[poorman72]

New to the site so lets dive right in. I have a 2001 JD 345 with a Kawasaki 20hp l/c with 867 hours on the clock. Last season it started giving me a little trouble. After about 30 to 45 mins. of mowing it would start to miss and lose power. I can choke it a little and it would catch up. I have changed the fuel and air filters, spark plugs cleaned the carb(3x) replaced the TDM, both coils (2X) ignitor box all the fuel lines the fuel pump and the gas cap. Still doing the same thing. So I decided to experiment with vapor lock the other day. During grass cutting it started too miss again so I was going to spray water on the carb to see if it would change anything. I took the hood off and by the time I got the hose hooked up it stopped missing and to my surprise cut for another hour with no problems. When I got done with the grass I replaced the hood and within 5 mins. it started to miss again. I am stumped! I welcome your feedback. Thanks.

 

[69project]

Check all your grounds and the battery connections. You might as well eliminate that as a potential problem.

 

[SonnyT]

Sounds like it is overheating from dirt/grass plugging up the cooling fins, so take off the engine tins and clean it out real good. Taking the hood off let it stay cool enough not to give trouble. :trink40:

 

[donmac]

any possibility of water in the fuel tank!

 

[njdeerefan]

Maybe hot ignition coil failure

 

[poorman72]

Thanks For all the posts men. Brand new battery this year. Could be water but I don't think so. I also stopped using ethanol blended gas this last year(season). Don't think it is an ignition coil either I have replaced both of them twice.

 

[JohnnyReb]

If it ran better with the hood off I would think cooling issue. Blow out the fan on the engine real good and clean up the breather. Also as another suggested clean up the cooling fins. Sounds like it was breathing better with the hood off where it could get some air.

 

[blkwtr]

I had a similar problem. Took the bowl off the carb. and found it full of gunk. Cleaned it out and put on a new fuel filter: problem solved. Also quit using gasahol.

 

[dfarms11]

I have had the same issue. Going to try cleaning the fins better. Haven't had any issues yet this spring, but its fairly cool out yet. Thinking about it, I think it does get worse in high heat days.