Engine races ever since it overheated

[bchristianguy]

I recently acquired a '93 John Deere 320 with about 600 hours on it. I had been having trouble where it would stall and then only run on choke occasionally, usually after hitting a bump. After a few minutes, or sometimes the next time I used it, it would be fine again. Recently this happened and I couldn't get it restarted. I think I traced it back to a corroded connection on the oil pressure censor. I got it all running and then mowed my grass with no problem. I rode it to my Father-in-law's house to mow his grass (about 3 miles away) and it overheated just as I arrived. The engine began to race, and some oil that had leaked onto the exhaust had ignited. I quickly put out the fire. I determined that it had leaked completely out of coolant leading to the overheating problem. I refilled the radiator. Now every time I start it up the engine races. I have tried setting the governor, but when I get the engine to a good place it dogs down when I engage the blades. My only thought is that the heat could have affected something somewhere along the line. Anybody on here have any experience with something like this or have any ideas as to what the problem could be?

 

[beenthere]

Maybe a blown gasket that caused the over heating. How is the compression? Any water in the oil?

That is the Kawasaki 2 cyl gas, right?

 

[DrBill]

It sounds like a lot of bad things happened here and nobody will know exactly what all could be wrong at this point..

We know at the start you had a fuel problem.. The needing to pull the choke after hitting a bump is usually a sign that water or a floating gel-ball of goo is floating around in the float bowl and is jarred into the main jet area and held there by vacuum.. Pulling the choke increases the vacuum thus pulling some fuel through the jet enough to try to run some..

The only other time pulling the choke will do anything is when a hot valve is sticking.. This is often mistaken as a carburetor problem.. What happens is the choke pulls a ton of raw fuel into the combustion chamber and actually cools down the valve and it starts working again.. I'm only mentioning this as something to remember for later..

To find a place to start,,, remove and clean the carb.. Check fuel lines, filters and tank, especially if you find any crud in the float bowl... Then read up and set the governor back to factory settings..

Get the oil level up to spec,,, get the water level up to spec... Then try to start the thing and see what else is wrong... And let us know...