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mixing oils

H

Hay hay hay

Well-known Member
Situation: hay is down, rain is coming, tractor is a quart low. Tractor has 10W30, all you have is a quart of straight 30, same brand same quality. Better to run a quart low or add a quart of a different viscosity? Facts only please.
 
I vote use what oil you have. Any oil is better than not enough oil. I want my stuff to have some reserve, you never know when it will either start leaking or burning it.

I also get paid pretty well to replace engines on lawn equipment that people never checked the oil in.
 
The trouble can come from mixing certain synthetics with mineral oil. Most synthetics on the shelf are PAO and mix fine with mineral oil. Ester based synthetics may not. Typically those are found in synthetics for jet engines, race cars, refrigerant and air compressors.
 
Yes mix the oils now to get the hay safely in then do an oil change using new oil of the correct grade when you are stood in the shop watching the rain come down and you are no longer worrying about the hay crop.
Ray.
 
Same brand O.K. Different brands could bring trouble because there may be different chemical additives that can cause a chemical reaction that would be bad for an engine. I know some people mix brands, but personally I think that is risky.
 
While mixing different brands MIGHT be a problem, I know for sure running out of oil WILL cause a problem. Use whatcha got.
 

Go ahead and mix. I ran the API oil audit testing program for several years. There is very little difference in oil performance.
The guys who say don't mix synthetic with straight petroleum oils need to look in the stores. What do they think a synthetic blend is?

(fuelsandlubestechnologies.org)
 
Generally I would just go ahead and use it. I assume you're talking about an older tractor that was probably spec'd to use straight 30 anyhow... which is probably what you ought to be using anyway or at least a 15W40.
Now if you're talking about a newer engine, particularly the jap engines that have quite tight tolerances.. then yeah, I'd mix a quart of 30 but probably not a lot more. Those things are often spec'd for a 10 weight oil and if you run a full 30 in them you may end up starving parts of the engine from lubrication...
The way I look at it, adding 1 qt of 30 to 7 qt of 10 is not going to change the base number a whole lot but adding 5 qt on an 8 qt fill IS going to change it a lot and that could cause a problem on some engines.
All this other worry about mixing brands, etc.... would not concern me for 1 qt for one day or even the duration of this change period.

Rod
 
I have mixed 15-40 with 30W and it blew it right out. The oil was not that old, so I just dumped it out and put in all 15-40.
 
(quoted from post at 19:11:36 09/04/14) I have mixed 15-40 with 30W and it blew it right out. The oil was not that old, so I just dumped it out and put in all 15-40.
Click to expand...

What do you mean, "blew it right out?"
 
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