Used motor oil for bar chain oil?

[Oldcountryboy]

Is it allright to use used motor oil for the chainsaw bar?

When I was growing up seems everyone poured used motor oil into their chainsaw. But is it wise with today's chainsaws?

[jbos333]

No! Don't do it! "Real" bar and chain oil has an additive that makes it tacky, to keep it from flinging off the chain at high speed. Not to mention running contaminated oil with metal shavings, etc. through the oil pump.

I'm pretty frugal, but I wouldn't pour used motor oil in my $700 saw. You can buy the right stuff for $8 to $14 a gallon.

[arabian knight]

I sure wouldn't. The viscosity is so much different then motor oil, it has different additives and is much thicker, and has some additives that make it tacky, or sticky is another word. No way would I even think about it motor oil used or new in a chain saw.

[DaleK]

Nope don't do it. Besides, everyone knows used motor oil is for burning brush.

[maverickxxx]

I couldn't imagine what I'd look like at the end of day running that in my saws. Much less everything else. U defiantly wouldn't want to send those logs any where but firewood pile. It's like 8-9$ a gallon

[andyd2023]

I have a friend who "cuts" his bar&chain oil 50/50 with his used engine oil seems to work for him But I would not do it. Good bar&chain oil is not that costly that I want to risk a $500 saw to it. I use a good tacky brand name oil, that stays on the chain. Save money some place else.
Andrew

[dkhern]

in an emergency i was serriously considering doing just that with these reply ive got to rethink thanks all

[big rockpile]

Well I'm going against the grain here,used Motor Oil is all I've used in my saw for years and have yet to replace the Bar,Chain is good for about 20 cord,sharpening twice a day,cutting Oak and Hickory.

big rockpile

[Bob Huntress]

I use to have an old, and very heavy, McCullach chain saw that a neighbor gave me when she was informed that her husband was arrested in Mexico. It was very old and while I could start the saw, and it did run alright, I used the used motor oil a few times in it for bar & chain oil. It did fine, but I don't think I would use it in my Husqurvana, as much as it cost. She also gave me an old Fraiser tiller, that I loved. It had to have been a great machine in it's day, cause in the late 1980's it was the smoothest running tiller I have ever operated. I pretty great tiller for free. It is now at my uncles in New Hampshire. I sure do miss that tiller, however.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I know a guy that dumps it in the diesel tank on his tractor!

[Oldcountryboy]

Well I was just wondering. I think I've got enough chain oil to cut one rick tomorrow morning. That'll get me by till I make it to town.

[OkieDavid]

I've used old oil from my uncle's race car for bar oil. It's 90wt and is changed after each night of racing. Has probably 30 min run time on it. Being 90wt it sticks fine but the only time I ran 10wt oil it flung it out to fast so I didn't even run a tank of it. I've only been using it for 15 years without any bar/chain issues.

[Fire-Man]

Probably most of the ones on here that tell you not to use the old oil---have never used it in their saw and never would. Using used motor oil was all my Dad and his Dad ever used and they heated their home with wood. Never a problem. They had a Trick they used, They dropped a magnet in the jug of used oil to help collect any metal that was in the oil. Motor oil is usually thinner than bar oil and will sling off the blade easier if it gets on the teeth. Its not the teeth that needs oil, its the guides in the bar track that needs oil so the excess slinging off the teeth will not hurt anything. I personally would not have a problem using burnt oil in my own $500 saw. Its not my $500 saw that would wear out IF it was a bad deal to use it---its my $50 bar that would have to be replaced, BUT I have had to replace my High Dollar bow blade several times back when I heated with wood for years and I have ALWAYS used chain bar oil in that saw because My friend got all the bar oil we used for free. If I had some used oil I wanted to use in my chainsaw tomorrow I would drop a magnet in the jug and use it and not give it a second thought. Just My Opinion!

[badlander]

Gotta agree with big rockpile.

We use used motor oil in both of our chainsaws. No Problems. If you stop to think about it, the chain environment is not clean. It is filthy just by exposure to wood chips, saw dust and soil.

I like Fire-man's idea about the magnet though...just in case but I'm betting that the occurrence of damaging metal fragments is relatively low if you are maintaining your used oil source properly. When we do our own oil changes on tractors, dirt bikes and cars we always save the oil to use as back up on our chain saws in case we do run out of chain oil.

Been doing this for 5 years now with no ill effects to our equipment.

[farmrbrown]

I gotta admit I wanted to see others' opinions before I opened my big mouth, lol, because I'm guilty of using old motor oil too, when I'm out of bar oil. It DOES use more of it, but when you have a gallon or two of past oil changes lying around and wood that needs cut........
I looked at some chainsaw forums also and found about the same comments. Apparently some of the older owner's manuals actually ok using SAE 30 wt oil in case you run out.
Not the best thing, but better than nothing.

[greg_n_ga]

Originally Posted by DaleK

Nope don't do it. Besides, everyone knows used motor oil is for burning brush.

and startin fires in the heater !!

[lordoftheweeds]

I'll admit that I have done it a couple of times when I ran out of bar oil. It seemed to work fine, a lot messier though

[highlands]

Oil is inexpensive.
Good chainsaws are very expensive.

I would not do it.

[Olpoop]

I used old motor oil in my chainsaw oilers back in the late 70s and early 80s, and I never had a problem, but I haven’t had a saw for several years. Back then, we could buy new Double Eagle brand reclaimed motor oil by the quart (CO & NM) when we ran short of our own used oil. It was only a few cents per quart, and folks used it primarily in cars and trucks that leaked or burned a lot of oil. I think that the weight was called 30W, but it seemed thicker than normal 30W oil to me. I don’t remember a 40W back then, just the 90W differential oil being the next step up in weight, so maybe it was a “thick 30W”.

Those of us that had oil-burners or leakers used STP to thicken up the oil in our old vehicles too, so the viscosity of that used oil that we drained out may have been thicker than today’s used oil. SAE 30 was a commonly used weight, instead of the 5W20 used today.

That was back when even if the saw had an automatic oiler, and we could still manually pump as much oil to the bar as we wanted.

CD in Oklahoma

[JohnP]

I've used new and used motor oil, tranny fluid, gear oil. Gear oil is for warm weather use and the thinner stuff for cold weather use. I've never paid more than 150 for a saw but I don't see what difference it makes. We're not running it through the motor after all. A bar and chain is pretty close in price for any saw.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer the real McCoy and it's what I have right now but if I need to cut something I'd rather have some kind of oil on the bar. I had one saw that I couldn't substitute oil though. I poured motor oil in the top and it ran right out the bottom.