PT 425 - repower options (Kohler 25hp)

[ponytug]

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.

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

 

[MossRoad]

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.

 

[2manyrocks]

Is there some reason that power trac uses engine oil in the hydraulic system or am I wrong about that?

 

[Tchamp]

Is there some reason that power trac uses engine oil in the hydraulic system or am I wrong about that?

I believe Terry said that they use motor instead oh hydraulic oil was the price factor.

 

[Modrob]

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.

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]

I believe Terry said that they use motor instead oh hydraulic oil was the price factor.

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

 

[marrt]

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.