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'
=========================================
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.
Redex will potentially burn carbon out, but that does little for oil consumption. It may in fact make it worse..
do mowers usually use similar valve arrangement to cars?
NT
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
Depends on the mower. Do B &S do new cylinder liners? or is it new pistons (rings?) and cylinder
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
-----------------------------------------
=========================================
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.
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 ~=A3150 + 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.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.