Lawnmower oil and level.

retropearl, Mar 24, 10:11pm
Hi there,
I had my lawnmower serviced last week and noticed when checked to see oil level before I use it today, it was only filled to minimum instead of maximum level. It has the pink coloured oil (prob the masport one)I have a new bottle ofcastrol 4T which is golden syrup colour like your normal motor oil, can I mix this with the existing in the lawnmower already! same grade. Just wondering why when serviced it wasn't filled to maximum! Workshop is closed today.

flat_white_ltd, Mar 24, 10:18pm
won't hurt to mix
.but technically, lawnmower oil is for air-cooled engines
.but after rebuilding about 300,. never yet seen one fail because of wrong oil
.certainly fail because of no oil, though
BTW. don't put too much more in.there's only usually a few ml. in the difference.

retropearl, Mar 24, 10:32pm
alrighty, thanks for that!

muzzaandmich, Mar 24, 10:44pm
Ok can you please help,,,,my victor lawn mower has suddenly become hard to startfires once runs for about 10 seconds and stops ,,,,I have emptied all the fuel and replacedchanged the air filter spongechecked oil removed spark plug cleanedmakes no difference and . Really getting angry withthisAnd thinking of replacing with another brand As it is only 2 years oldany help would be very much appreciated k

flat_white_ltd, Mar 24, 10:54pm
"Checked oil".assume it's 4-stroke, then.
Victa don't make a 4stroke engine, .if it's only 2 yrs old it's a chinese engine on a Victa body.
Is it a primer start, or is there a "choke" position on throttle!
If primer, & starting, but stopping, carby jet probably blocked/ crud in it.
A can of carby-clean can do wonders, if you're not up to stripping carby.
.Is it a steel-body, or alloy !
If steel.scrap value or $1 reserve on T-me,. and buy a decent mower.
edit to say: didn't mean to be offensive with last comment. just get a lot of people brnging me budget mowers to fix that only last 2 yrs
.there's a reason they're cheap.,No offence intended.

johanes, Mar 25, 12:30am
its a victa mower. engine would be a briggs and stratton as they purchased victa if its a four stroke, most likely has a red push primer. if its slow to come out then it needs the fuel system cleaned out.

msigg, Mar 25, 12:47am
Victas were also 2 stroke, thats the early ones.

jmma, Mar 25, 1:14am
Also come out with a cheap Chinese overhead cam 4 stroke, (o:

muzzaandmich, Mar 25, 2:12am
Opps,,,,just checked the motor is Briggs Stratton450 148cc the name is MorrisonPurchased mitre 10.2009.Yes it's4 stroke as oilseparate thanks guys ,,, and yes prime to start

jmma, Mar 25, 3:34am
Replace carb diaphram.

muzzaandmich, Mar 25, 4:02am
Ok lads thank you all very much for putting up with me will let you no what happens regards muzza

fryan1962, Mar 25, 5:35am
blocked jet for my money

ezekiel67, Mar 25, 6:50am
I had similar symptoms on the same mower, turned out to be a bung diaphragm.

muzzaandmich, Mar 28, 12:04am
Just finishedmaintance on this enginereplaced carb diaphragmAndflyleaveralso found the inlet pipe had fractured so replaced that andreassembled,,,,Guess what. One pull on the cordand bingo started . Found that the idle springs on top of carb didn't seem to do much so broke a brio pen and used the spring ,,,attached to carb control an works wellI thank you all for your inputMuzzaandmich

jmma, Mar 28, 6:38am
Check blades, worn ones cause vibration and that makes fuel tank mount bolts loose. Which in turn breaks the manifold, also get a proper govenor spring you can adjust tension by bending the spring mount tab, pen one usually makes it rev to high.

flat_white_ltd, Mar 28, 7:53am
100% on the money.
Good advice.(esp. the governor spring. an over-revving briggs will self-destruct. )

the_don_61, Mar 28, 9:37pm
B&S engines have B&S oil ."Its RED" if the warrentte has run out use anything.30 grade.
they hold 600ml from emptey

If engine is still under warrenttee. .B$S will not pay to repair it unless its only had RED engine oil

Glydol (sp)also put red dye into the oil to make B&S colouerd oil.