DIYbanter - View Single Post - Two-cycle oil in four-cycle snowblower! Help ...

Jim Redelfs

In article
,
wrote:

I have a Craftsman Snow Thrower (247.88190) and I have an unfortunate
problem. My son put replaced the oil with oil for my leaf blower. He
put four 3.2 ounce bottles of Craftsman Professional Synthetic Blend 2-
Cycle Engine Oil w/ fuel stabilizer (#71-36560) instead of the correct
4-cycle oil I normally use.

Never mind the snow thrower (it'll be fine, just replace the oil), I'd
be concerned about your son: Is he "maintaining" a car yet? It's when
he fills the power steering fluid reservoir with motor oil that you'll
have a REAL problem. Windshield washer fluid in the radiator is
probably bad, too. At least, tell him to RTFM before performing ANY
future service.

Luckily he didn't mix it with gas and he didn't start it up
(as he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't show up
on the dip stick!).

There IS hope for him: At least he knew when to quit.

I'm draining that oil out. I'm going to let it drain all night.
But are there any other precautions I should take before filling it up
with the correct oil?

Once refilled with the correct oil, it MIGHT help to run the engine long
enough to mix everything then drain it again and refill.

I really like this blower and want to nurse it back to machine
health as smoothly as possible.

The engine is probably tougher than you think. It probably would have
done fine had you simply "topped-off" the sump with approved oil and
proceeded normally. As it is, you caught the mistake before the engine
was first started and have replaced the wrong oil with the right type.

My less-than-mechanically-inclined stepfather once ran a 2-cycle Lawn
Boy mower on "straight" (unmixed) gas. The engine finally ground to a
halt. The mower repair place simply filled the gas tank with properly
mixed oil, started it up and away it went. It ran perfectly for YEARS
thereafter.
--

JR