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tcross
03-13-2023, 07:14 AM
question for guys who use older dair pumps. mine is a bb4 piston pump. i usually use tractor supply dairy pump oil, but haven't been able to find it locally so i got a different brand (can't remember the name). i changed my oil yesterday. it looked ok, but figured i'd change it before it warms up and the sap starts to really run. the new oil seemed a little bit thicker. filled up the pump and ran it for 10 minutes and noticed it started looking cloudy. so i figured i must have had some water in there, however the old oil i had just drained didn't look watery at all. refilled the pump with the new oil again, and same thing. cloudy/a little snotty looking. I repeated the process one more time. i didn't have any more oil after that, so i figured i was at the sugar house and i'd let it run and keep an eye on it. within probably an hour, to an hour and a half the oil clearing up and looked "normal/clear". any idea what's up with that? could the oil be to thick or perhaps the wrong type of oil (it says it's for piston and vain pumps)? no sap in my moisture traps and the old oil didn't have any frozen on top of it... so i'm doubting i have sap/water in the pump, but i guess it is possible?

collinsmapleman2012
03-13-2023, 10:06 AM
air bubbles getting trapped in the oil before it really gets hot enough to ve viscous and let them out quickly would be my guess. thicker oil makes a little better seal too, so should see good results from it. the tsc stuff is quite thin but seems to work decent.

tcross
03-14-2023, 12:11 PM
Thanks for your input collinsmapleman2012. That makes more sense than anything i've been able to think of. after running it for a hour or so it looks "normal". Thanks again!

maple flats
03-14-2023, 09:22 PM
I agree, but I only used the tractor supply oil, with one exception. My first oil change I bought vacuum oil from a dairy supply store, the price was way more than the tractor supply oil. After that, I always kept several gallons of the TSC oil on hand, buying it during the summer so I'd have it.
I don't recall the high priced one being much thicker.

i Also used it on a BB4 and before I got that pump I used it on an Alamo 30 and an Alamo 75-100.