Oil For K301S

[markseven 62]

Any oil is better than  no oil.

10/40  oil .

[ebinmaine 74,940]

40 minutes ago, markseven said:

Why

 

The Additive Package falls out of suspension making the oil NON usable in engines. 

 

Here's a thread post with the information: 

 

 

[ebinmaine 74,940]

13 hours ago, RED-Z06 said:

Rmaynards post

Just posted it 

[dmoore 966]

Thinking about switching to full synthetic.  30WT HD is getting harder to find here every year. Autozone and Advance Auto do not stock it. Thoughts EB?

[ebinmaine 74,940]

2 minutes ago, dmoore said:

Thinking about switching to full synthetic.  30WT HD is getting harder to find here every year. Autozone and Advance Auto do not stock it. Thoughts EB?

 

We run full synthetic in all 3 road vehicles but for some reason I can't convince myself to do that in the small engines...

 

 

I order the Kinetix brand online by the case. Per quart price is good and free freight.  

I'll get you a link tomorrow morning. 

 

[dmoore 966]

[Retired Wrencher 6,098]

I would like to add a little information on this subject. Being I picked up a 64 engine this year that has no ACR in it. Cold weather 10w 30 summer W30.  I also have a small block heater to worm up the oil because of the non ACR. So far so good. Also I use a 350 cranking amp battery’s. This helps a lot. It was cold the other day below freezing and started right up. 

Edited Sunday at 11:09 AM by Retired Wrencher

[ebinmaine 74,940]

1 hour ago, Retired Wrencher said:

Cold weather 10w 30 summer W30.

 

@dmoore

 

I do similar to Gary on my K341s. 

Our tractors that run all year like a snowblower or snow plow tractor get changed from HD 30 over the summer to 10W30 for the coldest 4 or 5 months. 

[Wild Bill 633 892]

I love reading "What is the best oil?" posts.

[ebinmaine 74,940]

12 hours ago, dmoore said:

Thoughts EB?

 

 

OK,  here's what I've been using for several years and how I've been obtaining the product. 

 

Note. I do believe in shopping locally when practically possible but this area is also going away from a reasonable price and ordering process for correct small engine oils.  🛢   

I was initially told about Kinetix brand by a local small engine shop where I bought my Echo chain saw. They have since morphed to a heavy equipment place. No retail sales. 

I was able to get it from my favorite small engine repair place for a bit. He stopped selling it because most of his services are on newer engines that dont need the older oil formulas. 

2 strikes. 

 

So I went poking around on the interwebs and found: 

 

 

 

I've now been buying Kinetix for 3 or 4 years from ProPartsDirect. 

 

They occasionally have free or reduced shipping promotions. 

Even without that their price is lower than others. 

Add $14 (estimated) to the above. 

Say $92 per case. 

 

I'm at $7.66 per quart shipped to my own workshop. 

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, Wild Bill 633 said:

I love reading "What is the best oil?" posts.

 

Agreed. 

IMHO there is NO best oil. 

 

I personally use and recommend Kinetix oil and ProPartsDirect because the formula is supposedly correct and the price & service is good.  

 

 

 

 

[lynnmor 8,142]

3 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

 

OK,  here's what I've been using for several years and how I've been obtaining the product. 

 

Note. I do believe in shopping locally when practically possible but this area is also going away from a reasonable price and ordering process for correct small engine oils.  🛢   

I was initially told about Kinetix brand by a local small engine shop where I bought my Echo chain saw. They have since morphed to a heavy equipment place. No retail sales. 

I was able to get it from my favorite small engine repair place for a bit. He stopped selling it because most of his services are on newer engines that dont need the older oil formulas. 

2 strikes. 

 

So I went poking around on the interwebs and found: 

 

 

I've now been buying Kinetix for 3 or 4 years from ProPartsDirect. 

 

They occasionally have free or reduced shipping promotions. 

Even without that their price is lower than others. 

Add $14 (estimated) to the above. 

Say $92 per case. 

 

I'm at $7.66 per quart shipped to my own workshop. 

 

I have been using Kohler oil, price here is $7.40 per quart and it is also available at ProPartsDirect.  I have found it for less elsewhere, it is best to do a seach each time you want to order.

[Wild Bill 633 892]

My understanding is Kohler oil is produced by Amsoil. I assume it is repackaged Amsoil Small Engine Oil, available in 5W30, 10W30, 10W40 and 15W50.

Edited yesterday at 01:02 PM by Wild Bill 633

[dmoore 966]

Thanks EB! Would full synthetic be a viable choice or? Say a 10w30 full synthetic?

Edited 15 hours ago by dmoore

[ebinmaine 74,940]

16 minutes ago, dmoore said:

Thanks EB! Would full synthetic be a viable choice or? Say a 10w30 full synthetic?

 

 

I personally don't use synthetic oil in OLD  small engines for the simple reason that there's no clear-cut definitive yes answer. 

 

Politics. Religion. Sports teams. .... oh and .... oil.  

 

Everyone has an opinion. All of them are both right and wrong depending on many variables. 

 

I'm comfortable using only conventional oils in OLD small engines... for now. 

[RED-Z06 2,685]

Back in...06ish..i had a Gokart, Kohler XKE Race engine, factory it spun 7200rpms.  Ran it on a 15⁰ tilted mount with 15oz of oil.  One day i was running it at a friend's..nice long 3 mile stretch of pavement.  I was winding it out.  After about 30 minutes i stopped to adjust my tachometer and i heard the engine chirping..squeaking.  i took it a mile back to his place and checked the oil...nothing on the stick.  Drained out about 4oz.  The oil sensor block off plate had blown its o-ring and at some point i lost most of my oil.  I pulled it apart, rod was wiped but not bad, piston had no wear, bore had no wear, bearings were good.  I put in a new rod..polished the crank and went back to it.

 

Now, i dont know what the Briggs/Valvoline Synthetic oil did as far as protecting the engine vs conventional oil would have but.. that engine survived 7000rpms with virtually no oil in it..and just had some smearing on the rod.  I started running synthetic in everything, my thought is..if something goes sideways, synthetic with its higher film strength, higher resistance to heat, will maybe buy you some time before catastrophic failure.

[ebinmaine 74,940]

17 minutes ago, RED-Z06 said:

Now, i dont know what the Briggs/Valvoline Synthetic oil did as far as protecting the engine vs conventional oil would have but.. that engine survived 7000rpms with virtually no oil in it..and just had some smearing on the rod.  I started running synthetic in everything, my thought is..if something goes sideways, synthetic with its higher film strength, higher resistance to heat, will maybe buy you some time before catastrophic failure.

 

 

I agree with that but I see no availability for 30HD synthetic which is what the Kohler factory spec was/is. 

 

I'd have absolutely no issues using a synthetic oil in an engine that calls for it by spec... anything built after maybe 1990??

 

But .... OLD small engines.... no correct spec yet.  

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 74,940]

For the record here. 

 

I'm very open to using synthetic oil. See above about our 3 road vehicles.  

 

 

[dmoore 966]

Kinetics shows a 30wt semi synthetic but no full synthetic

SAE-30-Synthetic-b.avif

[ebinmaine 74,940]

17 minutes ago, dmoore said:

Kinetics shows a 30wt semi synthetic but no full synthetic

SAE-30-Synthetic-b.avif 10.11 kB · 2 downloads

 

If the price is right it's likely fine. 

 

[RED-Z06 2,685]

1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

 

 

I agree with that but I see no availability for 30HD synthetic which is what the Kohler factory spec was/is. 

 

I'd have absolutely no issues using a synthetic oil in an engine that calls for it by spec... anything built after maybe 1990??

 

But .... OLD small engines.... no correct spec yet.  

 

 

 

Its hard to go by the old specs, if you consider that the oils they are recommending have been obsoleted a dozen times, the oils that were cutting edge in the 60s, 70s, 80s...are not even available.  Like 2 strokes, a 60s saw will say...8:1 fuel to castor oil, or 10:1 fuel to Sae30.  We dont need to run a heavy mix to protect an engine, we have excellent oils that are safe to 70:1 and even 100:1.  Motor oils of today are a marvel compared to 60s/70s slop, the old standard of SAE30 has mostly disappeared from all manufacturers, briggs was a big holdout but even they now say 10w30 or 10w40 is fine...and it makes sense, a multi-viscosity oil gives you the thinner qualities when cold, but still protects like a heavier oil when hot, its not holding you to a compromise with straight viscosity.  Ive been running Mobil 1 Full Syn 10w40 in 3 FD Kawasakis, 2 Kohler Ks, 4 Onans, 3 Commands, and T6 Syn 15w40 in the Yanmar for a long while, no ill effects.  I had to swap a broken cam in one of the Kawasakis at 991hrs (plastic gear) and the engine was spotless inside.

[ebinmaine 74,940]

7 hours ago, RED-Z06 said:

Mobil 1 Full Syn 10w40 in 

, 2 Kohler Ks,

 

This is the one I've considered.  

 

Is there a specific reason you chose that viscosity? 

[Wild Bill 633 892]

Amsoil was the first to market synthetic oil in 1972 and took several years to take off. Many of the CI small engines were produced prior to 1972 so the engine oil spec would not have considered synthetic oil. Conventional oil molecules are different from each other, whereas synthetic oil molecules are all identical and round in shape like a ball bearing.

My thoughts are, a rebuilt engine costs roughly $1600, $1000 in parts and $600 at the machine shop. I run 10W30 conventional oil for approximately 50 hours to break in the rings then its 10W30 Amsoil Small Engine Oil for the rest of its life. My high hour splash oil engine gets an oil change twice a year. My pressure oil & filtered engine, about 25 hours a year, gets an oil change in fall. Semi-synthetics, which are a mix of 50% conventional & 50% synthetic oil are for half asses. LOL

Edited 3 hours ago by Wild Bill 633

[kpinnc 15,933]

On 11/23/2025 at 7:25 AM, Wild Bill 633 said:

I love reading "What is the best oil?" posts.

 

One thing I've learned- it's become obvious to me that the "where" is as important to the answer as anything. 

 

True for pretty much everything to be honest. Folks up north cover stored machines with tarps. Do that down here and you may as well scap them. Condensation will destroy any steel under a tarp here in short order. 

 

Mower deck care. Tire care. Paint methods. All different depending where you are, all for valid reasons. 

[RED-Z06 2,685]

4 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

This is the one I've considered.  

 

Is there a specific reason you chose that viscosity? 

I like 10w40 because it gives a bit more protection hot, but flows better cold, vs Sae30.  Im in Florida so its apt to be used for hours at a time in 105⁰ ambient temps or in snow.