My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not
good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.

wrote:
My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not
good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.

Smokes..uses oil..hmm.

If its a 2 stroke, rings/piston/cylinder.

If a 4 stroke more likely that its valves and guides..though may well
STILL be piston cylinder.

Precisely the sort of reason to flog it on Ebay..

New engines or bits of engines are not THAT expensive.
What engine is it?

I have to say years ago I manage to keep a mini going that drank about 4
pints of oil for every tank of petrol. You also needed to crook your
kneed round the gear lever in 4th or it popped out.. Sold it for 100
quid the bloke said 'plenty of scarp engines and boxes from minis to fix it'

On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:39:19 -0700, wrote:

My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of the
oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't been
neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.

=========================================

You could try the 'Redex' treatment. This involves dribbling a thin stream
of Redex (upper cylinder lubricant) into the carburettor whilst the motor
is running on fast tick-over. It produces a lot of smoke so space is
needed. It's not a miracle cure but can sometimes improve the
performance of gummed up engines.

Cic.

--
==========================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
==========================================

Cicero wrote:
On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:39:19 -0700, wrote:

My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of the
oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't been
neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.

=========================================

You could try the 'Redex' treatment. This involves dribbling a thin stream
of Redex (upper cylinder lubricant) into the carburettor whilst the motor
is running on fast tick-over. It produces a lot of smoke so space is
needed. It's not a miracle cure but can sometimes improve the
performance of gummed up engines.


Redex will potentially burn carbon out, but that does little for oil
consumption. It may in fact make it worse..

Cic.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not
good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.

Smokes..uses oil..hmm.

If its a 2 stroke, rings/piston/cylinder.

If a 4 stroke more likely that its valves and guides..though may well
STILL be piston cylinder.

do mowers usually use similar valve arrangement to cars?


NT

wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not
good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.
Smokes..uses oil..hmm.

If its a 2 stroke, rings/piston/cylinder.

If a 4 stroke more likely that its valves and guides..though may well
STILL be piston cylinder.

do mowers usually use similar valve arrangement to cars?


Sort of. IIRC they are side valves. So no rockers or pushrods
...certainly no overhead cams.

But its been a long time since I stripped one., so could be wrong.


NT

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:

My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not
good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.
Smokes..uses oil..hmm.

If its a 2 stroke, rings/piston/cylinder.

If a 4 stroke more likely that its valves and guides..though may well
STILL be piston cylinder.

do mowers usually use similar valve arrangement to cars?


Sort of. IIRC they are side valves. So no rockers or pushrods
..certainly no overhead cams.

But its been a long time since I stripped one., so could be wrong.


same here. Sidevalves surely wouldnt have rubber seals though, like
car valves do on the stems. And afaik there wouldnt be any oil feed
there either, leaving rings as the likely culprit. Which arent
normally worth doing these days, unless its a ride-on.


NT

wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:

My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not
good .

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.
Smokes..uses oil..hmm.

If its a 2 stroke, rings/piston/cylinder.

If a 4 stroke more likely that its valves and guides..though may well
STILL be piston cylinder.
do mowers usually use similar valve arrangement to cars?

Sort of. IIRC they are side valves. So no rockers or pushrods
..certainly no overhead cams.

But its been a long time since I stripped one., so could be wrong.


same here. Sidevalves surely wouldnt have rubber seals though, like
car valves do on the stems. And afaik there wouldnt be any oil feed
there either, leaving rings as the likely culprit. Which arent
normally worth doing these days, unless its a ride-on.

Depends on the mower.
Do B &S do new cylinder liners? or is it new pistons (rings?) and cylinder


NT

On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:06:18 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
do mowers usually use similar valve arrangement to cars?

Sort of. IIRC they are side valves. So no rockers or pushrods
..certainly no overhead cams.

But its been a long time since I stripped one., so could be wrong.

Ours (B+S) is certainly a 4-stroke sidevalve. Part of routine maintenance
(every 3 years I think) is to whip the head off and clear out any
accumulated crap - also useful to check that the valves are seating OK,
the piston's not slapping around everywhere or holed etc.

It all comes to bits really easily, and goes back together again almost as
well ;-)

cheers

Jules

On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:41:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Cicero wrote:
On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:39:19 -0700, wrote:

My mower smokes a lot out of the exhaust and gets through 1/3 - 1/2 of
the oil between the min/max lines each mow. I take this is not good
.

I've had it serviced (Sept) and had a mower guy look at it a couple of
weeks ago to try to fix it (he replaced the diaphram). So it hasn't
been neglected since I bought it on eBay.

Is this sort of thing usually terminal? It'd be a shame to lose it as
it's otherwise in great shape.

=========================================

You could try the 'Redex' treatment. This involves dribbling a thin
stream of Redex (upper cylinder lubricant) into the carburettor whilst
the motor is running on fast tick-over. It produces a lot of smoke so
space is needed. It's not a miracle cure but can sometimes improve the
performance of gummed up engines.


-----------------------------------------
Redex will potentially burn carbon out, but that does little for oil
consumption. It may in fact make it worse..



=========================================

That's quite possible but it's a reasonable calculated risk in the
circumstances. If the treatment produces an improvement it's a good
outcome. If it fails it shows that more orthodox work is needed and
nothing is lost apart from a can of Redex.

Cic.
--
==========================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
==========================================

On 6 June, 10:11, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Precisely the sort of reason to flog it on Ebay..

New engines or bits of engines are not THAT expensive.
What engine is it?


Yep . In fairness to eBay, I'm still out ahead even if it was a
deliberate sting.

The engine is a B&S LS 45 4-stroke. Funnily enough, mower guy only
had 2 stroke petrol so he used that, which I didn't know was
possible. It actually ran less smoky than usual for the first half-
lawn, before the usual blue/white smoking started up again. A quick
look online makes me think a new B&S engine would be ~£150 + labour,
so I'll have to have a hard think about how attached I am to the rest
of the mower.

Without knowing anything about it, I did see in my searches someone
bemoaning that B&S have only recently started producing overhead
rather than side valves (I probably butchered that, but you get the
picture).

And thanks everyone.

wrote:
On 6 June, 10:11, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Precisely the sort of reason to flog it on Ebay..

New engines or bits of engines are not THAT expensive.
What engine is it?


Yep . In fairness to eBay, I'm still out ahead even if it was a
deliberate sting.

The engine is a B&S LS 45 4-stroke. Funnily enough, mower guy only
had 2 stroke petrol so he used that, which I didn't know was
possible. It actually ran less smoky than usual for the first half-
lawn, before the usual blue/white smoking started up again. A quick
look online makes me think a new B&S engine would be ~£150 + labour,
so I'll have to have a hard think about how attached I am to the rest
of the mower.

Without knowing anything about it, I did see in my searches someone
bemoaning that B&S have only recently started producing overhead
rather than side valves (I probably butchered that, but you get the
picture).

And thanks everyone.

Not hard to get a new piston cylinder for that I'd have thought.