GT235 going through oil

9 years ago

I have a 2003 John Deere GT235 with the V-Twin 18HP Kawasaki engine. This season, it has begun consuming oil and leading me to wonder if it may be near the end of its life.

I had been doing oil changes at the beginning of each season, and no oil loss was noticeable until this (2014) season. However, now it is losing oil and the loss seems to be accelerating to the point that I'm worried that it may run dry while I'm operating it on any given session.

Other than the oil loss, the only noticeable symptoms are a white/gray smoke that is visible for a short period when the engine stops. This smoke seems to waft from the flywheel - or if I unscrew the oil dipstick to check the oil level, from the oil reservoir itself. Note that the smoke does not seem to come from the exhaust. The smoke is not heavy. If the engine is running, you can't even see it, as the air currents carry it away without being able to detect it. The oil in the reservoir does not appear to be gunky. I say this because whenever I add oil to the reservoir, the oil on the dipstick remains clean for a fair bit of mowing time.

Within the last month, I've done a full tune-up with the JD tune-up kit. I replaced the oil; oil filter; air filter; fuel filter; spark plugs, etc. My observations at that time were that there seemed to be no oil residue on the air filter and no oil deposits on the old spark plugs (they actually looked pretty good). The old air filter was clogged with dirt, but it didn't seem to be choked too much.

Since the tune-up, the engine starts and runs well and it even seems to have more power under load. But, it is still losing oil. Especially after a session of mowing tall grass or heavier than normal load. Any thoughts as to the cause ?

I have certainly gotten my use of this tractor, so I have no complaints. Ideally, I would like to upgrade to the next model. However, I'm not in a position to buy a new tractor any time soon, and I haven't been able to find a comparable sturdy/garden tractor on the local used market recently. Is there anything I can do to nurse this engine along for a bit more ? What should I look I be looking for ?

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Comments (3)

tomplum
9 years ago
One would think if you were burning that much oil, you would see deposits on the plugs. I've seen them leak like fiends at the sump gaskets though. Near the flywheel, there is a squarish breather cover and down inside there is a small drain hole that has to be open. Actually I've seen 2 of these that had real excessive wear at the top bushing and they leaked badly too.
bwillie
Original Author
9 years ago
Tomplum,

Thank you for your response.

It looks like I may have jinxed things :-(

Everything I wrote in the original post was accurate as of when I shut the engine down yesterday. After my mowing session, I had added some oil and ran the engine for a few minutes with no problems (and no smoke). Then, I shut it down for the night.

Today, when I went to start up the engine, white smoke (and lots of it) came out of the exhaust. I immediately shut it down. When I checked the oil, the level looked too high. Yesterday, the level looked proper when I completed the addition, so I don't know if the discrepancy can be explained by a difference between a hot engine & a cold engine - or if I just misread something.

So, I drained the old oil and added back new oil, thinking that might resolve things. I started the engine again. Lots of white smoke. I thought it might subside after the initial start-up, but it continued instead. Then, I shut the engine down again. I did not allow the engine to warm up because I was afraid of doing permanent damage. Therefore, I don't know if a warm/hot engine would have exhibited any differently.

One of the things I noticed as the old oil was draining into the pan is that it seemed to be a little thin - and if I'm not imagining it - it seemed to have lots of small bubbles in it. It was almost foamy. It is an air cooled engine, so it couldn't have been water infusion. The oil definitely did *not* smell of gas. I don't know if this means anything, but the oil was more caramel-colored and not quite as clear as (relatively) new oil normally looks. I don't think it looked this way yesterday, but I was only looking at the dipstick then and not the oil from the drain plug.

How bad is this ? Is the engine toast ? Or, do you think it can be repaired with some sort of gasket replacement and/or moderate surgery ?

Thanks again,
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User
9 years ago
Might check that the float and needle in the carb is really shutting off. Might be bleeding fuel into the engine and diluting the oil.