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I have a John Deere LX279 with a 17HP Kawasaki FD501V-DS04 liquid cooled engine.

When the engine sits and you start it up a lot of whiteish blue smoke comes out for about 30 seconds and then it's ok.
- I had the carb apart to clean it out cause of hesitating and thats cleared up but the smoking isn't. I did notice the Fuel solenoid is in working condition, BUT it doesn't have power going to it, so it's not operational right now
- The oil level is fine and customer never added any.
- The coolant level is low in the overflow tank by about an inch

I guess what I'm wondering is the coolant what you think is coming out on start up or something related to the fuel solenoid? Something other than gas is in the combustion chamber

Add coolant to the right amount, and drain and add new oil, does your John Deere have a oil filter? if so replace that as well. Use 10W-30, and oil capacity is 1.9 quarts. And that should fix your problem, if not it is a blown head gasket. And at that point just take it in to a repair shop to get it fixed.

believe me I've had my share of a bad gasket, and 2 in five people have get a broken head bolt, diy projects are not the way to fix some things like that. have the pros do it.

lanerdude9 said:

Add coolant to the right amount, and drain and add new oil, does your John Deere have a oil filter? if so replace that as well. Use 10W-30, and oil capacity is 1.9 quarts. And that should fix your problem, if not it is a blown head gasket. And at that point just take it in to a repair shop to get it fixed.

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Oil and filter are a year old. Not many hours since

do you know how many hours on it? did you buy it new yourself?

White smoke is an indicator of water. In a glass jar drain about 2” of gas from the tank. Let it sit for 30 seconds and look for water at the bottom of the jar. Any water means you should drain the tank, let it dry, put in fresh fuel. Also, drain the float bowl.

I had a craftsman and it started like that so you might have to rebuild the engine and or get a new head gasket. white also means burning oil

White indicates water, blue indicates oil, and black indicates fuel.

If you don’t find water in the fuel, you may have a head gasket that is leaking. You may not notice coolant being burned off while running, but it will enter the combustion chamber after shut down and burns off at startup. You’ll need to do a leak down test to verify the problem.

Like rivets said. You need to do a leak down test. When you pressurize the cylinder you remove the coolant pressure cap and check for bubbles. If leakdown test shows high loss probably has a blow head gasket.

lanerdude9 said:

do you know how many hours on it? did you buy it new yourself?

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1000 hours Not mine

Rivets said:

If you don’t find water in the fuel, you may have a head gasket that is leaking. You may not notice coolant being burned off while running, but it will enter the combustion chamber after shut down and burns off at startup. You’ll need to do a leak down test to verify the problem.ing over??

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Rivets, I think you may be right..I let it sit and thought I noticed the coolant level in overflow had dropped...So I marked it to see what happens after I start it again and then let it sit
I also am thinking if there was coolant in there, couldn't I remove spark plugs to see if coolant comes out on crank

Hammermechanicman said:

Like rivets said. You need to do a leak down test. When you pressurize the cylinder you remove the coolant pressure cap and check for bubbles. If leakdown test shows high loss probably has a blow head gasket.

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Now I wish I bought a leak down tester

Smokeeater said:

Rivets, I think you may be right..I let it sit and thought I noticed the coolant level in overflow had dropped...So I marked it to see what happens after I start it again and then let it sit
I also am thinking if there was coolant in there, couldn't I remove spark plugs to see if coolant comes out on crank

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YEs but it might be very hard to see.
White smoke is actually steam, well to be precise it is dry super steam.
To get an ida about volume increase, a milk carton ( about a US quart ) of water makes a 8 lane 50 yard olympic swimming pool of dry super seam by volume at atmospheric pressure.
So a 5 gallon drum of white smoke will be caused by a few drops of water.
However what does work is to pull the kill wire off & crank the cold engine for 20 seconds then pull the plugs
Usually you will see little drops of water in the plug.
If you have a bore-o-scope, whan you look down the bore you will see a bit of a water line down the side where the ring gap was but you have to know what you are looking for .

If you don't have a coolant leak, then all is well as long as the smoke clears up. Kawasaki V-Twins are known for allowing oil to pool up behind the lower cylinder. The longer they sit, depending on the angle the machine is parked, the more oil pools in the lower cylinder. On startup, the engine will blow the oil out the muffler. If you verified you do not have a coolant leak, then you're fine. I had a few air-cooled versions of your engine that the factory had the lower piston installed upside down and was allowing an excessive amount of oil to pool up behind the piston.

You can also try running the tractor with the radiator cap just a 1/4 turn loose so that pressure does not build up. Run it for a short while to warm it all up making sure it doesn't overheat. Shut it down and let it cool overnight. Start it up next AM or so, and see it the problem go away.
If it does, then it's a leak somewhere in the engine read head gasket most likely. Reason is with the cap on, the water pressure in the cooling system overcomes the cylinder compression pressure and allows coolant to enter the cylinder. When it starts up it blows out the water, white smoke, for a few seconds. You may also see a few bubbles in the radiator with the cap off, sometimes hard to see, and sometimes very obvious, That's why the cap off procedure works pretty well sa there is nothing forcing the coolant in. The coolant coming in might only be 1/4 teaspoon full so checking water level is a slow procedure. Outside engine cooling leaks are usually very obvious as there is a puddle somewhere, even if you have to put a piece of cardboard down to find it, and be careful water runs along anything in the way during the drip
and ends up on the cardboard a foot away!