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Rebuild oil

grywitt

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Hello. So I had bought a Gen (power plant 803A) with only 2 hours on the rebuilds and even have the chart showing what those two hours were from. Any way I've read quite a bit and even the green tag says to change at 100 hours. My question is would you still run up to the 100 hours on the same oil even if the rebuild was 11 years ago? I feel like it's probably still fine but I'm curious other opinions. I plan on breaking these engines optimally with 80 to 100% load.
 

grywitt

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Any time I question changing oil in a new to me machine, I look at what I paid... A few quarts of the most expensive oil you can buy is usually a lot cheaper than having an issue becuse you didn't change it.
I definitely agree with that. Wondering if I should leave it in certainly wasn't about saving the money. I'm very mechanically inclined but not a mechanic. So I guess my follow up question would be should I get my hands on more of that break in oil or just put a good diesel oil in and then change at 100 like I would have if not? Is that break in oil important? I've never used it before and if I'm going to be honest I can't remember even hearing of it being used before. Thank you for the input though. I hadn't really thought about the fact that I don't know what might have happened to it since or even if it was done right in the first place just the age is all I was thinking about.
 

Jeepadict

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I definitely agree with that. Wondering if I should leave it in certainly wasn't about saving the money. I'm very mechanically inclined but not a mechanic. So I guess my follow up question would be should I get my hands on more of that break in oil or just put a good diesel oil in and then change at 100 like I would have if not? Is that break in oil important? I've never used it before and if I'm going to be honest I can't remember even hearing of it being used before. Thank you for the input though. I hadn't really thought about the fact that I don't know what might have happened to it since or even if it was done right in the first place just the age is all I was thinking about.
The answer to your question that I've deduced is...it's all a matter of personal preference. There's some that will preach their opinion like it's Gospel, and some just go with whatever be it cheaper or ease of availability. Some guys like conventional, some synthetic...some like blondes, some brunettes...some like white socks, some like black. Theres even been many accounts of how things were done back in WWNam when they were Active Duty. Sure they all have their fine points that drives their opinion...but in the end it's still an imperfect machine built by imperfect humans, check the dipstick before you turn the key and hope for the best!

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 

Mullaney

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I definitely agree with that. Wondering if I should leave it in certainly wasn't about saving the money. I'm very mechanically inclined but not a mechanic. So I guess my follow up question would be should I get my hands on more of that break in oil or just put a good diesel oil in and then change at 100 like I would have if not? Is that break in oil important? I've never used it before and if I'm going to be honest I can't remember even hearing of it being used before. Thank you for the input though. I hadn't really thought about the fact that I don't know what might have happened to it since or even if it was done right in the first place just the age is all I was thinking about.
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I believe you will be safe by changing the oil to whatever is listed in the LO (Lube Order). Can't hurt anything.
 

2Pbfeet

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I definitely agree with that. Wondering if I should leave it in certainly wasn't about saving the money. I'm very mechanically inclined but not a mechanic. So I guess my follow up question would be should I get my hands on more of that break in oil or just put a good diesel oil in and then change at 100 like I would have if not? Is that break in oil important? I've never used it before and if I'm going to be honest I can't remember even hearing of it being used before. Thank you for the input though. I hadn't really thought about the fact that I don't know what might have happened to it since or even if it was done right in the first place just the age is all I was thinking about.
Onan uses John Deere 30W break in oil.

In general, break in oils don't use as much detergent, so particles that get washed out of the engine passageways and surfaces get left in the oil pan and are less likely to circulate. There are often extra additives to promote surface break-in, but there is definitely hocus-pocus going on as nobody tells you exactly what they have in their oil and how much.

As @jeepaddict wrote, there are lots of opinions on this one. I go with factory, but that doesn't mean that it is a better way. I just bet that they know more about it than I do on this one and it is not obviously stupid advice...

All the best,

2Pbfeet
 

Poccur

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Hello. So I had bought a Gen (power plant 803A) with only 2 hours on the rebuilds and even have the chart showing what those two hours were from. Any way I've read quite a bit and even the green tag says to change at 100 hours. My question is would you still run up to the 100 hours on the same oil even if the rebuild was 11 years ago? I feel like it's probably still fine but I'm curious other opinions. I plan on breaking these engines optimally with 80 to 100% load.
John Deere rep told me if you use the most expensive, super lubricated oils, rings will never get hot enough to bed in...use simple basic, no additive oils for 100 hours, then you can switch to all the expensive additive stuff...YMMV but that is how I do it...so far so good...
 
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