John Deere - D110 - White Smoke After Running 8-10 Minutes

[Diane W]

Hello -

I have a John Deere D110 Tractor (Product ID - 1GXD11ECDD426387) that starts perfectly and runs at full power. When it hits roughly 8-10 minutes running, the exhaust spits out white smoke. It is a 2013, well maintained, oil changes, and cleaned carburetor. Air filter is clean. Spark plug originally was very carbon-fouled, but replaced it and runs great. I am not losing power, even when engaging PTO, it is solely just blowing white smoke. It also seems to give a larger 'poof' when I go from low speed to high speed.

Any ideas? What i've done so far are the basics:

Cleaned carburetor
Changed spark plug
New air filter

 

[Rivets]

First thing you should check is your oil level. May be overfilled by fuel diluting the oil, give it the smell test. If no indication of this problem, I would then suspect a head gasket failure.

 

[Diane W]

First thing you should check is your oil level. May be overfilled by fuel diluting the oil, give it the smell test. If no indication of this problem, I would then suspect a head gasket failure.

Thank you! I did the smell test - oil smells like oil. It's at the correct level, too, so I think you may be onto something with the head gasket! Will it still have great power with a head gasket failing?

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Run the mower up to operating temp, shut it down, remove the dipstick, and watch for whisps of smoke coming out of the dipstick tube, if you got smoke out of there, head gasket.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Another sign of a blown head gasket is knocking and blowing smoke when the PTO is engaged .

 

[Diane W]

Run the mower up to operating temp, shut it down, remove the dipstick, and watch for whisps of smoke coming out of the dipstick tube, if you got smoke out of there, head gasket.

It did - had quite a bit of smoke coming out when the dipstick was removed.

 

[Diane W]

Another sign of a blown head gasket is knocking and blowing smoke when the PTO is engaged .

I don't hear any knocking, thankfully. The smoke just gets worse as time goes on. Then shutting it down and cooling off, it will go away. It's only when it reaches a certain temp, then poof!

 

[Rivets]

Blown head gasket.

 

[Telesis]

Time is of the essence! Don't keep running it or you could end up seizing the motor. I purchased just today at lunchtime a beautiful 2015 D105 with a seized engine. Owner indicated the problems started with the white smoke. I fully expect to find a blown head gasket right between the cylinder and the push rod chamber.

The good news for you is you can pull the head pretty easily and inspect/replace the head gasket now before a more catastrophic event. There are a number of YT videos to help. If you pull the head, be mindful of which pushrod goes where. One is aluminum(lighter colored) and one is steel(darker colored). If it warrants, it's a good time to lap the valves and adjust clearances when assembling(if you have a valve spring compressor). Otherwise a local shop could do a valve job for you hopefully for a reasonable price.

 

[Diane W]

Time is of the essence! Don't keep running it or you could end up seizing the motor. I purchased just today at lunchtime a beautiful 2015 D105 with a seized engine. Owner indicated the problems started with the white smoke. I fully expect to find a blown head gasket right between the cylinder and the push rod chamber.

The good news for you is you can pull the head pretty easily and inspect/replace the head gasket now before a more catastrophic event. There are a number of YT videos to help. If you pull the head, be mindful of which pushrod goes where. One is aluminum(lighter colored) and one is steel(darker colored). If it warrants, it's a good time to lap the valves and adjust clearances when assembling(if you have a valve spring compressor). Otherwise a local shop could do a valve job for you hopefully for a reasonable price.

Thank you so much! You are very helpful!