Kohler Torture Test....I screwed up.

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HonorAndHonesty

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Well I tend to do stupid things and this is a new one for me. I have a z trak with a 25hp Kohler Command Pro commercial engine on it, It has 415 hours on it. I went to mow tonight for about 40 minutes and when I got done and pulled it in the garage I shut it off and as I was going to clean cooling fan intake as I do every time when im done mowing I see a black T shirt on top of the air intake. My heart stopped. How it got there was from my own stupidity, I wont make that mistake again.

I instinctively pulled the t shirt off immediately and started the mower up and let it idle to cool it off. The oil cooler felt hotter than normal and I put some water on it from the condensation of my iced tea cup and it boiled off fairly quickly. From my nitro RC Days I estimate that the oil cooler temperature was between 230 and 240 degrees based on the speed at which the water boiled off.

I ran inside to get my infrared gun and I got a temperature of 221 degrees on the oil filter, this is after the engine was idling a minute or so.

I ran it some more and let it cool down and I experimented with the shirt blocking the air intake. I would say depending on how it was laying on there it was blocking at least 50 percent of the airflow. The ambient temps were 75 degrees with no sun as it was almost dark out.

I checked the oil which is mobil1 10w30 synthetic and it smelled ok and looked ok.

I think I dodged a bullet, but time will tell I suppose. I am going to change the oil tomorrow since it is almost due anyway, and I will keep moving along. Time will tell if I damaged anything. She definitely ran a little hot, at least compared to what it normally runs, but maybe it was not much different than mowing on a 100 degree day, I don't know. the cylinder heads definitely had airflow, albeit not what they should have had, it was a cotton T so it was like a filter I suppose.

Now as I mow I reach back and feel the air exhausted from the oil cooler from time to time because I am OCD like that and I know I reached back there at least once while mowing with the restriction and at that point I was 25 minutes into mowing and I didn't notice anything that raised any alarms so hopefully It wasn't too hot.


Argh.... Its always something. Maybe that Mobil one was worth it after all....
 
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I left a cloth on top of a porsche 914 engine, it got sucked into the cooling fan. Overheated enough to cause the oil light to flicker at idle.

If it is not smoking, i think you are ok.
 
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The combustion air charge itself does some cooling, as does the oil. I'd not worry about it too much, but since it's early in the mowing season, I'd probably change the oil just for peace of mind...
 
You are fine: My twin cly Onan powered mowers run 300 degree oil temps often on hot days when worked hard. no issues whatso ever, Mobil one 15w-50.
 
Well thanks everyone, I feel better. Its one of those things, I have been thinking about an adding oil pressure and temperature gauge on the machine, This may motivate me to put one on.
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Are you supposed to be using 10w30 in it? Thought kohler has a 20w50 oil


This has been a topic of some debate on the Kohlers, the john deere info label calls for 10w30 as does the label on the engine. Now in the John Deere owners manual it shows to use 10w30 from 32 degrees up, however above 50 degrees it shows alternatives.

I have a friend that runs a landscape company and used to have kohler engines in his fleet, he ran 15w40 which was not listed anywhere by kohler or JD. Didn't seem to hurt them.
 
M1 oils hold up very well to high heat. I use M1 10-30 in all my OPE and my stuff last for many years with never an engine failure.
 
I walked into my dealer last year and he must have had 50 bottles of kohler 20w50 on the counter. I'm in the South so that must be what they push.
 
The cooling fan was still moving air across the cooling fins regardless of the T-shirt over the cooling shroud. I'm sure the engine temps got warmer than they would without the T-shirt, but nothing terrible.
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
I walked into my dealer last year and he must have had 50 bottles of kohler 20w50 on the counter. I'm in the South so that must be what they push.


At least on the single cyl Command engines, it's 10w30. Heavier than that and the lifters do funny things. The one time I tried 5w40, the lifters on mine pretty much never stopped chattering. I only ran it for a couple hours, then went back to 5/10w30- then no more chattering. Well, only on startup on occasion.
 
ideally that engine would be designed to handle WOT at reasonably high ambient temps for a sustained period of time. it's 75F out, working at partial load, with 50% airflow - I wouldn't expect any issues.
 
I think every piece of OPE on the planet that ever gets any amount of heavy use winds up with a tshirt, a sock, a mouse nest, or a rag restricting the intake at some time or another. OPE engine manufacturers should make a standardized test in that regard.
 
I bet Kohler does the same, but for many many hours. Your "torture test" was probably just a mild hiccup in its life.
 
I wouldn't worry too much, there was some air getting through the shirt as others have said.
I tortured my last Toro for much longer than that, noticed it had not been running great for a while and suddenly noticed IT HAD AN AIR FILTER!! I mean, I SAW it before, but never once thought about changing it. I got it out and it was so packed with dust that the filter and dirt almost made a solid unit...that engine had to be gasping for air for some time. I got the caked dirt out as best I could to finish my mowing and bought a new filter that night.
The mower ran for another couple years before failing catastrophically, engine block cracked and oil poured everywhere. But, it had gone through another torture test before that they may have contributed to the boom...I was so busy at work one spring that I let my first mowing go way too long and I suddenly noticed the grass was getting halfway up my shin when got back from the office one evening. I rushed the mower out to do the lawn before dark and couldn't remember if I had drained the oil the previous fall...I pulled the dipstick and, in the gloaming, it looked to me like I had oil.
You guessed it, it ran for a few minutes and stopped abruptly. I pulled the dipstick again and smoke started coming out, added oil but the blade was frozen.
I was pretty mad about wrecking my two year old mower, but decided to pull the plug and work the blade free if I could. After accomplishing that, the mower did start and run OK, although it did sound different. I figured whatever I got from it after that was gravy, and it ran for 8 more years before going out with a bang.
 
When I was young I used to put a couple leaves on the cooling fan screen to bump up the rpms on Dad's lawnboy so I could get the lawn done faster. It had an air vane governor.
25+ years later I'm still using the same mower, so I think you'll be fine.
 
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