what oil

[backyardsugarer]

what oil weight should I be putting in my sp 11? Thanks

Chris

[Dennis H.]

I use Mercon/Dextron Automatic Tranny fluid in my SP22, works great.

I have heard somewhere that someone has a special oil blend that they make up.

[red maples]

compressor pump oil.

[Parker]

Early in the year we use ATF when it warms up we go to 30wt. and a littel marvel mystry oil.. THese pumps start to get pretty hot when its 70 deg. out...Atf is kinda thin late in the year IMHO

[lmathews]

Dennis H,
How many inches of vac are you running your sp22 and with the atf fluid?
Parker,
How many inches of vac are you running your sp11 with the oils that you use?
For any one wishing to let us know,why are you using those oils instead of regular vac oils?
I hope to switch to an sp11 this year at 26" of vac.
Thanks for any info.

[Dennis H.]

I run it at 22-23".
I do have a little spray out the exhaust but I might have added 1 quart all season last year. I do not have a real good oil reclaimer/trap so I do get some lost oil so I add.
I turn my pump off when it does get below freezing and start it back up in the morning right before is warms up. Even then I trip the breaker a few times starting it cause of cold oil. uasually 2-3 times. I might have had 5 times that it didn't trip the breaker on start up.

The key to is to keep the SP as cool as possible.
I have my vac in an enclosed little shed so I put a small fan that blows directly onto the head of the pump.
Some people say that if you spit onto the vac pump head and it sizzles it is running perfect. Man in my opion that is way to hot. Just to give you an idea Mine does run hot, you can put your hand onto the pump for a few moments but not hot enough to burn the paint off.
I problably could run a little higher vac levels but I want a reliable pump and I don't want to kill it.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I use a special blend of WHAT EVER OIL in my Massport. I start with 5 gallons of Red Dot cheap as hell followed up with some bar oil and some left over cans of trans and comp oil.............worked just fine.

[Parker]

I try to pull 22-23" with my sp-22,,bb4,,,these are piston pumps like the sp-11,,In a vane pump (surge 76) I used to run vac. pump oil (10wt hydrulic oil)
In a vane pump the oil forms the seal between the rotating vanes and the inside barrell of the pump head,,,a light oil works well for this. (you do want a heavier oil late in the season or you will have a super hot-seized pump).
In a piston pump the oil is lubracating a crankshaft and bearings (like the inside of an internal combustion engine)...I think (my opinion) 10 wt. hydraulic oil is too light for this application. My pumps get too hot with light oil once the temp warms up.
I try to keep the pump head cool enough so the paint does not burn off

[backyardsugarer]

I was pulling 24" last year with my sp11 on 550 taps using 30 weight oil. It did make for hard starts on cold morining so I guess I will go with automatic tranny fluid early in the year and then switch over to something thicker. Good advice on the fan as I plan to build a little shed for my pump and generator this year.

Chris