CV15-41562 Ticking Noise?

[Scrubcadet10]

This weekend I will double check the oil level which might be a tiny bit high and take it down to a smidge below the full line and see what happens. I will then try the breather tube and see if that tells me anything. Worst case I already have a couple of quarts of the Kolher synthetic 10w30 waiting should I want to change it back over. I certainly hope that I am not juggling one problem for another by changing oil grades. Maybe I will look for a good off-road oil with ZDDP?

kawasaki K-Tech is supposed to be high in ZDDP, comes in the usual Weights.

 

[cruzenmike]

Put about another 5 hours on it and still getting the smell of burning oil every once in a while. It comes and go and seems to be only when under heavy loads. She's not smoking or anything so I will just keep checking the oil level. Once it drops below where I can fill with the remainder of my oil jug I will do an oil and filter change and switch back to the Kohler 10w30 and see if the burning smell goes away or the lifted noise comes back.

 

[slomo]

Place a clean white tissue or paper towel over the exhaust outlet hole. Rev it for a bit. See what you get.

slomo

 

[cruzenmike]

Switched back over to the Kohler Full Synthetic oil with higher capacity filter this week. A couple of things that I have noticed since I switched back to the oil that I was using before:

- Burning oil smell is not as apparent as before, although I thought it to be generally accepted that multi-grade oils tend to "burn" more than SAE 30 does.
- The engine appears to get "hotter" with use of the multi-grade oil as opposed to the SAE30. This may be due to the multi-grade oil thickening when hot which equals more work for the engine?
- Valve noise did not come back even with 2 hours of continuous use. I will mention that ambient air temperatures this week were about 20-30 degrees cooler than the last time I used this oil and was hearing the noise.

Considering all of the things that I have said, I am still quite confused as to what is going on. I would have thought that a valve/lifter problem was something that wouldn't just come and go if there is a true "failure" of one of those engine components. If all of this is simply related to ambient air temperatures or the oil grade, then I will just have to keep looking for the combination that doesn't burn as much while still keeping the lifters quiet.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Synthetics have lower ash and don't burn as much as mono grade or multi grades
No burn = no smell

Multi grade oils, synthetic or standard DO NOT GET THICKER AS THEY GET HOTTER, this was advertising BS that has become urban myth
Multi grades get thinner just like everything else does as it gets hot, but they thin at a SLOWER / LOWER rate than a monograde oil
So SAE 30 & 1W 30 ( or any other xxW 30 will all be the same ( thinner ) viscosity at working temperature.
From memory the "working temperature " is 100 C

The difference is the viscosity when cold which puts a heavy load on the starter motor
This is why up north where it snows they recommend 5w 30 or 10w 30 and down south were it don't snow strait 30 or 40 or even 20w 50
For horizontal cylinder engines the lower cold viscosity tends to make them more prone to leaking when not in use and oil leaking past the piston rings & accumulating in the bore causing a few puffs of smoke on start up.

 

[cruzenmike]

Well...... I think the Kohler finally took a crap today!! It has been running "fine" the last few weeks with only a slight hint of oil burn and no ticking or knocking from the engine. I was mowing and sweeping the lawn for about 3 hours today when all of a sudden the engine started to make a loud noise and within seconds it started to lose power. I shut it off and checked to make sure that I had not run it out of gas but the tank was half full. I tried starting it back up but it was having a really hard time turning over. When it finally did start it noticed a HORRENDOUS knocking from the engine. This time it sounds like it is coming from inside the crankcase and not the valve cover. I limped it back to the garage and put it away for the season but now have to figure out what I am going to do with it.

At this point I have quite a bit of money put into the machine that it seems almost worth it to try and fix the engine so that I have a near-perfect machine, but then again, if I pour another $500 dollars into it, I will have then put as much money into this 22 year old machine as what a new riding mower costs.

I was checking out the website that Tom sent and found that they are selling a Loncin 452cc engine. Here is the link for it: https://www.surpluscenter.com/Engin...tical-Loncin-LC1P92F-1-Gas-Engine-28-1877.axd

I fully realize that I can find a used CV15 that I could just swap in, or I could opt for the Briggs Intek conversion, but at this point I am not going to buy a used motor and I do not want to spend the $750 for the new Briggs.

If I remember correctly, the Loncin engine is the same on that is used in a Toro zero turn mower, and possibly even one model of Exmark (Quest). Since it is nearly the same size displacement, close to the same HP and I believe has the same shaft size.

Maybe someone on here can answer a couple of questions that I have about this engine:

1) Would this engine have the same bolt pattern so that I can mount it right up where the Kohler was?

2) While this engine will most certainly have a voltage regulator whereas mine does not, what other electrical modifications will have to be made to use this engine?

3) One of the specs that I see on this engine state that it has splash lubrication and not pressure lubrication. While it is easy to believe this to be the case considering the price of the engine, it just seemed odd considering that Toro was placing this into a $2500 zero turn and giving it a 3-year warranty. Should splash lubrication have any significant impact on performance or durability for such as small machine as my LT155?

4) I know that the Toro model that has this engine does not appear to have a separate choke lever, so should my single lever (throttle and choke combined) work just fine?

If in the end I cannot swap over to one of these Loncin engines I will likely end up selling it on Craiglist for parts.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes it has the same bolt pattern

You will have to remove the plug on either the mower or the engine and rewire one of them

No Splash is fine for domestic mowers

YEs or you can buy a universal choke lever & fit it .

Check other surpllus retailer
Small engine warehouse & small engine suppliers
Around this time of year excess production from last year is flogged off and even better price are the scratch & pulls where the mower factory pulls out last years engine & fits a new one for next season .
However as the season is almost over you might like to pull the Kohler down again and check the counterweight

 

[cruzenmike]

Yes it has the same bolt pattern

You will have to remove the plug on either the mower or the engine and rewire one of them

No Splash is fine for domestic mowers

YEs or you can buy a universal choke lever & fit it .

Check other surpllus retailer
Small engine warehouse & small engine suppliers
Around this time of year excess production from last year is flogged off and even better price are the scratch & pulls where the mower factory pulls out last years engine & fits a new one for next season .
However as the season is almost over you might like to pull the Kohler down again and check the counterweight

Thanks for the reply. I am thinking that the conversion would only be difficult in the electrical and the muffler. Honestly, a Toro ZTR muffler as found on the SS4200 might even fit right up. As for the fuel, I would just need to run the rubber house around to the other side from where it is now. Assuming that the crankshaft is the same length and with the same keyway all the way, the double pulley should fit up without an issue. My only hesitation in doing this is that I do not want to run into some type of issue that I cannot easily resolve myself in the garage.

As for the Kohler, I would maybe consider passing it off to a small engine mechanic who does this kind of stuff on the side to maybe avoid the expensive labor rates but given the known issue with the lifter(s), the fact that the head and or/piston may be damaged now and it already burning oil, this engine is looking at a complete overhaul and then some. I wouldn't put more than $100 into fixing this if I was doing the work myself, which I am not even capable of doing the piston rings. I would almost rather take my chances throwing the Loncin engine in it and seeing if I can get another year or two out of it. For $400 total to swap the engine and put on a new muffler, it would totally be worth it to go that route.

I have been speaking with my wife about this situation, and unfortunately, she is of NO HELP considering that I sold my almost new Exmark earlier in the year when COVID cost me a significant amount of income and now I am in this situation of having a 22-year-old mower that is broke down; she didn't want to hear it.

I am now in the financial position to buy something new, but I would like to see this mower go to a good home as-is or at the very least throw this new engine in it an try to maybe recoup some money. I think that as it sits the mower might fetch $300 but with a working engine (even a new Chinese one), I might be able to get $750. The mower is in very good condition, deck has been completely rebuilt and the trans is still strong. It has a lot going for it, just bad luck with the engine!

 

[cruzenmike]

I finally took the engine out and started breaking it down from the top end first. This is my first time removing an engine head and valve cover so I do not know what I am looking at. When I loosened the rockers, the two rods came out and were in tack with oil flowing through them. The lifters were both at the top and at the time that I pulled the cover off, both valves where in the same position (partially down). There is a LOT of carbon buildup on the top of the piston and head and in the exhaust port, but I was kind of expecting that. If there is nothing out of the ordinary here, the next thing to do would be to disassemble the bottom end and check the camshaft. Also, looking at the cylinder wall and knowing that it was burning oil, am I correct in assuming that the piston needs to be removed, the cylinder honed and new rings installed?

 

[ILENGINE]

Cylinder walls show very little wear since part of the crosshatch is still present. But that heat glaze pattern is kind of unique. I would pull the lifters out next and see what the bottoms look like. See if they have a groove worn into them. The lifters would appear to be all the way up after the push rods are removed due to the internal spring in them.