Oil change on Huskeeeeee 6.5 horse

My Honda engine on the MTD lawn mower has the tip to drain feature. They probably saved a nickel on the drain plug eh?

I cannot believe that one would be expected to tip over a log splitter to drain. There probably is a plug either on the side or underneath.

Mine has a plug under the engine- tricky to get to though. Messy to drain.....

My 28 ton drains on to the platform that it is bolted to. I put the hitch on a short log to tip it down and let it drain into my oil pan. Pretty much ran straight down. It wasn't as messy as I thought it would be. I did get the oil hot before I drained it. BTW this splitter has a Honda motor.

Has anybody tried one of those topsider oil pump things?? Or perhaps a simply pump with a skinny enough tube that fits down the fill tube.

I looked at my Honda engine on my Troy-Bilt/MTD splitter and didn't see anything obvious to drain the oil from the pan... But like you, I should change my oil soon after this year's splitting...

Jay

Many of these splitters use what is essentially a walk behind lawn mower engine which often have a plug in the bottom. The problem is to get access to it with the spider coupling in the way. You might be better off to use a hand suction pump to suck the oil out while tilting it partially. While I'm not quite as remiss as BB, I too am due for an oil change.

I have the same motor on my speeco as my dad has on his huskee 22 ton and the oil plug is on the underside of the motor right next to the hydro pump bracket. The only diference between mine and my dads is mine has the allen hex female style plug and dads has the 1/2" square male style, yuors could probably be either so look for both. Nate

Ive never seen a motor with out a drain plug . Some are Allen head bolts in the side of the block . Some are under the motor as said before. I have a ton of equipment and find it hard to get all the maintenance done every year on time . We are usually just trying to get every thing running . I use am soil in my small equipment and i think it helps , in case you miss on some oil changes . I use a suction pump on my sail boat diesel but it draws from the bottom of the sump . I like to dump motor oil out the bottom so there is no slug left . John

You could always download the manuals for your model engine and look at the IPL or diagrams. Here is the layout for mine.

Yep shipper you are right! I was going to put an extension and elbow and did not want anything to get in the way. So I put synthetic mobil 1 in it. It has been in there for 3 years or so and when I pull it with my simplicity the oil must get in by the valves cause I get a puff at startup. Every fall I add about so much. I figure I have another 15 years before I need an oil change. That thing runs 10-15 hours a year if that! Really, in a year or two I will change it. I dread it cause it is a mess

Don't forget to use small engine or motorcycle oil which has more anti-wear additives than car oil does (EPA rules lowered them on car oil). I would advise using exactly what the manual calls for.

Gee... I must be lucky or something, my HF splitter has TWO drain plugs, one on each side of the engine... :coolsmile:

I Did have an embarrasing moment a while back when one came out while the splitter was running - thought I heard a change in the engine tone, looked up and saw this large smoke cloud jetting out the side of the engine. (and blowing all over my "done pile" >:-( ) Surprisingly I didn't really lose any oil until AFTER I shut the engine off - apparently the crankcase pressure was pulling air in and blowing it back out so fast it was keeping the oil away from the hole, so all that was blowing out was a mist. I ended up losing so little oil that I didn't need to add any back into the engine. (And I have now double checked all the drains...)

Gooserider

JoeyD said:

My 28 ton drains on to the platform that it is bolted to. I put the hitch on a short log to tip it down and let it drain into my oil pan. Pretty much ran straight down. It wasn't as messy as I thought it would be. I did get the oil hot before I drained it. BTW this splitter has a Honda motor.

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I have a 25 ton Speeco with a B & S motor; it also drains onto the platform it's bolted to. I went for this remedy: http://www.perr.com/drainzit.html Just another way to skin a cat. Still it's frustrating to pay for your own solution to what should be a simple problem for the designers. (Now that I think about it, the designers probably came up with a good answer, but somebody said no, we don't want to bother punching a clearance hole in the motor platform cause we might use a different motor next year. Something like that).

I checked out my Honda engine manual for my Troy Bilt. (Honda GCV160) and it mentions the tip and drain method of oil changes, has no mention of any other bolt, but there appears to be a hex bolt right below the air filter that could seemingly be some kind of drain but has no mention at all in the manual. It could also be an engine mount too but does anybody else with the GCV160 recognize what I'm talking about?

The manual shows how to drain fuel from the carb but not oil from the pan (other than through the dipstick).

It also mentions the engine is fine with 10% ethanol too...

Jay

Shipper50 said:

Hard Woods said:

Mine has a plug under the engine- tricky to get to though. Messy to drain.....

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Mine does too now that I found it. Had to tilt it back to get to the plug, used a 3/8 universal socket extension to get into the plug. The dumb asses who designed this should have their b--- cut off.

Shipper

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Full agreement.......add the engineers at Tecumseh to the list. Just finished my mower and the plug is in the worst possible place. Oil all over the place

Do any of you have any experience with trying to use the following tools to suck the oil out the dipstick:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93290

or the more expensive but perhaps more versitle:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45403 (1/4" siphon hose)

Jay

I doubt that squeeze bulb siphon would work with oil but that vacuum pump and tank would work. You can also get those vacuum pumps that look like the back half of a grease gun.

Yeah, I am going to get the pump tank. I think I can also use that on my car too... But first, I'm trying it on the splitter... I shall try to report back when I do, it might not be for awhile as my splitting duties are waning now, I just need to run the splitter dry for storage.. might be a good time to do the oil change too, while the oil is warm.

Jay

HittinSteel said:

Shipper50 said:

Hard Woods said:

Mine has a plug under the engine- tricky to get to though. Messy to drain.....

Click to expand...

Mine does too now that I found it. Had to tilt it back to get to the plug, used a 3/8 universal socket extension to get into the plug. The dumb asses who designed this should have their b--- cut off.

Shipper

Click to expand...

Full agreement.......add the engineers at Tecumseh to the list. Just finished my mower and the plug is in the worst possible place. Oil all over the place

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Once again, these forums come through and help me. Not being much of an engine guy I was pretty embarrassed at not being able to find the drain plug on my Huskee. I did a search on these forums and found this thread. Sure seems like a stupid design!

I would point out that it often isn't the engine designers fault that things like oil changes are difficult... In many (most?) cases, the engines are made in a "universal" design that is sourced by the equipment manufacturers such that the same engine may be used on dozens of different sorts of machines, made by even more different manufacturers, not to mention having different "brand" labels slapped on the same machine, made in the same plant, by the same people, etc... Thus the problem can more often be blamed on the equipment makers, who are often more motivated by saving a couple bucks than they are by convenience in servicing....

Of course, I would also add that it usually isn't that hard to solve such bad designs by appropriate use of a few dollars worth of plumbing fittings at the first oil change...

Gooserider