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Burning Oil When Hot

#1

mrmupton

mrmupton

Hi, My Hustler Fastrak SuperZ 52” with a Kawasaki engine (1000 hours) is burning oil after a hard days work. It got real bad when i was cutting some thick grass and I saw grass covered the air cooling fan so it was definitely starting to over-heat. It only smokes when hot toward the end of my 5 acre lot generally, and not usually a whole lot. Smoke is not coming from exhaust but from under engine on mounting plate.

I’m planning on changing out the oil and cleaning under engine to see if there is an oil leak, but wonder if there is something else it might be. It seemed better immediately after cleaning out underneath the engine and the air cooling fan. What can I rule out as an issue? I don’t think its a piston ring as the exhaust is clear.. could be a leak or a gasket? I’m wondering if it is the later because its only an issue under duress.

Would love your thoughts and recommendations! Thanks!


#2

B

bertsmobile1

Oil cold be overheating & getting too thin
What oil are you using ?
Apart from that if it is on the top of the floor under the engine then apart from a hole Kawasaki did not make being there you only have 4 options
1) leaking sump gasket
2) excessive wear in the governor rod hole
3) loose oil filter
3 ) bad breather
Check underneath the mower
If it is very oily underneath the floor then that shifts the blame to a leaking lower seal
When that happens oil drip down the PTO shaft then hits the pulley & gets flung everywhere .


#3

B

Bertrrr

It's not burning oil - it's losing oil somewhere and getting hot makes it smoke nearly all engines have small oil leaks when they have a lot of hrs running. Just add as needed until you find / fix the oil leak


#4

M

MParr

Did you remove the fan shroud and clean the cooling fins on top of the engine? If not, do so.
Kawasaki has updated their oil recommendations to include 20W50 oil for hot ambient temperatures and engines that are using oil. Kawasaki recommends10W40 through 20W50.


#5

M

MParr

Delete


#6

mrmupton

mrmupton

bertsmobile1 said:
Oil cold be overheating & getting too thin
What oil are you using ?
Apart from that if it is on the top of the floor under the engine then apart from a hole Kawasaki did not make being there you only have 4 options
1) leaking sump gasket
2) excessive wear in the governor rod hole
3) loose oil filter
3 ) bad breather
Check underneath the mower
If it is very oily underneath the floor then that shifts the blame to a leaking lower seal
When that happens oil drip down the PTO shaft then hits the pulley & gets flung everywhere .
Click to expand...
I just changed the oil 20/40 kawasaki oil, oil filter, air filters, spark plugs and fuel filter. Ran fine for an hour then ran out of fuel. After restarting with E10 in engine it was losing power and not cutting with the deck on. Changed the fuel back to non-ethonol (siphoned out) and it was still struggling. Air intake looks clear (but I'll clean that out as the next commentator mentions), and can't see where oil is coming from, but exhaust tubes are smoking a little. It is not messy around the PTO under the engine, but had build up of oil on floor under engine above PTO.
The oil filter may have been slightly lose, but not sure if that was the culprit for the oil. Possibly for the oil build up under the engine block.

Spark plugs looked ok when I changed the oil... little grey colored but not terrible.


#7

mrmupton

mrmupton

MParr said:
Did you remove the fan shroud and clean the cooling fins on top of the engine? If not, do so.
Kawasaki has updated their oil recommendations to include 20W50 oil for hot ambient temperatures and engines that are using oil. Kawasaki recommends10W40 through 20W50.
Click to expand...
I'm using 20W40 from the oil change kit. I'll clean it out as see if it helps.


#8

mrmupton

mrmupton

mrmupton said:
I'm using 20W40 from the oil change kit. I opened everything up and cleaned it.
Click to expand...


#9

mrmupton

mrmupton

Opened up the air intake and it looks pretty clean, no debris or build up.


#10

B

Bertrrr

That E10 fuel does not have the octane to run properly, If your plug was gray in color this is a sign of a clean burning engine, clean up the engine with something so you can see where your leak is


#11

mrmupton

mrmupton

mrmupton said:
I'm using 20W40 from the oil change kit. I'll clean it out as see if it helps.
Click to expand...
Bertrrr said:
That E10 fuel does not have the octane to run properly, If your plug was gray in color this is a sign of a clean burning engine, clean up the engine with something so you can see where your leak is
Click to expand...
The only place i saw build up was around the rod that goes into the engine below the carburetor. But would that cause the engine to not run well? I couldn’t tell if it was leaking there though. Is that the governor rod?


#12

B

bertsmobile1

OK
So it started to run bad after you ran out of fuel
This suggests a partially blocked fuel line.
This can either be crud in the lines or tank blocking the outlet or damaged fuel lines
Remove the fuel line between the pump & fuel tank ( the pump has check valves in it )
Blow back down the fuel lines .
If it is really hard to blow back and the engine then runs better that suggests fuel starvation from obstructed tank / lines


#13

7394

7394

mrmupton said:
I'm using 20W40 from the oil change kit. I'll clean it out as see if it helps.
Click to expand...
Ya mean 20w-50 right ?


#14

mrmupton

mrmupton

bertsmobile1 said:
OK
So it started to run bad after you ran out of fuel
This suggests a partially blocked fuel line.
This can either be crud in the lines or tank blocking the outlet or damaged fuel lines
Remove the fuel line between the pump & fuel tank ( the pump has check valves in it )
Blow back down the fuel lines .
If it is really hard to blow back and the engine then runs better that suggests fuel starvation from obstructed tank / lines
Click to expand...
Thanks.. sounds like it could also be breather tube? I changed the fuel pump end of last season. It runs fine as long as it is not under load. The smoking + loss of power seems to suggest that? Never replaced breather assembly… sounds like a pain?


#15

B

bertsmobile1

The engine is running on the idle jet untill you turn the blades on
This is why the run speed ≈ 3600 rpm is often called "high idle "
When the blades get turned on the throttle open up and fuel is drawn through the main jet
So if the float bowl is only partially full or the fuel flow is compromised then engine faulters .


#16

mrmupton

mrmupton

Hi all, thanks for your continued help through this. So I found that one cylinder has a fouled spark plug that looks like it has wet oil on it. When I recently did an oil change both the plugs were fine looking. This is after running for an hour or so afterwards. The mower stopped I assumed because of fuel being out but when i refilled it had low power and wouldn’t cut. When I refilled i used E10 instead of ethanol free, but it had low power so I assumed I needed to switch to ethanol free. I did not run E10 very long (5 mins?). Do I have a leak in the cylinder now and need to get the rings head gasket and seals replaced or should i just replace the spark plug? I think the earlier smoking could have been from a leaking oil filter (not leaking now).


#17

B

Bertrrr

Install a new plug , if it's wet looking it's not firing - there's your power loss, The type of gas you used does not effect the rings / compression etc. It's just a lower octane and does not deliver the needed power for your machine.
I suffered through a tank of this by keeping the machine choked but do not fool with it anymore,
Pull both plugs and ground them while cranking over the machine , they should both show a spark if one does not, it's bad or the coil wire attached is not. Swap the plugs over and retry to prove it's the plug or wire attached.


#18

B

bertsmobile1

Different energy contents is why carbs have replaceable jets
When we went from leaded to unleaded jet sizes went up 11 % ( on average ).
When e-10 was announced jet sizes went up 4% to account for it's lower energy content ( on average )


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