Kohler command 14HP smoking. Filled engine with fuel, good compression

[CalG]

Drain the oil into a clean pan, pour it into a clean glass gallon jug and let it "settle out".

Pour it through a filter cloth on it's way back into the crank.

Oil is oil.

But how much does it take?

Is it worth it?

 

[rrk137]

Last September I bought a Gravely Pro 50. (We had two over the years. Why did we ever get rid of these?) The guy in Marysville put a new carb on it and said its fines but smokes just on start up for about 5 sec. He proved to be correct but the real problem is if you shut it off, it will not start again. I assume it is flooding itslef. To your query, this smoke but have been carb related, so check your carb. If anyone know how to make mine restart, I'm all ears. Thanks

 

[bob112]

Cal, I determined that the oil level was below the cylinder so I was able to just tear it apart. Piece of cake! Been 10yrs since I have been in one. Blown area was obvious. Hopefully the gasket takes care of me.

 

[RandR10]

Cal, I determined that the oil level was below the cylinder so I was able to just tear it apart. Piece of cake! Been 10yrs since I have been in one. Blown area was obvious. Hopefully the gasket takes care of me.

Hey Bob, did the head gasket solve your issue? Just picked up a mower with one of these engines and it's doing exactly the same thing. Runs perfect otherwise, like surprisingly good. Smoked really bad when I fired it up. Cleared up some but definitely still pushing a little oil after a few minutes of running.

 

[RandR10]

Hey Bob, did the head gasket solve your issue? Just picked up a mower with one of these engines and it's doing exactly the same thing. Runs perfect otherwise, like surprisingly good. Smoked really bad when I fired it up. Cleared up some but definitely still pushing a little oil after a few minutes of running.

No need for a response, I already figured it out. Just wanted to post here for anyone else who may be dealing with this issue. Turns out the mower had a leaking fuel shutoff petcock under the tank and a gummed up float valve on the carburetor (gravity fed system) so the entire contents of the fuel tank was in the crank case (tank was empty when I got it). When I checked the oil it looked like the oil was brand new clean but low, so I added some. Kept adding and it didn't seem to move on the stick. Got the dipstick in better light and finally saw that it was in the crosshatch, so I started it. It immediately started smoking like crazy. So what was happening is that the fuel and oil had separated enough so that the gas was just washing the oil down the stick. As I added oil it looked like the same level no matter how much I added, so I way over filled it, thus the smoking. I added another valve on the fuel line and cleaned the carb, then dropped the oil and put fresh in to the proper level. Now it runs perfect and no smoke, plus the crank case is squeaky clean inside from being washed down with gasoline lol.