Generac oil

[slowmover]

I have an old Generac natural gas standby whole house generator and always used automotive oil in it. I noticed my can of Valvoline 5w-30 synthetic oil says for Gasoline engines. I know Generac wants me to use their oil. What would be the difference?

[Vagrant]

They put 10/30 car oil in mine.

[Chuck in Indiana]

I've been using Mobil 1 5-30 in my Generac for 20 years or so. I'll let you know if I have an issue..  

[Perazzimx14]

Like with motorcycles you have to use oil specific to the motor. You must follow the buzz words on the front of the container and disregard the ratings/specs on the back of the container.

Motorcycle oil single/twin/triple 4 and 6 cyl. They there are the subcategories like V/L or parallel twin, inline or V-4,
Trike oil
Car oil
Truck oil
Tractor oil
Go cart oil
Mini bike oil
Push Lawnmower oil
Riding lawnmower oil
Zero turn mower oil
Generator oil
Front tine Rototiller oil
Rear tine Rototiller oil
Post hole digger oil
Backhoe oil
Boat oil

Is you generator a single or multi cylinder. That'll make a difference too.

[slowmover]

From the interweb:
Can Car Engine Oil Be Used In LP Or Natural Gas Generator Engines?
Automotive motor oils are not suitable for liquid propane or natural gas-powered generators. Car motor oil would tend to break down relatively quickly and be prone to oil consumption. Passenger car motor oils are simply not designed to work with LP or natural gas fuels.

[Moparnut72]

I don't understand what the reason for this would be. I had a propane powered pickup years ago when propane motor fuel was 85 cents a gallon. Engines fueled by propane run very clean and run cool. Why would they require a different grade of oil? If anything a lower grade oil would be perfectly fine.
kk

[Tom H]

Now those were 2 posts in a row that made me go Hmmm???

Didn't think you had to use different oil for a propane car?

Maybe a Gen Set is different because it's not run everyday??

Tom

[slowmover]

Amsoil website has a lengthy explanation under the heading Synthetic Stationary Natural Gas Engine Oil.

[aklawok]

 You forgot the metric, whitworth , and left-hand threaded oil categories
 To the OP: use any (any?) ANY! "Any" N-E, 30w oil at all!!! ( Given proper change intervals that may vary depending on the oil you use and load) you want and you will be fine.
Ps: avoid whale blubber or seal oil if you can ( but they will work in a pinch)

[jkguzzi]

This post got my interest as I use full synthetic in my Generac, probably Mobile One, I'll have to look. Generac's website shows numerous maintenance kits available with full synthetic.

[blackcat]

I would ask this question on this forum:  https://gentekpower.com/forums/

This is not an easily rebuildable engine as I found out with my Generac. Even buying a replaceable engine wasn’t a realistic option so I ended up buying a new model.

[n3303j]

Generator runs 75% power steadily. Car runs constantly varying loads. Seldom at full power. I'd be tempted to run aviation oil in an air cooled generator just to match the load duty cycle of the application.

[PeteS]

Generator runs 75% power steadily. Car runs constantly varying loads. Seldom at full power. I'd be tempted to run aviation oil in an air cooled generator just to match the load duty cycle of the application.

My portable 15 year old gas powered 5.5KW Generac runs constant RPMs. Nothing about special oil in the owners manual.

Pete

[Madtownguzzi]

Use Pennzoil made from natural gas!
 https://www.pennzoil.com/en_us/education/natural-gas-to-motor-oil.html

[Moparnut72]

Unless something has changed I wouldn't run aviation oil in anything. AeroShell is a non-detergent oil. When I tore down radials as one of my tasks in the airplane shop the insides of those those things were as dark as a black hole. I was told that the FAA hadn't approved detergent oils for aviation use in piston engines. Cleaning those up was a major undertaking until we found a product that did it quite well. The FAA is a very archaic organization. Again I may be wrong as usual.
kk

[AJ Huff]

What type of oil should I use in my home backup generator?–

An SAE rated high detergent oil that meets API Service Class SF requirements for gasoline engines, similar to your car. In general, when the temperature is over 40 degrees F, the most recommended oil is a 30-weight detergent product.  When the temperature drops below 40 degrees F, you should use 10W-30.  Refer to your owner’s manual for details. To find your owner's manual online, visit our Product Support page and enter your serial number or model number.

https://www.generac.com/service-support/faqs/home-backup-faqs

-AJ

[Don G]

I worked for a major player in the oil industry for 19 years in the maintenance department. In all of our natural gas and propane fuelled prime movers we used Chevron Supreme 5-30, these engines ran constantly until failure. No special wierdo crap oil required, just change at required intervals.  DonG

[kballowe]

 

[Stretch]

FWIW, I've used cheap 10W-30 or 5W-30 conventional oil in all of the lawn equipment/generators for decades.

I change it in a new engine after the 1st hour, then 2 hours later, then 5 hours later and consider the
engine broken in at that point. Most of these engines take a quart or less of oil, and it's not filtered.
Be generous with oil changes after that. It's amazing the amount of "glitter" that comes out in that first
oil change!

For example, I have an old 8HP chipper I bought in 1999, and it's stored in a leaky shed. I've beaten the everlasting
pooh out of it, and it still runs fine. It gets oil changes as soon as the stuff looks dirty.

YMMV.

                                                                        -Stretch

[Moparnut72]

My lawn mower doesn't have a drain plug. The manual says to add oil as needed, no changes necessary. I changed it anyway after the first few hours. I just tipped it upside down. Now I use a turkey baster with a hose attached.   
kk

[knockerjoe]

Been using Mobil 1 5W30 in my Generac for 8 years now no problems.

[n3303j]

I use Honda Goldwing oil in my Honda Inverter because the service letters on the bottle match those specified in the owners manual.

[Moparnut72]

An owner of a  Honda/BMW dealership I knew always said I've seen more damage from lack of rather than the type of oil.
kk

[berniebee]

From the interweb:
Can Car Engine Oil Be Used In LP Or Natural Gas Generator Engines?
Automotive motor oils are not suitable for liquid propane or natural gas-powered generators. Car motor oil would tend to break down relatively quickly and be prone to oil consumption. Passenger car motor oils are simply not designed to work with LP or natural gas fuels.

No. You looked at the first hit, which is from a oil marketer. They want to sell you overpriced "specific" Amsoil.

[berniebee]

I have an old Generac natural gas standby whole house generator and always used automotive oil in it. I noticed my can of Valvoline 5w-30 synthetic oil says for Gasoline engines. I know Generac wants me to use their oil. What would be the difference?

OF COURSE Generac wants you to use their oil. The difference is that it's easy money for them, as they slap their label on a bottle of generic oil and then mark it up 100%.

My first point is that dual fuel generators don't recommend a change of oil when you swap fuels. Secondly, the engines used in these generators are low compression, low stress units that don't much care which oil you throw in. Thirdly, propane burns much cleaner than gasoline and is less hard on engine oil. Use automotive oil.  5W30 synthetic is nice in that it's easier to crank when temperatures fall way below freezing. But synthetic is absolutely not necessary.

[Moparnut72]

I was once on a camping trip. My Honda generator quit running due to the lack of oil, they automatically shut down when the oil level gets low. All I had with me was 2 stroke oil. Run just fine the rest of the weekend and I don't think I changed it for awhile afterwards.
kk