Kawasaki blowing smoke intermittenly, burning oil

[arch252]

Thanks Max, this is a single cylinder, the model is FC540V. I don't think it has valve guides, I believe those are built in to the cylinder head and if they are worn the whole cylinder head has to be replaced. Please check that model yourself and let me know if I'm wrong about that. There are oil seals on the valve stems, I can check and replace those, about $8 for a pair. I can probably pick up the used cylinder head/valves/valve cover assembly for $20 or $30. I guess I hope it is the $8 valve guides, that will make me feel great about removing the engine, splitting the case and spending $100 on the piston rings, oil seal and crankcase gasket that I never needed!

By the way, I made a leak down tester and rather than use the broken spark plug trick I picked up a spark plug non fouler at the auto parts store, it has threaded female end so i used JB Weld to attach that to the smaller sized threaded male end of the air hose. It worked great and was super simple to make.

 

[577jersey]

Yeah plugging up the fuel pump vacuum line and adding a 12v pump has always been an upgrade for me...coolness on the leak down tester,,great tool to have in your arsenal

 

[mhavanti]

The valve guides should press out and replacements back in. Even if not, run to your nearest auto machine shop and see if they don't have a pair of valve seals they can provide you they may have left over or purchase in bulk.

I used to add valve seals to folks engines where there weren't any. You can as well. Most shops won't charge you more than about a buck a piece for bulk supplied seals. A parts store will have opened gasket kits where they have split a kit to make up an order for a customer as well.

Have fun.

 

[dana a]

mechanic mark posted this in a thread earlier today.
http://www.briggsandstratton.com/eu/...m-solving-tips

click on troubleshooting-repair & type in smoking

this applies to all engines, not just B&S.

This was one of the causes of blue smoke: Also, be aware that any small air leak can cause an excess of air entering the crankcase and will create a higher oil mist than the breather is capable of handling. The excess oil will then return through the breather tube and back to the air filter.

 

[arch252]

The link is not working for me.

 

[arch252]

I have ordered the valve stem seals and they should be in tomorrow so by Thursday I should know whether that's made any difference. I have the used head on standby, I can pick it up for $35 and I'm pretty confident it is in good condition. Either way, it should allow me to determine if the problem is with the head/valves or some other issue.

 

[dana a]

The link is not working for me.

Cut and paste must not recover the entire link. Here it is from the web site.

http://www.briggsandstratton.com/eu/en/support/faqs/engine-problem-solving-tips This one only gets you part way to what you want to read

This is it, http://www.briggsandstratton.com/eu/en/support/faqs/engine-burns-oil-white-or-blue-smoke

 

[arch252]

I replaced the valve stem oil seals but it made no difference, no change. I picked up that used head, it was in very good condition. I cleaned it up very good, lapped the valves and put the new stem oil seals on it. Put it all back together and started it up. It runs great but I didn't have time to mow long enough to see if that fixed the problem. It won't start to smoke until it's been running for about 30 minutes. Hopefully I will be able to run it this weekend and can give an update. If the problem if fixed then it was obviously the valve guides. I'll update when I know and hopefully then we can put this thread to rest. I'm quite sure you all have had enough of this one. This sure has been a learning experience for me though and I can't tell you all how much I appreciate your input and advice.

Unfortunately I am about to start a new thread on the Kohler page. If I get banned from this site I will completely understand!

 

[bertsmobile1]

No body gets banned unless they are constantly breaking forum rules, being nasty, abusive , profane , using the forum to advertise or writing things that could be libalous.

If you have a separate problem you should always start a new post.
One problem one post actually works best and keeps things simple & easy to follow.
What gets people cranky is putting the same post on mutiple sub forums.
There is only one forum.
It is broken up into specialist sections to make it easy to navigate.
The more problems you present the more solutions that get found the more useful the forum becomes and the more we all learn.

 

[577jersey]

Wow,,that is one of the reasons I left mine the way it was,I had a funny feeling it was going to be a PITA to figure out,,it runs fine just dumping excess into a small container for now..lol
This site is about helping others and I think we all did a great job,,you did a super fine job working on that engine,,and I am looking forward to the krawler I mean Kohler thread.

Tom