lighter oil in winter
 

Anyone use a lighter oil or a multi-weight in winter? My 1650 turns slow in the cold and is had starting.:Kohler1:

I had an engine (recent rebuild K321) turn into a "bug fogger" with 10W-30 in Massachusetts years back.

I switched back to 30W and never changed to multi weight in an air cooled again.

If the engine is doing only only light duty (snow blade) AND you remember to switch back to 30W when it gets above 32 deg. F., it is OK

I use 10w 30 in the winter. Been using that for a long time and never had any bug fogger problems. I use 15w40 Rotella in the summer with no problems. Kohler manual has the specs for what oil to use in different climates. If you keep it in a heated garage 30w would be ok.

Well, unheated garage in Michigan, runnin a 42" snow blower. It gets a little cool around here in the winter.

I run 10W-30 in the winter time and I have had NO problems. This is what Kohler recommends.

I've been using Shell Rotella 15W-40 year round in a few of mine, as they don't get used more than 8 hours a year, which would amount to a lot of seasonal oil changes. They still start easy in the winter and don't burn it that quickly in the summer.

Running these tractors for light duty, oil weight does not matter, multi weight oil is great.

The recommendations of multi weight oil should be used with the understanding of what you are putting in the engine.

10W-30 is 10 weight oil. 15W-40 is 15 weight oil. Period.

The oils have modifiers in them that can variably "thicken" the oil as the temperature goes up.

The thickeners are very effective up to a certain temperature, designed and perfectly acceptable for WATER cooled engines.

Above this certain temperature the thickeners fail, and, the oil reverts back to 10 weight (or 15 weight).

This is what happens in a air cooled engine under a normal load. The engine operates above the thickeners temperature capability.

You will be running your engine on 10W oil!!

The engine manufacturers state 30W for a reason.

They want your engine protected when under normal load conditions.

Run the oil you want, mine get 30W. IMHO

Mine set outside unprotected year around. they all get straight 30 weight (Amsoil if my dealer can get it ,straight weight Amsoil is hard to get). I have never had a problem with them turning over and starting. True, they may turn slow but the always go.

Was 19 degrees here the other day. The 1211 started up just fine.

I am looking for a block heater ,oil pan heater to attach to the 128 to help starting on the frigid mornings maybe just the old dip stick type anyone got one on there's ?
also I mix 1 qt 30 w and 1/2 qt 10-30 now

green 4 acres a company called wolverine engine heaters have various sizes of glue on block heaters.