I manage an apartment complex. In an effort to save wages and cut a tenant a break in rent, we worked a deal for him to do lawn maintenance in exchange for a break every month. I asked him to change the oil in the mower, as per instrucuctions in the literature. When I asked him how the change went and where the rest of the oil was, he hands me an empty bottle of what once contained 2 cycle oil. The mower is a 4stroke. Do I need to smack him in the back of the head and have him change it again? Also, what is the difference between 2cycle oil and what I put in my car? Please advise.
Smack 'im.
It’s my understanding that 2-cycle oil is meant to be burned after serving its lubricration duties. (Thus the blue smoke from a 2-cycle’s exhaust.) Therefore, 2-cycle oil, while being about the same viscosity as crankcase-confined oils, contains none of the additives typically included in a quart of your 10W-40. No detergents, for example, which are meant to clean the crankcase components as the engine runs.
Two cycle oil is meant to be mixed with the gasoline on engines that don’t have a separate oil tank (snow-blowers, gas-powered trimmers, snowmobiles, etc.) Each engine type specifies the mixture of gas to oil to be used (40:1, 50:1, etc.) The engine parts are lubricated as the gas runs through the engine, rather than a separate lubrication system like on your car and lawnmower.
Drain the oil tank now and replace it with whatever weight oil is recommended by the lawn mower manufacturer.