Full synthetic

[clemsonfor]

Soundguy I'm amazed your Murray/MTD lasted that long; can only be because you gave it good maintenance.
Your Murray was likely designed for the lowest price point. What you are saying is really that inexpensive mowers today are getting better.
Good to hear. You have a Powerbuilt motor in your Murray, allegedly a tough customer. Probably not OHC and built before emission controls.
Made to run and run...might be good to take the head off and clean the valves.
I guess their main bearings are pretty good. And also because Florida is flat and you aren't doing a lot of operating
on slopes and starving the engine for oil at times. I mention this having moved to coastal NC three years ago where everything is flat as a pool table here, except for the ever present ditches.

good luck with Chinese mower spindles and belt pulleys. I bet there are millions of them seized up in our country's dumps. I'm quite sure China makes high quality spindles too. It's all in the spec and the sway of the bean counters.

Now there's an interesting scenario. On slopes where the pickup is sucking air, or the splash system is splashing in the wrong places, would having synthetic oil in the engine provide better protection than conventional? Does stuff like Slick 50 really help in those situations?
Or does plain oil stock with some fancy additives stick around long enough that this is all moot and irrelevant?
There's a lot of koolaid being sold here and I admit drinking a bit of it...
I always thought synthetic was better at everything. Is it?

I have a 16 year old Free to Me MTD clone mower. It has a kholer engine with a filter and its rock solid. Had carb issues and had to constantly rebuild till this last time I put a fuel shut off on it. It eats spindles like candy from those cheap ones off ebay at the lowest price point. I put about one on a year and the chute side always goes first, I guess from kicking all the grass out that side? Well its mostly used at the farm where we only get a few times in the summer and always is cutting grass that's too tall and not like the normal yard, and there is 2+ acres of it. Im sure they would last 3 to 4 years easy in a yard with weekly cuttings and way less load on them. This last time I bought a Sterns replacement...we will see if it lasts longer this time?