Smoking Husqy

KEROSENEDRVR · Mar 4, 2007

Had a weird experience this afternoon that really caught my attention. I've got a Husqvarna GTH2554XP riding mower with a Kawaski 25hp engine. I mowed for about 1.5 hours until my wife came out to ask me a question. She talked for about 10 minutes (I listened) and then I restarted the tractor. Upon restarting the engine it smoked like it was burning 90w oil instead of gasoline. I immediately shut it down and looked for anything obviously wrong. Nothing was noticed so I restarted. There were no vibrations beyond normal upon restarting. Within about 1-2 minutes the smoke subsided. I made a pass with the mower engaged and everything seemed normal. I finished mowing and everything worked fine. After parking the mower I let it cool for about 10 minutes and restarted to check for smoke, nothing. The only thing I can find is a small amount of oil in the airfilter chamber, only a few drops....There are no other visible discrepancies. Oil level is normal and oil+filter are fresh, as is gas. The engine has about 350 hours on it.

Does anybody have any ideas about what may have happened and if there may be a problem with the engine?

RWEST · Mar 5, 2007

The 25 HP Kohler in my old Craftsman lawn tractor did that occasionally, especially if I'd mowed any sidehills recently. Maybe a breather or something lets oil get up in there, it would be burned off gradually, but, when you shut it down, it piles up and burns off all at once or something?

You listened for 10 minutes?!?! Wow!!

jeffmazz · Mar 5, 2007

Is this engine liquid cooled??

KEROSENEDRVR · Mar 5, 2007

Not liquid cooled. I'm still scratching my head on this one. I am going to change both plugs and see if that changes anything.

Fordlords · Mar 5, 2007

It purged oil from the crankcase breather in to the air intake. Most common cause of this is the crankcase being overfilled with oil. Check and make sure after warmup (not when cold) that the level is not above the full mark on the stick, it is almost best to keep the level between the full and low marks. When I installed the new Honda engine in my Cub it did that exact same thing, as the engine was supposedly shipped without oil, yet it was not mentioned that the oil filter was prefilled with oil. It threw me for a loop with the brand new engine LOL! -Fordlords-