Bert, off subject. There is a 1998 unknown hours diesel walker for sale in my area for 1,200.00 US/ 1,700.00 AUD, it burns oil and blows blue smoke, it got a new radiator and starter. The seller states he refills with oil every two weeks.
I suspect with a new radiator, the machine may have overheated several times, causing the blue smoke condition.
Do you think it maybe 1; glazed cylinder walls, or 2; bad valves or 3; bad rings?
Hopefully I can put in an additive to rid it of burning oil.
This is risky to me as a rebuild is around 2,500.00 plus USD. and I don't think a 1998 is worth that much more than 5,000.00.
Thanks in advance for your opinion. Harry
IMHO Walkers are always worth repairing.
They are very well built and quite robust.
As for values in doing so my view will be skewed by local pricing.
As a rule of thumb, nothing you put into an engine will fix anything, just mask it and allow it to get worse.
Look around the second hand market. The engine will be used in other applications and there are most likely good used ones available.
We just replaced the deisel engine in a 1971 IH skid steer with one from a 1986 Mazda ute.
Took a bit od fiddleing around but a rebuild kit for the original engine was $ 1800 & the whole ute was $ 500.
We got $ 600 by parting it out and the scrappie paid us $ 20 for what was left over.
Using that much oil says rings.
The quick & dirty test is to get some one to throttle up then down.
If the oil is worse on the throttle down then valve stem seals are the prime suspect.
If it smokes worse under acceleration then worn rings go to the top of the list.
In either case I would not bother trying to do a diagnosis on the engine, wear on the mower itself is the hardest to fix, flogged out holes that have to be welded up & redrilled are a lit more of a problem than a set of rings & bearings.
So if the wear in the mower is not too bad go for it however if everything is sloppy walk away.
