Tom McCahill, who published a book titled “What You Should Know About Cars”, published in the early 1960s, did not like detergent oils. He claimed that detergent oils, which held the particles in suspension, was hard on bearings. The.paeticles are pumped through the bearings as the engine runs. He thought non-detergent was the way to go as the particles would.settle out to the bottom of the crankcase.
Perhaps Pennzoil and the STP mentioned in the posts is not as high on detergent as other brands of oils
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Well oil and engines change just like everything else. The detergents are not going away and engines have been lasting longer and longer. Maybe a non-detergent oil in a mower like this isn’t so bad as there isn’t an oil filter to trap particulates. That is the thing. As long as the particle is smaller than the thickness of the oil film, everything is fine. That is why the oil filter is so important. Many older cars didn’t have a filter so it is true that detergent oils might not be the best for them. This would especially be the case for cars that had been using non-detergent oil and a layer of sludge was just ready to be stripped off the bottom of the pan by a new oil.
I don’t think this STP oil was anything special. If it had been marketed for mowers, that might have been one thing. This was an oil sold for automotive use so letting crud settle out doesn’t bode well for the oil if you ask me. This, and the fact that it seemed to burn/smoke off like made compared to anything else I have had in that engine.
I sometimes wonder about the environmental impact of newer and more efficient models that just aren’t meant to last. In dealing with computers, I get older customers who are upset they only got 6 years out of the unit they are replacing. I tell them that you got a good long life and your money out of that one so should be happy with the durability. Then there are the appliances. I know several people who have all had the same experience. The old energy hog keeps running while the new ones last a few years and need to be replaced. I am sure a lot of the larger items get recycled and the replacement will be even more efficient. How much energy is used in crushing, melting down, and recycling of the materials? Then there are the smaller items like coffee pots, toasters, etc. that just get trashed. How about computers, phones, TVs. etc? These contain all kinds of toxic materials but many probably just trash them.
Also, there is the constant upgrade. My GF has a basic model smart phone. All she really does is talk, text, and do some internet and e-mail on a rare occasion. The model is no longer supported with software updates which is my biggest concern. Then there is the fact that she is going to need a new battery soon. I tried replacing it and all the batteries available are “new old stock”, meaning they have been sitting on the shelf for years. These haven’t worked out and I cannot find an actual new battery for the phone so she will be getting a new phone soon because the old battery is only good for a couple hours.
Many people continue to use old tech long after the manufacturer drops support for the device. This is overall a bad thing if you ask me because this is how people are getting hacked all the time. While this is most common with individuals, Equifax is a striking example of what happens when a large corporation cuts corners in this regard. That was actually caused by Equifax delaying the updates to a known problem for at least 3 months. Most of the big hacks you hear about in the news are COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE!
Several miles from my house there is a city-run sanitation facility that specializes in collecting electrical waste, engine oil, coolant, old paint, computers, tvs, etc.
I store my waste (power cords, cfl bulbs, phones, old computers, etc.) in my garage until it’s worth a trip
They only ask for your zip code and nothing else. What happens to the stuff afterwards, I have no idea
And my old coolant, oil and filters get dumped at work. Even when I was at the dealership, I would do that. And guys would always stare at me and ask what I was doing. When I asked them where they dumped THEIR old oil and coolant, I usually got a blank stare.
@cwatkin. My dad had a 1949 Dodge and his mechanic recommended he switch from non-detergent to detergent oil. The oil consumption increased drastically with the detergent oil. The detergent oil probably loosened up the rings. I bought a used 1955 Pontiac that the Rambler dealer had taken in on trade. His service department hadl “overhauled” the engine which probably consisted of new rings and a valve job. From day one, I had problems with the studs that held the rocker arms plugging up and then the rocker arms would chirp. On the 1955 Pontiac, an oil filter was an option and my Pontiac didn’t have that option. My guess is that there was still sludge in the oil passages. The Ford engines of that period had problems with oil getting to the rocker arms, but since the Ford engines had the rocker arms mounted on a shaft, bypass oil lines could be run directly to the rocker arm shaft. With the stud mounted rocker arms, this was not possible with the Pontiac engine.
I hate to throw anything away. I mistakenly bought frozen orange drink concentrate instead of frozen orange juice concentrate. When I mixed up the orange drink concentrate, it was like water. Its viscosity was 0. When mixed with water, the orange juice concentrate has a higher viscosity, probably something like 30. I mixed the orange drink concentrate with the orange juice concentrate. We now are drinking 0W -20 orange juice as opposed to 30 weight orange juice and we seem to be drinking more of the 0W- 20.
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We used to pay $25 per computer to have them recycled, after pulling and shredding the hard drives. The company would pull the precious metals out and separate anything so it could be disposed of. At home I wait until the annual free electronic recycling event and take a trailer load of stuff to be disposed of. I usually take the hard drives apart first though and salvage those heavy duty magnets that’ll break your finger if you’re not careful.
Don’t you have a city- or county-run permanent sanitation facility that accepts “e-waste” for free year-round
Ours accepts all those things I mentioned earlier year-round. But let me qualify that. They only accept stuff on saturdays and sundays. Nevertheless, better than paying $25 to have stuff recycled, better than waiting for a special event
No there’s a fee for electronic stuff and appliances so once a year have a free round-up. Paint, chemicals, and hazardous waste though is free. One year they made the mistake of having a city wide clean-up and would pick anything up you put out on the boulevard. It took them about a month to clean it all up. There’s a fine line between service and stupidity.
I can get eWaste recycled for free. I actually make a tiny amount of money on the scrap value but it isn’t worth the effort really. I am probably losing money between the time and gas spent to haul it in. I just do it to help customers and keep it from getting into the landfill more than anything. Originally I started recycling the stuff to deal with abandoned computers but figure I might as well help other people and the environment by hauling it in for paying customers as well.
Lots of people don’t know what to do with the stuff. Most scrap yards will pay a small amount. It is best to separate things. The steel computer cases are just tin so basically worthless but I take them in to get rid of them. The boards all have a different value. I put the CPUs, RAM, finger boards (video cards and similar), mother boards, etc. all into a separate box of all the same product. Aluminum heatsinks add up quickly as well. They pay more with things torn about and there are some things they don’t want if they aren’t torn apart.
CRT type monitors and TVs are a different story. These can get quite costly to recycle and are typically about a buck per pound for me to recycle. I charge this price to haul them off and get them recycled so most people just leave them in their garage, basement, etc. They are basically toxic waste and unfortunately I see them dumped along the roadside with old tires and such.
The city has a hazmat cleanup. There is one once per year where they take stuff but do charge. There is another one during the week on certain days of the month but they have the strangest hours and anyone that works has a hard time making it. I once took in a bunch of light tubes and they were like “You need an appointment for these”. I was like, “I work and I can’t always get away at an exact time.” Anyway, they took them but didn’t seem happy. I have a bunch more of these light tubes and now that it is getting hard to get rid of them, I am planning to replace a bunch of the older units with LEDs and just ditch some of the flourescent tubes even if they still work. It seems like it should be easier to recycle this stuff that you can’t just throw in the trash. Forcing me to get rid of it all at once is making me just upgrade to LED sooner than later. I guess you can just throw LEDs in the trash these days but that might be subject to change.
Any parts place or auto shop will take used oil for free. I guess this stuff is worth money and there is a market for it, either for re-refining or heating oil furnaces that are designed to take waste oil. Coolant is a different story. I have to wait until one of the city events to get rid of this.
Office supply stores and big box hardwares take most small batteries and the CFL lights. This includes laptop, cell phone, and tool batteries of course. Auto parts stores and scrap yards pay money for lead automotive batteries.
Certain office supply stores will take like one printer in per week or month for free recycling. I am sure this all varies by area.
I think there should be a deposit on all recyclable food containers (I know some states do this) and that these should be made to be recyclable. Some materials just cannot be recycled or at least not economically. As for tires and such, the recycling fee should be charged at the time of purchase so people don’t end up throwing them in the roadside ditches and such. The fee will already be paid so the tire will be recycled for “free” at the end of its life.
China has stopped accepting a lot of our recycling. That is saying something when China won’t take our trash anymore. I guess our recycling material is too dirty with contamination.
The only thing I have a real issue with is Styrofoam packing. Some of the peanuts now are water soluble now so that’s easy, but the other stuff takes up a lot space in the garbage. I got some glass tile and the boxes were encased in foam. It took me three weeks putting a little in the garbage each week to get rid of it.
I forgot about the foam. If you can recycle #6 plastics, foam can be recycled. They only take #1 (soda, water bottles, etc.) and #2 (milk jugs, detergent containers, etc.) around here. Luckily these two are the most common.
I got a new TV a few months back. The old one died and was a nice unit when it worked but I upgraded in size of course and got the latest 4K tech. It isn’t anywhere near top of the line but you can tell it is a nicer TV for sure.
Anyway, had saved the box from the old one and moved the new box into its place. Getting rid of the foam from the box was the main deal with this. I have a friend who lets me use his dumpster so put it in that.
I burn wood so any paper or cardboard is welcome to start fires. Junk mail is a welcome sight here!