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16 hours on the Kaw 7.6 and I get a puff of smoke at start up. Is this normal? It sits for about a week.

My Raptor SD60 does the same. I'm not sweating it at all.
I turned wrenches on Harley V twins with carbs for years and most of them ,new and old, blew a little puff on cold startups.
I've noticed these Kawasaki s need very little choke when cold and none once warm.
Enjoy your machine!!!

16 hours is far from even being broke-in yet. About 50 hours is about broke-in. I'd just be sure & always check oil level BEFORE you use the mower.

PS: Have you done the 8 hour oil change yet ? That is an important one, since all the new parts are getting aquainted & that causes lot of wear particles .


Harley independant wrench here.

7394 said:

16 hours is far from even being broke-in yet. About 50 hours is about broke-in. I'd just be sure & always check oil level BEFORE you use the mower.

PS: Have you done the 8 hour oil change yet ? That is an important one, since all the new parts are getting aquainted & that causes lot of wear particles .


Harley independant wrench here.

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I did the 8 our oil change. I'm using the Opti 4 that they offered when I bought it at the dealer. It increases the warranty on the motor.

Bamacat said:

My Raptor SD60 does the same. I'm not sweating it at all.
I turned wrenches on Harley V twins with carbs for years and most of them ,new and old, blew a little puff on cold startups.
I've noticed these Kawasaki s need very little choke when cold and none once warm.
Enjoy your machine!!!

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I've noticed you only get the puff of smoke when I use the choke. I'll start only choking halfway.

Freerider said:

I've noticed you only get the puff of smoke when I use the choke. I'll start only choking halfway.

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I have the FX Kawi on mine and I was told by the dealer in the summer months 1/4 choke. I usually start mine with no choke and it turns right over. Took some getting used to. Mine starts best with no choke and low throttle.

I find this start up puff of smoke is normal on OHV engines. What my idea is where it is coming from is oil that runs through the valve stems. This tells you that the valve stems are getting proper oil to them which is a good thing.

I spoke with the dealer and he documented it for future reference if indeed there might be a problem. He said that he has never heard of it before on any of their new machines. His thought on it was the compression rings not seating all the way and his suggestion was run it hard at full rpm to help in the process. There is no white smoke coming from the machine at all while it is running.

Freerider said:

I spoke with the dealer and he documented it for future reference if indeed there might be a problem. He said that he has never heard of it before on any of their new machines. His thought on it was the compression rings not seating all the way and his suggestion was run it hard at full rpm to help in the process. There is no white smoke coming from the machine at all while it is running.

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You should be running your mower at WOT (wide open throttle) when you mow. This is when the governor sets the engine at proper RPM's to work. He is the person saying you have a problem so tell him to fix it. Your mower and money and you know what you want. If it was mine and wasn't using oil a little puff of smoke on start up wouldn't be anything I would even give a though about and I sure wouldn't want the engine taken apart and put back together for it.

I am starting to notice some some oil consumption. 26 hours on the Kaw 7.6 it's used about 1/3 qt. in 18 hours usage. I'm hoping it's because the engine is still breaking in. I did my first oil change at 8 hours. I'm using the 30 weight Opti-4 oil.

Freerider said:

I am starting to notice some some oil consumption. 26 hours on the Kaw 7.6 it's used about 1/3 qt. in 18 hours usage. I'm hoping it's because the engine is still breaking in. I did my first oil change at 8 hours. I'm using the 30 weight Opti-4 oil.

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Same thing my Kawasaki engine did.
Mine kept getting worse.
I will never use a Kawasaki again. Had two that used oil.

Freerider said:

I am starting to notice some some oil consumption. 26 hours on the Kaw 7.6 it's used about 1/3 qt. in 18 hours usage. I'm hoping it's because the engine is still breaking in. I did my first oil change at 8 hours. I'm using the 30 weight Opti-4 oil.

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try a thicker oil.
by the book, kawasaki recommends 30 to 40 weight oil, but they also recently released a bulletin to use a 50 weight oil to help with oil consumption. and generally you use a thicker oil the hotter it is outside.
i use valvoline vr1 20w-50 racing oil which has a lot of zinc additive, which provides a lot of wear protection, that has been stripped out of most oils now due to emissions.

i guess I'll learn to live with it. I'm still hoping the rings are still seating in. I have to say it's a strong motor. I can live with oil consumption, but I'm not going to be putting high dollar oil in it of its going to burn it.

People make oil consumption a bigger deal than it actually is. Burning 1/3rd of a quart in 18 hours sounds like a lot until you consider that the average residential mower will accumulate 50 or so hours per season, meaning...you'd have to add one quart per season.

Also, engines can be finicky not only about weight, but also brand of oil. I bought a used C-50 Chevrolet truck from a guy who told me to run Conoco 30w in it. I didn't have any of that and was running Quaker State in everything else, so I switched to QS. It guzzled the QS. Switched back to Conoco and the oil consumption went WAY down. Also had a Ford Ranger with a 4-banger engine. The book recommendation was 10w-40, which it consumed at the rate of about a quart every 700-800 miles. Switched to 5w-30 and it would then use a quart in about 3,000 miles.

Sometimes it pays to experiment.

A 1/3 quart of oil every 18 hours is unacceptable.
That would mean every 2 days I need to add oil.
That's a quart a week.

So 2 quarts every 2 weeks plus the 2 1/2 quart oil change plus the over priced filter.
I would be out a extra $15 every 2 weeks.
That's equivalent to 2 1/2 sub way subs.

One thing I've noticed is my puff of smoke at startup has vanished since I'm almost at the halfway mark on the dipstick. I'm not going to top off the oil but wait and see if maybe the oil consumption may reduce if the case isn't full. The mowing season is almost over now, but my new mower is going to be a leaf mulcher here in a couple of weeks. I'll probably put another 10 hours on her before winter sets in.

Freerider said:

i guess I'll learn to live with it. I'm still hoping the rings are still seating in. I have to say it's a strong motor. I can live with oil consumption, but I'm not going to be putting high dollar oil in it of its going to burn it.

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the oil i stated above is under $5 quart. if you want cheap oil, it dont cost you anything to get a thicker weight. you're in georgia where its hot. use a thicker oil.

turboawd said:

the oil i stated above is under $5 quart. if you want cheap oil, it dont cost you anything to get a thicker weight. you're in georgia where its hot. use a thicker oil.

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The Opti 4 oil I'm using is about $15 a quart. I know, they saw me coming. It increases the engine warranty if you use it.

I am a Kawasaki service center and I'll tell you they think up to 1/2 an oz of oil an hour is ok. They have changed their oil weight for hot climates to 20W50. We sell Hustler mowers with the Kawasaki engines. I personally have 700 hours on my FS691v and love it. I am also a Kohler tech and I dislike them very much. My kohler CV26 blew both head gaskets at 65 hours. I then wound up with another Kohler on another mower and sure enough 150 hours in and a blown head gasket. They have since fixed the problem. If I have to chose an engine for MY mower it will be a Kawasaki as I see way to much issues with the Kohler engine and especially the Briggs engine minus the Vanguard engines.