# Reminder to check your oil



## Ian Ariens 924 (Dec 22, 2015)

My neighbour looked sad this morning after 5” of fresh wet snow fell last night and his snowblower won’t start.
He was shovelling instead of walking behind his trusty Toro 5hp
Its a 7 hp, 24 inch from late 70’s

Sure enough has gas in tank, oil is low.”But I just added 1 cup”
Anyway, rope start won’t move,so I removed the belt cover, tried to turn pulley, it’s stuck.
So, owner had just added a cup of oil, I filled it to the full line another 1 1/2 cups at least and put a pipe wrench on the pulleys ,and the engine turns.
Gave a few turns ,it loosened up nicely.
Buttoned it back up,hit the electric start and off it goes.

Fixed till he runs it low on oil again.
Btw, replaced this engine 2 years ago for a broken connecting rod.

Moral is check your oil every time you use it, keep it full.


----------



## jsup (Nov 19, 2017)

I thought most newer engines had low oil shutoff....Guess I was wrong.


----------



## guilateen02 (Nov 23, 2014)

It's just a habit for me. Check fuel and oil every time on start up. It's part of the starting procedure. I even showed my oldest. Gave him a test one day on the generator one day and he passed. He has to know how to start that thing up if I'm not home cause my wife can't pull start anything in the garage.


----------



## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

jsup said:


> I thought most newer engines had low oil shutoff....Guess I was wrong.


I'm not aware of blowers with low oil shutoffs (that doesn't mean they don't exist, obviously). The only engines I have with low-oil shutoffs are generators. One has an oil filter and pressurized lubrication, and senses low oil pressure. The other uses splash lubrication, so it must be more of a level sensor. 

My assumption is that, at least in part, it's tougher to add a low-oil shutoff to splash-lubricated machines that will get tilted a lot during use, like blowers. If it basically used a float for a level sensor, you might have engines shutting down while driving a blower up into a snowbank, or running your tractor across a hill, etc. 

Ian Ariens 924, I'm glad you were able to help get your neighbor's machine running again, that's awesome. Nice work. I'll confess I don't check mine as often as I should. Hopefully at least if it was something drastic, the puddle on the floor would alert me, or smoky exhaust. But I should check more often, thanks for the reminder.


----------



## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

dont most of the chondas have low oil shutdown ? my 208cc powerfist has it.


----------



## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Nice, that's a great protection feature! 

I guess I need more exposure to the newer engines  My youngest big engine (generator/tractor/blower) is 18 years old.


----------



## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

definitely a good feature......but it shouldnt be thought of as a reason not to check the oil before each use.


----------



## jsup (Nov 19, 2017)

nwcove said:


> dont most of the chondas have low oil shutdown ? my 208cc powerfist has it.


Yes, all the Predators do as far as I know. It's referred to as the "yellow wire".  

I just thought it was a standard feature. It's a cheap thing to add, about $10 retail for the part, so must cost about $3 or less at the factory wire. I'd pay $10 more for an engine with one.


----------



## jsup (Nov 19, 2017)

RedOctobyr said:


> Nice, that's a great protection feature!
> 
> I guess I need more exposure to the newer engines  My youngest big engine (generator/tractor/blower) is 18 years old.


Chevy has been putting it in cars for years. There's an oil pressure switch that will kill spark if the pressure drops off below 3PSI I think it is. I forget.


----------

