Oil leak

[Glenn (KC)]

You might find this interesting. I have a zero turn mower with a 17 horse
motor that developed a leak where it sat in the shop. Actually it was
getting bad enough that I was throwing oil soak under it.

I remembered another instance several years ago where I had a twin engine
airplane that got to where #2 was using a couple quart of oil every 400
miles or so. Specs called for it to use 50 weight. I substituted 50%
(10w-30) synthetic oil and after a couple trips it cut consumption by 50%
solely by softening the hardened seals. I should have gone with 100% but it
is so hard to get out and walk if you blow an engine at 10,000 feet.

I drained the mower, changed the filter and filled it with synthetic. Don't
remember the brand but it was 10 bucks a quart. After a month of heavy use
the drops have completely dried up so those seals were getting hard too.

[NapalmHeart]

Post by Glenn (KC)
You might find this interesting. I have a zero turn mower with a 17 horse
motor that developed a leak where it sat in the shop. Actually it was
getting bad enough that I was throwing oil soak under it.
I remembered another instance several years ago where I had a twin engine
airplane that got to where #2 was using a couple quart of oil every 400
miles or so. Specs called for it to use 50 weight. I substituted 50%
(10w-30) synthetic oil and after a couple trips it cut consumption by 50%
solely by softening the hardened seals. I should have gone with 100% but
it is so hard to get out and walk if you blow an engine at 10,000 feet.
I drained the mower, changed the filter and filled it with synthetic.
Don't remember the brand but it was 10 bucks a quart. After a month of
heavy use the drops have completely dried up so those seals were getting
hard too.

I use Mobil 1 in my 8N. No leaks and the blue puff of smoke at start-up is
no more. It also starts a lot easier in the winter.

Ken

[m***@yahoo.com]

On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:33:31 -0600, "Glenn \(KC\)" <gle@ surewest.net>
wrote:

[snip]

Post by Glenn (KC)
I drained the mower, changed the filter and filled it with synthetic. Don't
remember the brand but it was 10 bucks a quart. After a month of heavy use
the drops have completely dried up so those seals were getting hard too.

Some of these things are borderline magic, I'm sure.

A while back--back when GM was putting 5 year/50,000 mile warranties
on their cars (Glenn, you and I were just kids then)--I lived
back-to-back with the service manager for a Pontiac-SAAB dealer. He
said they had a SAAB they had sold new come in for warranty
replacement of a leaking front crankshaft seal. So they replaced it.

A few months later, it was back for the same problem. New car, being
maintained well. After the third replacement, they started digging
for the problem and the only thing a little out of the ordinary was
the owner was using Mobil 1 oil. At the recommended change intervals
for synthetic oil, the oil was lasting a lot longer than the seals.

They contacted both SAAB and Mobil seeking a solution, but neither of
them would even admit there could be such a problem. After the fifth
seal, they and the owner agreed he'd put conventional oil in it and
see what happened. It never lost another front seal, as far as the
service manager knew.

Hadn't thought about that for years and years, until I saw your
message. My not-very-useful-now inquisitive nature would like to know
whether they were using the factory SAAB seal on every replacement,
and they probably were, and whether a different brand seal would have
been okay. I'd also like to know why it only leaked through the
front seal and not the rear main seal or any other seal.

Mysteries of the universe. FWIW, I read online that Mobil 1 High
Mileage now has an ingredient/additive/whatever that is supposed to
"re-swell" hardened and shrunken seals.