[Walt]

I have a 2001 425 with 439 hrs on it. I bought a few months ago. The dealer said it was smoking because they put too much Stabil in it for winterization.
Yesterday, I drained all of the fuel and replaced it with premium. No difference. Looks like it was recently serviced because the air filter looks new

I starts perfectly, however, it blows ALOT of exhaust once its running. It's normal color and smells normal. It took awhile to clear it out of my garage.

It runs a bit erratically at WOT. You can hear it "missing". Another problem, which I think is related, is that when I activate the PTO for the deck, it stalls the engine. Even at WOT. If I'm riding along at full speed and activate the PTO, the deck starts running fine without the stalling.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[stladrill]

Start by checking the basic, compression, ignition etc...

Withe smoke mean burning anti-freeze.

 

[bvp2000]

What color smoke and how long did you run it after dumping the old fuel....may have still been some in the bowl.
I would check the plugs and see if they can give us some info.

 

[Walt]

Start by checking the basic, compression, ignition etc...

Withe smoke mean burning anti-freeze.

unfortunately my tools and mechanical knowledge are limited. I pulled the plugs on both sides, one at a time, to see if it was the coil. It wasn't

I dumped and ran it dry. I ran for 5 minutes. I placed a picture in my gallery of the smoke. Here's a video:

http://s610.photobucket.com/albums/tt187/zimzim99/?action=view&current=video-2013-04-09-17-56-44.mp4


Thanks again guys!

 

[stladrill]

unfortunately my tools and mechanical knowledge are limited. I pulled the plugs on both sides, one at a time, to see if it was the coil. It wasn't

I dumped and ran it dry. I ran for 5 minutes. I placed a picture in my gallery of the smoke. Here's a video:

http://s610.photobucket.com/albums/tt187/zimzim99/?action=view&current=video-2013-04-09-17-56-44.mp4


Thanks again guys!

Looking at the video it seem to burn oil, remove the sparkplug and post a close up picture of the electrode.

Don't clean them before.

 

[Walt]

I tried to take a close picture, but its turned out bad. Here's how it looks:

left side plug: wet, oily

right side plug: black, but dry

I poured some sea foam in it, but no change.

the exhaust doesn't smell like burning oil or anti-freeze. Do you think it just needs a carb adjustment? too much fuel?

Thanks again!

 

[stladrill]

I tried to take a close picture, but its turned out bad. Here's how it looks:

left side plug: wet, oily

right side plug: black, but dry

I poured some sea foam in it, but no change.

the exhaust doesn't smell like burning oil or anti-freeze. Do you think it just needs a carb adjustment? too much fuel?

Thanks again!

The left one look like the one show at the bottom of this picture?

 

[Walt]

Yes it does

 

[stladrill]

You have an oil leak in that cylinder, could be a valve guide/seal or cylinder rings.

You'll have to do a compression test at the minimum.

 

[Walt]

Not the news I was hoping to hear. Time to make an appointment with the dealer.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[stladrill]

Not the news I was hoping to hear. Time to make an appointment with the dealer.

Thanks for your help!!

A compression test tool is not expensive and it's easy to do the test.

Check here: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...on-tester/_/N-25j0?itemIdentifier=347021_0_0_


It will be much less that the dealer for sure.

 

[Walt]

Thanks for the link. I went to Autozone and picked one up.

Both cylinders measure around 125. I'm thinking this is good news?

I did pour some "Ring Seal" into it a few days ago. The smoke has dropped considerably, however, it still puffs a cloud at startup, whether cold or hot, and still misses at low to high RPM. I did notice that the plug is NKG BMG4 and the left cylinder plug is wet

Again, thanks for all of your help on this

 

[stladrill]

Thanks for the link. I went to Autozone and picked one up.

Both cylinders measure around 125. I'm thinking this is good news?

I did pour some "Ring Seal" into it a few days ago. The smoke has dropped considerably, however, it still puffs a cloud at startup, whether cold or hot, and still misses at low to high RPM. I did notice that the plug is NKG BMG4 and the left cylinder plug is wet

Again, thanks for all of your help on this

Yes it's a good news 125 psi sound right.

You probably have a valve seal leaking a bit that cause the wet plug and the smoke.

The proper fix is to replace them, but I often see changing the kind of oil in the engine slower the leak, it's something to try before opening the engine.

 

[Walt]

My bad.... I missed an important part in the instructions (remove both plugs)

I now have 140 in the left and 160 in the right

Worse case, what would a valve job run me at the dealer? I'm assuming its not something with zero experience can handle?

 

[02603sec]

How long does the pressure stay at 125? That exhaust and a wet plug tells me your compression is bad in one cylinder, which is not allowing for full clean combustion in either cylinder. Head gasket? I did the hg's on my 25 hp twin kohler and fixed the same symptom. HG's blow in a backfire, its possible the PO was used to throttling down before turning off the ignition, causing a backfire. My research says to turn off ignition at medium throttle. Could be as simple as that. If you decide to DYI the HG's plan also on a rebuild kit for the carb. A couple hours and less then $100. In parts. The 400 series should never have a heat problem, but a backfire is always possible in a lean fuel situation.

 

[stladrill]

My bad.... I missed an important part in the instructions (remove both plugs)

I now have 140 in the left and 160 in the right

Worse case, what would a valve job run me at the dealer? I'm assuming its not something with zero experience can handle?

Does the engine was hot or cold when you do both test?

 

[02603sec]

Oh yeah, an oil anaylsis will tell you if your rings are allowing black carbon into the oil. You can also pull the dipstick and look for exhaust smoke coming from there. Oil pressure would be affected if there was kind of blowby. Not sure what the oil pressure spec is, but its not very high, maybe 30 psi?

 

[Cementhead]

Minimum compression on the Kawasaki 620 in your 425 is 170 psi and a healthy one will be in the 200-220 range.When you do the compresion test it should be with wide open throttle and both plug wires should be grounded with jumper leads to the block to prevent damage to the ignition system.

 

[Walt]

The first test was on a hot engine. Second test was warm at best.

When I checked the oil yesterday after running it awhile, smoke was coming from the tube.

On the second test, I cranked it over 4 times per the instructions

Thanks guys!

 

[stladrill]

The first test was on a hot engine. Second test was warm at best.

When I checked the oil yesterday after running it awhile, smoke was coming from the tube.

On the second test, I cranked it over 4 times per the instructions

Thanks guys!

Compression test can be made with engine warm and cold, when discrepancy occur between the 2 test it's a sign of wear.

When engine is warm, compression should not exceed 25 psi of deference between cylinder and above 100 psi minimum of compression, when cold the reading can change but should not have more then 25 psi deference between cylinder.

Do the test twice back to back on each cylinder when engine warm, try to take the less time possible to change cylinder so the second cylinder don't cool off to much.

It's possible that you have to repeat the test a few time to have a good average reading.

Warm
Cyl 1, test 1 (result), test2 (result),
Cyl.2, test 1 (result), test 2 (result).

Cold
Cyl.1 test 1 (result), test 2 (result)
Cyl.2 test 1 (result), test 2 (result)