smoke out vent tube

west7323 · Apr 22, 2011

smoke comes out of a vent tube on my 2010 when i strain the engine. the tube is on the right side of the engine and it vents straight down to under the engine. is it a serious problem or just an old engine. it does not smoke out the stack when this happens. any thoughts?

kuboman · Apr 22, 2011

west7323 said:
smoke comes out of a vent tube on my 2010 when i strain the engine. the tube is on the right side of the engine and it vents straight down to under the engine. is it a serious problem or just an old engine. it does not smoke out the stack when this happens. any thoughts?

Check to make sure it is not antifreeze. It will form a kind of snot in the breather tube if it is getting antifreeze in the oil or burning it.

west7323 · Apr 22, 2011

it is a milky white color. is it serious?

kuboman · Apr 22, 2011

west7323 said:
it is a milky white color. is it serious?

It means you are likely (definitely) getting antifreeze in the oil. Could be bad head gasket or cracked head. Not good.

Sorry!
I am not sure about the engine in that tractor if it has wet sleeves or not. If it does it could be coming from a sleeve gasket or perforation. The fact that it gets worse as you work the tractor leads me to think it is head related but can't be sure.

kuboman · Apr 22, 2011

Oops forgot to mention to check the radiator to see if you are getting soot or exhaust gas in the cooling system. If you are it is the head.

west7323 · Apr 22, 2011

the coolant seems to be ok. it looks to be the greenish antifreeze color and the level seems to stay up. the tractor starts and runs good. it also seems to have decent power. the oil seems to be clean too. it does go through a quart or so every 10-15 hours of work. looks like it needs an engine rebuild right? is it ok to run it as long as i keep an eye on the fluids until i get to work on it? thanks for your help.

JDdude · Apr 22, 2011

Trade it for a 2520..

jd110 · Apr 22, 2011

Does the coolant level go down? If not, since you say the oil looks clean, you might just have a build-up of condensation in the engine. Or maybe a little rain water got into it somehow? Down the exhaust maybe? I would recommend loosening the oil drain plug after the tractor sits overnight. hold a clean container under it and let a few drips come out of the plug. If there is any water or antifreeze in the oil, it should settle out and be in the bottom of the pan. If no antifreeze, you should be ok. Warm up the engine good and hot and then drain the oil. Refill with new oil and filter and see if steam improves.

west7323 · Apr 22, 2011

i will try that. the tractor did sit outside almost all last summer. i did change the oil brfore winter and it sat all winter with clean oil. i used it hard for the first time today. i hope you are right. thanks for the input.

kuboman · Apr 22, 2011

It takes very little antfreeze to make a lot of vapor. If it really is burning it then it is not good for the engine but if you are heading to a overhaul then don't worry too much for a few hours. Not sure where you are but if you can drain the antifreeze and replace with plain water it would be better. Of course that only works if you are where it does not freeze.

From your description of the crap in the vent tube it is antifreeze.