Hours on a mower

[jcworks]

350 hours is very low hours. A well maintained Kawasaki engine can run up to 2000 hours without complete rebuild. Just a guideline and emphasis on well maintained. Your mileage may vary.

Thanks Tiger, thats what I needed to know.

 

[slomo]

Bert, I didn't know there was a "mower" oil. I've just used the Castrol off the shelf oil.

Briggs makes mower oil. Made by someone else no doubt.

 

[slomo]

One can trash an engine in 3 minutes. Loan yours to a neighbor and find out LOL.

I feel hour meters are not required and have no useful purpose other than lightening your wallet. One of those oh, good to know is all.

You need to worry about clean oil, valve adjustments and cooling fins.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Bert, I didn't know there was a "mower" oil. I've just used the Castrol off the shelf oil at Walmart or an auto parts store.

**Question for you** : You said some folks clamp the air filter too tight allowing dust to be sucked in. I tighten mine fairly tight with a flathead screwdriver. Did you mean to say "did NOT do it too tight ?

Firstly oils a blended with different chemicals for different end uses
The BEST mower oils are those blended for mowers however mower engines are very crude & lazy so do not put a lot of stress on their oils
Change it at the end of every season & it will be fine
The only engine damage I have seen that was attributed to oil ( apart from the lack of it ) was a customer who was running 2 sroke marine oil in his mower because he had a 5 gallon drum left over from his old ski boat

Now the air filter
The elbow should have had a wing nut on it
And you tighten it just enough till the air filter will not turn in the rubber elbow.
The other end is fine because it clamps onto aluminium bit the filter end you are clamping onto the plastic filter that deforms and allows unfiltered air to be sucked in.
Not too big a disaster if you throw but mulching creates a lot more dust around the engine and of course bagging covers everything with dust that gets sucked in
If the filter is working properly then a damp white cotton cloth will come up clean if run around the carb mouth.
My advise s always get a tub of rubber grease and apply a smeer to the filter ( not the elbow ) insert the filter & do up finger tight .
IT is a fundamentally bad design and would work better is the filter side was smaller diameter and you had to push the filter in hard to stretch the elbow .
To be on the safe side change that elbow every 3 to 5 years because once the rubber goes a bit hard it will not be able to make an airtight seal

 

[hlw49]

Most all engine manufactures have an oil branded for them. This oil is high zink that helps lubricate the valve trane. Most of them are synthetic blends. I use the Kawasaki 10W40 in my Kohler CV20 and 33 hp Generac. I always reccomend small engine oil it is designed to operate at the higher operating tempratures of the air cooled engine. Just my 2 Cents worth. Been doing this 47 years.

 

[jcworks]

Firstly oils a blended with different chemicals for different end uses
The BEST mower oils are those blended for mowers however mower engines are very crude & lazy so do not put a lot of stress on their oils
Change it at the end of every season & it will be fine
The only engine damage I have seen that was attributed to oil ( apart from the lack of it ) was a customer who was running 2 sroke marine oil in his mower because he had a 5 gallon drum left over from his old ski boat

Now the air filter
The elbow should have had a wing nut on it
And you tighten it just enough till the air filter will not turn in the rubber elbow.
The other end is fine because it clamps onto aluminum bit the filter end you are clamping onto the plastic filter that deforms and allows unfiltered air to be sucked in.
Not too big a disaster if you throw but mulching creates a lot more dust around the engine and of course bagging covers everything with dust that gets sucked in
If the filter is working properly then a damp white cotton cloth will come up clean if run around the carb mouth.
My advise s always get a tub of rubber grease and apply a smeer to the filter ( not the elbow ) insert the filter & do up finger tight .
IT is a fundamentally bad design and would work better is the filter side was smaller diameter and you had to push the filter in hard to stretch the elbow .
To be on the safe side change that elbow every 3 to 5 years because once the rubber goes a bit hard it will not be able to make an airtight seal

Thanks Bert. The hose clamp that holds my air filter doesn't have a wingnut, but instead it has a flathead screw which I've been tightening maybe more than I should. Sounds like good advice; and changing the rubber elbow too. I'll just tighten it down firm in the future and go with that. Due to this new info about mower oils that I was not aware of I think I'm going to change to Kawasaki oil at the end of the season. Probably their 10w40. It'll no doubt cost more but I'll pay it.

 

[jcworks]

Most all engine manufactures have an oil branded for them. This oil is high zink that helps lubricate the valve trane. Most of them are synthetic blends. I use the Kawasaki 10W40 in my Kohler CV20 and 33 hp Generac. I always reccomend small engine oil it is designed to operate at the higher operating tempratures of the air cooled engine. Just my 2 Cents worth. Been doing this 47 years.

Thanks man. Due to this new info about mower oils that I was not aware of I think I'm going to change to Kawasaki oil at the end of the season. Probably their 10w40. It'll no doubt cost more but I'll pay it.

 

[jcworks]

One can trash an engine in 3 minutes. Loan yours to a neighbor and find out LOL.

I feel hour meters are not required and have no useful purpose other than lightening your wallet. One of those oh, good to know is all.

You need to worry about clean oil, valve adjustments and cooling fins.

Slomo, as for the cooling fins, I talked about this some in another thread. I started out intending to take the plastic housing off, got all the screws off and got to the point of removing (I forgot the name for the gizmo on the side with 3 wires on it) and at that point it looked like the housing wasn't going to come off as easily as I hoped so I just put all the screws back in. In addition, the manual said something about the housing should not be bent more than 70 degrees. That concerned me, so I just left well enough alone because a visual look at the fins that were visible on the bottom showed to be clean. No debris. Also, looking through the square holes by the air filter the portion of the fins that were visible were not clogged up. Only maybe a very small dusting was on them. So I blew a leaf blower through the square holes a bit and around the visible bottom of the fins too and let it go at that. After the season is over I'll make another attempt to remove the housing and inspect them thoroughly. But it all looked fine to me. I'm not a mower mechanic; just a consumer.

 

[fixit1ddh]

TWO part question:
2013 Kawasaki FR691V 23 hp 10 years old on a Toro MX5060, 350 meter hours. I live in Alabama.

1}What's considered a lot of hours on this mower engine?

2) I've always used Castrol 10w30 conventional oil. Last summer I started using Castrol 20w50 conventional oil. I did so because I asked about it at a dealer and they said it would not hurt it. Does anyone think 20w50 is not ok.

I have a 2015 with kt735 7000 snd it's only has around 650 hour's. And I expect to get atleast 2000 hour's from it. It still has original air filter. It all depends on how there taken care of. Biggest thing on long-term running on any air cooled engine is keeping the cooling fins cleaned, & idling after running it to let engine temp to stability & keep engine oil at full line.

 

[slomo]

Slomo, as for the cooling fins, I talked about this some in another thread. I started out intending to take the plastic housing off, got all the screws off and got to the point of removing (I forgot the name for the gizmo on the side with 3 wires on it) and at that point it looked like the housing wasn't going to come off as easily as I hoped so I just put all the screws back in. In addition, the manual said something about the housing should not be bent more than 70 degrees. That concerned me, so I just left well enough alone because a visual look at the fins that were visible on the bottom showed to be clean. No debris. Also, looking through the square holes by the air filter the portion of the fins that were visible were not clogged up. Only maybe a very small dusting was on them. So I blew a leaf blower through the square holes a bit and around the visible bottom of the fins too and let it go at that. After the season is over I'll make another attempt to remove the housing and inspect them thoroughly. But it all looked fine to me. I'm not a mower mechanic; just a consumer.

I hear you. You must get the cover off.

I've never seen a used slash new to me mower with clean fins or block. Normally oil is all over the top with a nice fat bug, grass, dirt dobber, slime, grit layer on there, whew. Most mowers are filthy.

When I say clean I mean like a new engine block. Think of it as you just bought said mower and you just looked at the fins clean. Clean as in hospital clean, down to bare metal clean.

This is a yearly maintenance item in EVERY air cooled small engine manual known to us all.

Lots of posts on here where guys state that oh the fins are clean. Later they post a picture of their carb for example. And what do we all see in the background? Oil slimmed over cooling fins.