I did call Tazewell yesterday and talked with Terry. He sent me straight out to pull the low side valve cover off, and look for a bent pushrod. Sure enough, as soon as I pulled the cover, I saw the Exhaust rocker cocked nearly sideways, and its pushrod bent. Called Terry back and he laughed, said it was as he suspected from all I had told him. Also this was a fairly common thing on these for some reason, and he had a couple on his desk at the moment! Replace the rod and should be good to go again. (Of course I’ll drain/change all the oil and filter) I did find some junk/buildup on the head outer surface and from watching more videos I’m thinking that oil contamination affected the lifter, causing it to become more solid-like and causing the bend. I also asked about pulling the head to get to the lifter and clean it up but he said I shouldn’t have to go through all that. Ive seen some videos too where the lifter was pulled from the top with a tool…hmmmm….and seen warnings against using a magnet. (??) I’ve ordered a set of 4 rods…
PT 425 - repower options (Kohler 25hp)
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MossRoad
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See this post from Monday in your other thread... 
www.tractorbynet.com
PT425 towing mode??
Carb cleaner is not a bad idea to give it the extra margin of help to get re-started. You might have a gummed up carb anyway. When I had trouble with my Terramite, I also replaced the spark plugs to be sure they weren't the source of the problem and were clean. And now that I think about...
www.tractorbynet.com
Yes, the Crawler has been fun so far, with a steep learning curve on handling the blade. (I’m slowly getting better at it but still a ways to go) And learning its systems—one, I’m in a different world with stuff so heavy one needs machinery to lift/maneuver…
Yep, I’m in the “hills…mountains” of WV. Right alongside the Allegheny Trail of Peters Mountain. Rough weather here at times and the WINDS—downright terrible at times!
MossRoad
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We'd love to see some pics of the crawler.
Thanks much for that great info. I’ll file it with my other notes, and hopefully I won’t have to use it soon…
I love it. It’s a bit over my head but I’m learning more about it as I find books/manuals. All of the running gear was rebuilt and it’s really in great shape. My neighbor/friend works for a local mom-and-pop equipment place and does most of their rebuilds on dozers and such. He did the finishing touches on it before he delivered it to me. (His boss/shop owner owned the Crawler, passed down from his late daddy, who along with dad’s brother had done all the rebuild a few years back)We'd love to see some pics of the crawler.
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m5040
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My back hurts by just looking at it.
MossRoad
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2manyrocks
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Comparatively speaking, 25hp in a 4wd PT425 is a beast relative to the 1970s garden tractors that were 2wd, 16hp single cylinder and rarely had hydraulic lift.
Glad you found the problem. With the benefit of hindsight, were there any warning signs prior to failure (strange noise, smoke, power loss etc.) or did it give out without warning?
FWIW, my brother has advised me to only run the Kohler brand engine oil in Kohler engines. The place he works has hundreds of kohler engines in various small equipment. Over the years they have noticed the ones using kolher brand oil keep plugging away while the ones receiving other brands of oil fail prematurely. They can't figure out why the engine oil brand would make such a difference, but that is the trend they see.
FWIW, my brother has advised me to only run the Kohler brand engine oil in Kohler engines. The place he works has hundreds of kohler engines in various small equipment. Over the years they have noticed the ones using kolher brand oil keep plugging away while the ones receiving other brands of oil fail prematurely. They can't figure out why the engine oil brand would make such a difference, but that is the trend they see.
ponytug
Super Member
Air cooled engines do seem benefit from motorcycle or other engine oil specifically created for the higher temperatures and wear encountered in air cooled engines. I can't point to a particular brand that I think is better, as I have too few 4-cycle air cooled engines, but the few that I have are generators. I have moved those over to air cooled engine oil, because when you need them to work, you really need them to work.
From what I read, the oils are supposed to have more anti-wear additives, and the oil formulations are more heat and oxidation resistant.
YMMV...
All the best,
Peter
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MossRoad
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I think I've been running Mobil1 in my Kohler since the first oil change 20+ years ago. Also added about a quart of Mobil1 20W50 (I believe) to the hydraulic tank at every 50 hour hydraulic filter change.
Do I know it made a difference? Nope.
Do I know it made a difference? Nope.
2manyrocks
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Is there some reason that power trac uses engine oil in the hydraulic system or am I wrong about that?
Tchamp
Silver Member
I believe Terry said that they use motor instead oh hydraulic oil was the price factor.
That’s an interesting question …no warning signs that I could recognize. After the son-in-law put the watered gas in and tried to run it, he drained it all back out, and put in fresh gas. By the time I got there, he had it running again, but just barely. He said it would just start popping and die if he tried to throttle it up. I figured it was just a matter of maybe clearing it out a little bit and shortly it would smooth out. We would crank it with a touch of starter fluid, it’d fire off, but run rough, and only at very minimum throttle. Each time we’d let it idle 2-3 minutes then try to throttle up, only to die. We repeated this cycle several times until the battery got too low, and I then chose to trailer it out the next day. (When we were doing this, Terry said that’s when the push rod was bending) After I got it home the next day it wouldn’t fire off any more. And that’s when I started digging in further…
Also, in several videos I had noted them talking about the Kohler oil being mandatory—something about a particular additive that kept the lifters from plugging up…
ponytug
Super Member
There is also the issue that hydraulic oils are generally single weight oils to work in a fairly narrow range of temperatures. That is why some other brands of tractors have fairly long required warm up times before initial use.
Using engine oil allows the use of the hydraulics over a broader range of temperatures. (And sooner)
Most of us change the filters often enough to keep fresh additives coming in. If there is a concern about not enough additives in the fluid, you could add them, but I can't say that there seems to be an issue.
All the best,
Peter
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marrt
Platinum Member
Regarding motor oil, Kohler oil has more anti-wear additives, such as Zinc. Many of these additives were removed from conventional motor oil for emissions related reasons. In theory, it should be a fantastic oil for engines with no catalytic convertor. Shell Rotella Diesel oil is very similar.
