Full synthetic marine gear lubricant?
 

Is it a suitable engine oil alternative for a 212cc Toro snow thrower engine? After a bunch of googling, I think it is, but not sure enough to take the leap.

The engine manual that came with the snowblower will specify both the recommended viscosity (such as SAE 5-40) and API service rating (such as SN). Compare that with your marine lubricant specs to know if it’ll be ok.

For API you’d want the marine lube to be equal or higher than what is required. Here’s info on ratings.

Gear oil in place of engine oil? Absolutely not

Why? A 5 quart jug of Mobile 1 is under $30 at Walmart and will last a few seasons.

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I’m by no means a wrench but gear oil is not going to have additives like detergents and dispersants to combat byproducts from combustion.

The gear oil was recommended as a suitable alternative by a hardware clerk. They had no fully synthetic 5/30 engine oil available. The more I thought about the suggestion as I was about to break the seal on the container and finish changing the oil, I thought it would be better to do some more checking.

Re-checking the bottle of gear oil, there is no rating, e.g., 5/30.

Really appreciate everyone’s feedback on this topic. Bottom line is that I’ll return the gear oil and get a quart of 5/30 manufacturer recommended full synthetic. Turns out I was in an unnecessary rush to get allot of things done the day I bought the gear oil and should have taken a step back.

Careful with Synthetic
 

Let me start by saying I'm a huge proponent of Synthetic oil, I use it in all my engines. BUT, don't blindly substitute Synthetic for Dyno oil in small engines or older engines without full knowledge of what you are doing.

Virtually all modern Auto engines use a Roller lifter on the camshaft, this type of lifter reduces internal friction and allows for more aggressive valve lift events which can equal more power, better emissions and better mileage. Older engines and most small engines like a snowblower have an old style "Flat Tappet" cam/lifter. The flat tappet engines require a zinc additive known as ZDDP to combat excessive wear between the lifters and cam. As modern engines, with roller lifters don't suffer from this wear issue, most, not all synthetic oils don't have the ZDDP additive. Use of this type of oil without ZDDP in a flat tappet engine could result in excessive valve train wear and engine failure. There are some synthetics that specifically include the ZDDP needed, I know of a few specific Mobil 1 formulations that have it. The V twin oil designed for Harley's is one of them. Use caution when straying on oil types in an engine, it's easy to do more harm than good.

YMMV of course.

Charlie T

I would be speaking with the hardware store clerk's manager about the total crap advice their employee is giving out but that's just me.

One can run an internal combustion engine with practically any lubricant in its crankcase.

The question is, how long will it run?

During my formative years I acquired a lawnmower engine that no longer had a lawnmower attached.

For reasons only understandable only to a young teen, I performed a "test" on it.

The crankcase oil was replaced with Wesson cooking oil.

The empty fuel tank received a quantity of Coleman camp stove fuel.

I wired the throttle WFO and started her up.

The engine droned on for several minutes while filling the driveway with plenty of noise and the aroma of fried food.

It got boring so I went back inside the house.

A few moments later there was a loud clank that turned my head in time to see the engine cartwheel across the driveway.

The conclusion I drew from the test was not to run an engine on Wesson oil or maybe Coleman fuel but definitely not both!

When I was young the men (3 brothers) at the local gas station convinced me that I needed to flush out the engine on my first car with a 50/50 combination of motor oil and kerosene. In an hour or so of driving around that engine was junk.

It became a learning experience. I went to the local car junkyard and bought a used engine and swapped the engines out in my father's garage.

I should have known better than to listen to the gas station guys. They were the same people who convinced me that I needed to drain the air and reinflate the tires on my bicycle because old air loses it's bounce. Hey, I was only seven years old. I thought adults knew stuff!