Well, my X360 blew up....

Hi Everyone,

This is just a note for everyone regarding my experience. I wish I had more to share...

I have a 2013 JD X360 that mainly gets used to cut my 1-acre lot on a slight hill. The hill is so slight that I can cut up and down or across with no issues. The only other thing I use it for is to pull my Agrifab leaf vac (I got this in 2024) in the fall. On Saturday, I was cutting the grass and something violent and tragic happened inside the engine. It came apart big time. It did not come through the side of the block but the engine was seized at that point. I do have a local small engine shop/lawn mower junk yard and he had an X320 with a 22hp engine (slightly more hours) so I was able to get it replaced with that one. A new one was $3500 so that was not an option. He has not taken the engine apart yet but said that he found the oil at a normal level and looked like it was ready to be changed. That makes sense as it would have been done in the next few weeks before winter storage. I pick it up tomorow so we shall see.

For some stats:
2013 X360 with the 22hp motor
545 hours
Oil and filter every year as I store it in the fall. I use the the JD LG265 service kit

If anyone has had a similar experience I would be interested in knowing more for interested than anything. It’s one of those things I could not do anything about. I had the mower serviced for the 1st 5 years by the local JD shop where it was purchased. I change the oil, air filter, plugs and fuel filter annually as they all come with the service kit. I only put about 40-50 hours on it each year. I did the transmission/steering filter service at ~200 and 400 hours as well (longer than recommended I know).

I kinda leaning toward a downed push rod jamming the crank gear to cam gear and oil pump gear but is just a guess. A tear down is the only to know what happen. Report back when you find out what happen.

What RPM was the engine ran at, ALL the time. Idle down for warm ups? Idle down for cool off's? Low RPM's to save gas?

slomo said:

What RPM was the engine ran at, ALL the time. Idle down for warm ups? Idle down for cool off's? Low RPM's to save gas?

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Has a Kawasaki FH engine on it, great engine. People say “my engine blew up” a lot. Often it is a broken connecting rod. When is the last time the engine shroud and tins where removed to check for debris on cylinder head cooling fins, etc.?

The engine shroud question is a great one!!! I've had it off a few times over the years but not regularly. The last time was 2 months ago. The vacuum line going to the fuel pump was cracked and the pump was not working well. I needed to replace that line and needed to remove the shroud for that. I will admit that it did have a small nest on the right side of the engine and I cleaned it out thoroughly. That’s actually the 1st time I’ve seen that but I did think that I should make a regular/annual check to make sure it is clean. I will ask the guy that replaced the engine today if he saw anything.

I am curious, without a huge “reaction”, does anyone think that a full synthetic or synthetic blend oil would be an ok idea?

Thanks again everyone!!

I use only synthetic oils in nearly all of my oil changes. Matter I just change out a Hydro Gear pump and wheel motor oil on the Yazoo-Kees repair. And that was 2 gallons of oil. Hydro Gear just started recently recommending synthetic oil with zinc in their units.

lkaskel said:

anyone think that a full synthetic or synthetic blend oil would be an ok idea?

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Take your used oil from your car or truck. Pour into your mower.