I have no idea how it happened, but a plastic shopping bag ended up covering the shroud on my Kohler 25 hp. When I finished mowing, the engine was hot and even had a smell to it. The engine oil looks very dark and also smells. I'm going to change the oil and run it, and guess I'll find out if anything was damaged. I'm just wondering if any of you have had such a problem.
I did that once on a JD 111. Cottonwood fluff clogged the screen and the weeds were tall and heavy very hot outside. A steady fog of oily smoke came out of the muffler and every drop of grease melted off the engine. The oil was like tar the next day but the mower ran another 50 hours or so. When people talk about how hot oil gets in air cooled engines I giggle a bit. Normal everyday mowing taxes oil very little compared to a real overheated condition.
If I recall, engine oil fumes will ignite out around 400F? and engine oil will self-ignite at 700F (fuzzy recall, I could look it up). Analog (sweep pointers) oil temperature gauges mostly show 300-325F as max. The message there is "yikes," that oil is too hot. Harley guys have a fit if the rear cylinder reaches 300F in parades. I guess the additives begin to disappear out around 300F, but lubrication still occurs. IMO that 300F region is a warning to ac engine owners that other problems are near at hand like head softening.
Shortly after I bought the mower run I got a load of 2" diameter key rings.
I put the mower key and one of my tags on them then convince the customer to keep the ring on the oil dip stick when they finish mowing ( to prevent kids / grandkids accidentally starting it ).
Last year only had 3 no oil engine failures as comparred to 8 & 10 the previous two seasons.
Funny how when the key is sitting on the dip stick you tend to remember to check the oil.
Not quite
My contact details one one side & check oil every use on the other
Seems to work
The first batch I just told customers to hang their keys there so they will remember to check the oil.
No one bothered
So I started with the "for the safety of the kids bit" and about 1/2 to 2/3 did it.
