Mayonaise type gunk on lawnmower dipstick

veetwin

Hi all, I have a 4 year old simplicity pedestrian mower with a B&S 875 engine. The machine has a done a fair amount of work but serviced very regularly and not abused. As per headline just noticed this gunk on the dipstick this morning. Mower was fully serviced at the start of the season. Any thoughts?

cnocbui

Sounds like water in the oil. Oil change needed at least.

_Brian

That type of funk would usually indicate water in the oil.
I wonder has it become contaminated in some way, is it always kept indoors, was it given a vigorous wash recently ??

Either way, I think I’d drain the oil and refill with clean oil to be sure.

veetwin

Thanks lads, always stored in a dry shed and I never power wash it. I use a leaf blower to clean it off after use.

CJhaughey

Condensation is most likely cause in an air cooled machine, the water is in the air! I don't think it points to a problem but getting it good and hot will evaporate the water off. Have you done any short runs with it? Aircooled machines take a long time to heat up properly, longer than you would imagine.

Hocus Focus

5w/30 mineral oil seems to be the recommended lubricating oil for this engine. Although B&S say they now support the use of synthetic oil, I would say that is for the newer ones, and it would be better to continue with the use of mineral oil in your engine, which you say is pretty old.
Here is a link to a pdf of the manual;
https://www.manualslib.com/products/Briggs-And-Stratton-Intek-875-Series-3612099.html
and here is a link to a website to tell you which oil to use:
https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na/en_us/support/faqs/browse/mower-oil-type-and-capacity.html

FelchWivMe

ask your sons to stop cumming on the dipstick