meanwhile mum did the washing then every one jumped into the car for a "test drive" down to the pub for a fish & chips lunch washed down will a beer while the kids went for a swim .

Viscosity is really the only thing to worry about because an oil that is too thin can not maintain the oil film between moving parts.
We used to do work on a VW beetle that was raced.
HE ran dextron ( I ) in the box & diff cause it was worth 5 Hp in reduced viscous friction.
It got changed every race and it was full of metal but he podiumed every race .
The cost was 2 boxes and a diff every season.
He ran a weird mix of light oil & regular engine oil in the engine.
The cost of that was new slippers every race day and a cam every season.

The wrong oil will not destroy the engine, it just will not run as well as it should or last as long as it should
An old friend who rode 100 year old motorcycles always said " the best oil is the stuff you just drained form the engine & the more often you do it the better it becomes "

Bert, think you might be on the wrong forum sir. Feel free to chime in if you have any real mower experience.

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