What oil for an old HOT running Briggs and Stratton 5hp

[NeoTokyo]

Heya everyone;

So I am getting my dredge ready to drain a friends pool (Yeah, I know I know... lol) and I am changing the oil out.
When I bought it, it had 30w detergent oil in it and that was fine for the couple times that I ran it, but now its time for an oil change.

My dredge uses a very old 5hp Briggs motor that has the kill switch ontop, you slap it onto the spark plug and hope to dear god that you don't get zapped too badly. (Though a rubberized tip would solve this...)
She runs VERY hot, very VERY hot but doesn't make any noise or eat oil. The only thing that I have to compare is running a 6hp Honda Motor and 6.5hp Subaru motor which run a little cooler than the briggs.
I am worried being that she is an older, hotter running engine that she should use heavier weight oil.

I wanted to ask about running Quicksilver 25w40 Marine 4 stroke oil.
I have a quart and I would like to use it.

Briggs says to use 30 weight or 10w30 but this is current standards for their new engines, not my old zapper.

So what do you guys think, should I run the 25w40 Marine oil?

Thanks.

Here is a picture of another 5hp Briggs motor like mine, but this one is not mine, much has new paint.

 

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[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Heya everyone;

So I am getting my dredge ready to drain a friends pool (Yeah, I know I know... lol) and I am changing the oil out.
When I bought it, it had 30w detergent oil in it and that was fine for the couple times that I ran it, but now its time for an oil change.

My dredge uses a very old 5hp Briggs motor that has the kill switch ontop, you slap it onto the spark plug and hope to dear god that you don't get zapped too badly. (Though a rubberized tip would solve this...)
She runs VERY hot, very VERY hot but doesn't make any noise or eat oil. The only thing that I have to compare is running a 6hp Honda Motor and 6.5hp Subaru motor which run a little cooler than the briggs.
I am worried being that she is an older, hotter running engine that she should use heavier weight oil.

I wanted to ask about running Quicksilver 25w40 Marine 4 stroke oil.
I have a quart and I would like to use it.

Briggs says to use 30 weight or 10w30 but this is current standards for their new engines, not my old zapper.

So what do you guys think, should I run the 25w40 Marine oil?

Thanks.

Here is a picture of another 5hp Briggs motor like mine, but this one is not mine, much has new paint.

View attachment 1150529

View attachment 1150530

Yours has added paint? That might be preventing cooling? You should also look into making sure all the fins and what not are cleaned out. Get all the grease and grime off it. I'd stick with the straight 30 and be sure to change it at least as often as recommended. Make sure you keep a clean air filter and do not run it rich, both of those can cause heat. Clean the carb/jets.

 

[Joe Z]

Try to keep it in the shade too. 30W worked over all the years.... probably didn't even have detergent oil back then.

 

[NeoTokyo]

I don't think the paint job is causing it to run hot.

The old paint was stripped off and the aluminum fins are still bare, no paint on those.
If it wasn't painted before, It wasn't painted when it was redone.

There is also no grime on the motor either, 100% clean.

The air filter isn't very dirty but I will be changing it and the carb probably should be cleaned again.

The water pump is a 2x2" Gold King pump running a 2.5" suction hose (but the 2x2" is for a 3" from what I researched tonight, I was told that it was suppose to be a 4", doesn't bother me though, the price was right.)

 

[Hoser John]

Only multi viscosity below 30/40 degrees as stated in the manual. B & S have a great website and answer all questions about their engines. Go right to the source. Answered your GK question from the pms by pm-John

 

[fowledup]

I remember a hundred years ago in a high school shop class Slick 50 had just come out and was making all these claims about what it did, so we decided to test it our selfs. We took two identical motors and filled one with conventional oil as recommended by Briggs and the other with Slick 50. We then ran them for five minutes and drained all oil out. Then we fired them back up with no oil, within 5 minutes the conventional oil motor seized, the Slick 50 motor ran itself out of gas and never did seize. However I have ran it in trucks and it seemed as though it robbed the motor of power, but with a briggs the heat and friction is a bigger enemy.

 

[kayakpat]

I would use a multigrade visocity oil, and just make sure the cooling fins do not have a mouse nest built somewhere in them, other than the carb gumming up from leaving gas in for long time, those engines run and run, my small tractors always wore out long before the engines. most important is keep clean oil and filter in them.

 

[kayakpat]

look for a mouse nest under the cover plate visable in the picture, that is where I would find them if one is there and makes the engine run hot

 

[NeoTokyo]

I don't see anything under the covers but I will take my air compressor and blow it out just in case.

I am going to pull the plug and see what it looks like, that should help me figure out how lean or rich it is running.

 

[rodoconnor]

Check your plug gap and make sure the timing isn't advanced

 

[kayakpat]

whatever you find I do not think it is serious, I really like them old B & S engines, new ones are nice so far too, all the kohlers we had, started to burn oil after a half dozen years, their cast iron sleeves in the block would corrode if you let them sit over winter and would wear fast then oil would get past the rings

 

[willys48]

A lean running engine will run hotter than normal. I just had to clean the carb and tank out on my old 3.5 briggs with a p100 pump. I would look in the tank for brown spots or trash, mine started breaking loose and was building up on the pick up tube. It was running hotter than normal before cleaning but seems fine now. I would stick with the 30wt oil, its worked for all these years. Steve

 

[Oakview2]

Sounds like a lean condition, perhaps grime in the carb, or float level. Pull the plug, and see if how it reads.

 

[Joe Z]

To check the timing pull the shroud cover/screen then the flywheel bolt and washer..... now don't pull the flywheel but look down at the keyway in the flywheel, that keyway should be perfectly lined up with the shaft indentation.... If it's moved even a 1/16" it will be out of time. If you pull the flywheel be sure you know what your doing as you can ruin the block with prybars etc.
I can't tell you how many free mowers i got because of a simple .25 keyway.

 

[Hoser John]

Sage advice JZ as them old iron monsters are a bit finicky when it comes to timing. John

 

[NeoTokyo]

ok, so everything was good with the motor, the timing was right and the plug looks fine.
I think this B&S just likes to run hot.

I did see that the fins were painted after all (Its an aluminum gray paint color) so I am going to clean those off in the morning, that may help.
I didn't repaint it so not my fault.

Thanks again for the suggestions everyone, I will be grabbing some HD30 for it tomorrow as well.

btw, I cleaned the tank out today and there was a lot of sludge in it and the gas was nasty.
I didn't run that gas, it was fresh gas the last time I ran it.
I am going to paint the fuel tank and filter cover white sometime in the future.

The B&S site says to leave fuel in it when storing it as to help keep corrosion to a minimum but I should have added some Sta-bil to the fuel as well.

 

[Hoser John]

Stabil rocks. I run all my newer engines till they're run dry and the engine dies. Pull the plug and a shot of wd-40,pull rope and another small shot. 1st of each month I pull them all--now that's work-not really but when back was out OUCH. Keeps everything coated. I shoot a tiny shot in the empty gas tank also so no rust/corrosion either. I dump the oil and refill for the winter. I'll run for a single day and dump it and refresh and good to go. In over 43 years never a problem yet. Works for me and my buds too-John

 

[russau]

I usually leave some fuel in the tank BUT ive been getting a LOT of equipment that the fuel has gone bad and it don't take long for this to happen! the equipment repair shop I buy parts from said that fuel is only good for a average of 30 days.they sell a small can or upto 1 gallon of fuel that don't have eythanal in it and it is designed to be put into equipment that is going to set unused for any extended time....it is expensive! 3x the price of gas but you don't need much of it to store your engines. I think ill redrain my tanks on my seldom used equipment and make sure theyre ok and pour some of this into the tanks until I need them. this would eventually save me some time and working to keep this equipment running when I need it! when I drained some of the tanks before , the fuel looked /smelt bad. the fuel that I got out was uneven in color , kinda like stratified in layers of color. I always have used Sta-bil or Seafoam BUT that hasn't helped in the past year. it seams that the fuel we get has changed again!

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thanks John, I will start using that storage schedule from now on.
btw, do you use a hand pump to get the oil out or do you just tip it on its side? Being that the oil is being drained I would think tipping it on its side wouldn't be an issue but does it get all the junk out that may be in the bottom of the crankcase?

I also wanted to ask what you guys do to keep your pull cords in good shape.
Should I use something like a mix of leather conditioner and Kiwi waterproofing? I don't really know here, just trying to think of what could keep the fibers strong and repel water.
A broken pull cord is the last thing that I would want to deal with after heading out to dredge. x_x

Russ our fuel today is complete crap, if every refinery went on strike the country would be hurting real quick.

That's a great idea btw, I didn't think about that at all. I wonder how well some 110 unleaded race fuel would work.



I also run Seafoam or Berrymans B12.

 

[russau]

Neo on my spring / fall equipment checks I look over everything that might go wrong when im out! my dredgeing location is a 16 hour drive oneway! soooooooo im going to make sure before I go and as luck would happen something always screws up when im gone so I carry lots of oddball parts and 2 tool boxes with the tools ill need. nothing worse than breaking down and NOT having the tools or the parts to repair it! it all fits into my 16 x 7 enclosed trailer.