need some help with a kohler engine please????

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whitearrow

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good morning fellas. i have a 10 yr. old craftsman lt1000 riding lawm mower that is powered by a 16 hp kohler engine. the engine is pressurized with a car type oil filter. i only crank it every 2 weeks or so to cut my 2 acre lawn and recently it has developed a pretty bad tick/knock and puff of blue smoke on first start up of the day. after warm up the smoke stops and the tick/knock goes away and it runns nice and quiet. as of now i have a purolator classic oil filter on it and rotella t syn 5w-40 in it. what is happening here? it seems to be using a very little bit of oil,hardly noticable though, between changes. would the change of a different brand filter,maybe a wix or napa,help this out?
thanks,
whitearrow->>>-------------->
 
jerry i'm not 100% sure as i am not looking at the number right now but i think L10241 maybe in a purolator classic. it is like 3 bucks vs the kohler being 12 bucks or so.
thanks,
whitearrow->>>-------------->
 
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That's a great engine. The Command series has hydraulic lash adjusters and can sound tappy on startup. Possibly a lifter that's not pumping up quickly due to debris in there? Hard to say. These engines are also sensitive to oil level. Too much oil will cause smokey start-ups and smoke if the engine is pointed valve cover down.

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Joel
 
The initial tapping/knocking sound might just be the compression release mechanism making a bit of noise until the engine fires up. I'm not familiar with that particular engine but if it has a compression release mechanism, that's likely what's making the noise.

As far as the blue smoke, there was a thread here a few weeks ago that covered that issue with Kohler engines. It's a fairly common occurrence and is worsened if the tractor is parked on an angle that will allow oil to seep into the cylinder(s) bypassing the rings and getting into the combustion chamber. That not anything to worry about either. If it bothers you that much, park the machine with the cylinders resting higher than the crank case.
 
thanks fellas for the info and please keep it coming. it tapped fairly loudly for 5 minutes or so. is that still normal operation? i will park it backwards and see if that helps as i usually park it nose first. i think that my storage building is fairly level,at least it used to be. looks like i need to break out the ol level and see huh?
thanks,
 
Five minutes of loud tapping in not normal. Something seems amiss. Does that engine have hydraulic valve lifters? If so, you might have a sticky lifter. If the lifter isn't fully expanding, you may have too much slack between the valve and tappet. That might account for the tapping until the oil gets up to temperature and begins to flow properly through the lifter.

The oil you're running is certainly light enough to circulate quickly. You might want to fire it up a little more often just to move the oil around.
 
boraticus what can i do about a sticky lifter? i am thinking of changign the oil to rotella t5 10w30 and keeping my purolator classic oil filter on just to see. but, i am gonna park it rear end lower just to see first. it will be an experiement. yeah, if i crank it once a week or sooner it doesn't tick. just when i wait 2 weeks between cranks. go figure?
thanks,
 
If you go to 30 stay with single grade, not the 10w30 unless you plan to use it in the winter. Rotella 10w30 is the only Rotella that does not have JASO-MA rating. I would think twice about using it in an air cooled engine in the summer.
 
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I agree with the recommendation of straight 30 weight or an HDEO 15W40. Either one will work fine.

Being that the engine has hydraulic lifters, I'm assuming that allowing the engine to sit for so long unused, the oil completely drains from the lifters and seems to take a while to make it's way back in. Heavy tapping from the valve system is not a desirable situation. Firing it up often enough to keep it from happening will benefit the live of the valve train.
 
I have the same engine in my JD LT155. Try changing your brand of oil, and I'll bet the tapping largely goes away. That's what I did.
 
Originally Posted By: super20dan
kolher engines with hydro vales use 10-30 oil only!


You mean there is no viscosity range as with most small engines?

If so, that's a little unusual.
 
My Craftsman LT2000 with the Kohler 20hp smokes at startup. When the oil level at the add line its does not smoke. Try adjusting the oil just above the add line and see what happens. Going to change out the oil sometime this week with T6 5w-40.
 
I have a command 20hp and just changed the oil out to mobil 1 5w40 and the valves are more quiet than with any other oil i have run. The last change was castrol tection 15w40 and the runs previous to that was mobil 1 5w30. On the other oils, it was pretty quiet until i did some good hot mowing for over 30 mins or so then when i throttled it back a litte the valves were a little noisy. With the 5w40 mobil 1 they are nice and quiet so far even after an hour of mowing at 90 deg F. I dont know why the M1 is quieter than the 15w40 but it is and if it stays that way then i will just continue to use it with yearly changes. I have also noticed a reduction is startup smoking now that i backed the oil level off to about 1/2 way between the marks.
 
Also i have noticed this engine being pretty particular about its air filter. If it gets dirty, it smokes more on startup and starts to back fire a little when i shut it off. Maybe make sure that your air filter is nice and clean and see if it helps with your smoking. It will most likely not do anything for your startup valve noise though.
 
Also, what oil and filter were you using before it started this problem or have you been using this oil and filter combo for a long time. I have been using ST3600 filters on mine and it works well.
 
kolher uses 10-30 only cause the hydro lifters cant handle thicker oil and will tick-duh does this sound familure? use kohler brand oil if this issue is serious(it is on some kohlers)its specially made to prevent lifter collapse -it really does work-tractor suplly has it
 
sorry fellas i have been on,and still am,vacation in myrtle beach,sc. i just got a chance to log on and check any responses. the reason i changed to the heavier oil is because it started the ticking using castrol gtx 5w30 with the purolator classic filter. when i get home i think i am gonna change it to a 10w30 with the same oil filter unless somebody can suggest a better filter to use.
thanks guys,
whitearrow->>>------------>
 
Not sure about he filter, maybe just for the heck of it change the filter as well. Pick up a ST3600 from walmart just to rule it out. When you switched from the 5w30 did you change the filter or just the oil. If you changed the filter as well, its probably not a filter issue. Good luck man. If you gonna change the oil, maybe actually try the Kohler brand, i dont think it is that expensive and i have read countless reports about it actually fixing the valve noise issues.
 
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