Onan BFA Oil - Why not 20W-50?
Note: Our typical camping climate range runs from 10F to 115F (if we go to Redding, CA in the summer... otherwise up to about 105 in Southern Oregon.) Clearly Onan/Cummins have updated their recom...
Forum Discussion
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Aircraft engines have different variables/environments then aircooled engines that run in vehicles or generators. I would not use an aircraft oil in anything but a piston engined aircraft.
From 120F Phoenix AZ to sub-freezing 12,000 ft., please explain what variables/environment means :) For many years ONAN touted their $5 qt. oil was "Extremely Low Ash".
I have successfully used Aeroshell 60 and 80 in many high temperature high altitude 37 horsepower air cooled Wisconsin generators and other air cooled units. Lander Lake and I traded emails after 35 years and the owner reported the Wisconsin gained 27,000 hours of operation before it needed to be overhauled. He purchased his oil in Reno, same place I got my oil. I would NOT recommend Aeroshell for a water-cooled engine.
The ONLY thing that counts is the cost per hour of trouble-free operation. Any other measurement is bogus. This does indeed include the cost of rebuilding the engine.
In the early seventies a friend complained his 40 HP Shultzwagen bus kept blowing engines down in Mexico. I recommended Aeroshell. Thereafter no seized piston to liner problems. But then again such stories are entirely coincidental miracles.
Aircraft engines are manufactured with different tolerances and materials and work under much different environments than their aircooled counterparts that spend time as a generator or an ACVW engine in a bug or bus. They also don't see the high speed RPM's that ACVW engines and generators see. Aircraft piston engines are generally running around 2400rpm or so. AN ACVW going down the highway at 60+ mph will be turning 3800+rpm's.
