any harm?

[all thumbs]

Is there any way of telling if an engine has synthetic oil in it ? This is a new 18hp B&S with 15hrs. on it. Or would there be any problem if lets say there was and I changed the oil to non-synthetic 5w30?
Unable to locate the peivious owner to find out.
Thanks A T

 

[NoKlu]

Re: any harm?

There is no problem switching to regular oil from synthetic. If you want, do the change then run the engine till it's warmed up then change it again. That will flush any of the old oil out

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: any harm?

Why not just change it to synthetic..... it can't hold enough to break the bank.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: any harm?

Agree with Bob....also I am not aware of any flushing necessary when changing back and forth. Go or it with the synthetic. I do use it in my 23 hp B&S on my 48" lawn tractor. Looks damn good when drained every 75 hours.

 

[Splat]

Re: any harm?

You need to run a SAE30 in that engine tho. Multi viscosity Xw30's are no good for Briggs,

Bil

 

[Splat]

Re: any harm?

To add that is assuming your only using the engine during the summer/fall months.

Bill

 

[gcboat]

Re: any harm?

Chief - I don't think an engine with 15 hours on it would be a good candidate for synthetic oil. Need to break those rings in first. Synthetic is just too damn slick for a proper seat. Certainly hope you have ( had ) regular fossil oil in there.

 

[all thumbs]

Re: any harm?

Thanks for all the input. Got the answers I was looking for. Briggs recomends synthetic but like gcboat said it isn't broken in yet. I put 5w30 in for winter plowing then will go to 30 weight. Will probably go synthetic after break in.
A T

 

[xtraham]

Re: any harm?

looks like you found out what ya needed to know, but an easy way to find out if a engine has full synthetic oil in it is, hold a lighter on the end of the dipstick (if the dipstick metal) and see if it will burn, synthetic oil will not burn, non synthetic will burn