Kohler's smoking at startup

[pfrederi 17,147]

I know that many well used Kohlers will blow oil smoke for a few minutes on startup.  I have a C-175 with a Series 1 KT-17 that came off of a John Deere 317.  It had over 2000 hours on the hour meter, which wasn’t working.  Then she sat in my brother’s barn for many years.  Cleaned her up changed out the intake and exhaust and the tins put her on C175 and she ran.  You wanted to get her outdoors right away as about 30 seconds after start up she kept the mosquito population at bay for a couple minutes then it would clear up and she worked well.  Always assumed the smoking had to do with worn rings.   She is on sweeper duty and only gets a couple hours a year running.  Fired her up this year and no smoke, none at all.  Did some one sneak in over the winter and overhaul her???  Why would it stop smoking....

Edited April 30, 2018 by pfrederi

[squonk 38,920]

Maybe a stuck ring became unstuck.

[RandyLittrell 3,827]

1 hour ago, pfrederi said:

I know that many well used Kohlers will blow oil smoke for a few minutes on startup.  I have a C-175 with a Series 1 KT-17 that came off of a John Deere 317.  It had over 2000 hours on the hour meter, which wasn’t working.  Then she sat in my brother’s barn for many years.  Cleaned her up changed out the intake and exhaust and the tins put her on C175 and she ran.  You wanted to get her outdoors right away as about 30 seconds after start up she kept the mosquito population at bay for a couple minutes then it would clear up and she worked well.  Always assumed the smoking had to do with worn rings.   She is on sweeper duty and only gets a couple hours a year running.  Fired her up this year and no smoke, none at all.  Did some one sneak in over the winter and overhaul her???  Why would it stop smoking....

 

 

Hopefully its a good thing and NOT something bad is gonna happen. Maybe time to buy a lottery ticket!! 

 

 

On a off topic note, I see you have a VAC Case. I have one too, hope I get it back together one of these days! 

 

 

 

 

Randy

[Racinbob 10,277]

Maybe ya ran out of oil? Nah...that's not you. It doesn't sound like this would pertain to yours but my 1976 K-341 started fogging the skeeters for maybe 10 seconds after start up but only after I switched to 10w30 for the winter last fall. I wasn't too worried because I have a fresh rebuild sitting in the garage ready to install when I get the time. Warmer weather arrived and I recently went back to straight 30. No smoke at all. Zero, zip nadda. Kohler even states that using 10w30 will cause more oil consumption but when this tractor was newer I always used 10w30 on the winter and 30w in the summer with no issues. Apparently with time and hours this could happen but I was shocked at the turn around. All I can say is that I'm seconding guessing myself for forking over the bucks for a factory spec rebuild but it's going on anyways.

[Sarge 3,462]

My 16Auto just did the same thing - still had the 10W30 winter oil left in it and upon firing it up in the shed it smoked pretty good for awhile. Once it warmed up fully, still smoked slightly under a load until I dumped out that oil and put the Kohler 30W in it - no smoke now at all. Unless it's really cold, they do prefer the 30W for sure. If nothing else though, a good detergent 10W30 will clean the carbon out of the rings in a hurry...lol.

 

Sarge

[artfull dodger 329]

And a good days hard work will help loosen stuck rings.  Diesels that are not worked hard enough are bad for sticking rings and "wet stacking" as a result.   On flat twins, sometimes the oil on start up isnt rings, but valve guides that are worn.  They leak oil into the bore while engine sits, then it burns off when she is fired up, as the guides come quickly up to temp, the clearances tighten up and the smoke goes away.   Rings that are getting very close to worn out can do the same, but will get worse with more run time.     Mike the Aspie