Horizontal or vertical shaft?

 

vertical shaft v twin

 

I have always heard that smoke only when starting is a valve sealing problem. On a side note, your avatar is really awesome, great looking stripes.

 

Thanks! That pic was taken with my camera phone. I have a lot better pics with my 10 meg Canon G7 I will compress and upload on here.

 

When I bought my Massey 2823PS = to Prestige, I asked the dealer the best break in Procedure. I always thought to run them sorta easy, varying engine speed etc. He said with the Kohler Command you want to run it hard (full throttle) as to break it in properly. He had one customer that had an issue like yours and related it to the break in. I only had it for 10 hours so I'm speaking from what was told to me. My tractor had the same 23HP motor as yours.
He told me that the Kohlers were designed to be run hard and it will not hurt to run hard from new.
He also said to run conventional oil.
I asked this same question here, Syn / Conv. about my new Ingersoll. While I did get varying answers, majority said they were running conventional oil and had 300+ hours with no smoke etc. I was also told to break in my Vanguard in the same manner, run it hard. The reason I was told this: These new motors are built to more exact tolerances than older models so running hard is not detrimental to them.

On another note, my Gravely (kohler) is 27 years young and doesn't smoke at all, always used regular 30 wt since new.

I would switch back to conventional oil.

Good Luck

 

Nature of the beast...I've had the 23HP which smoked on startup and now the 25HP Kohler and it does the same thing. The cylinders are laying horizontally with rings that have a segment that occaisonally allows a little oil to get through. Not a big deal.

 

I experience the same issue on my 27hp Kohler. A few things that seem to help: Don't shut down the engine with the rpms up, and when starting, easy on the choke.

If I would pull the choke all the way out, then turn the key, it is sure to smoke. Better practice is turn the key, and moments later, slide the choke out ONLY AS NEEDED. I never pull it all the way out.

 

Its blue (oil) smoke and I never kill the engine with the throttle up. I even left it a little low on oil from the last change and it still puffs a little on start up????

 

my kohler did the same thing at first but has gradualy faded away.. i always idle it down and let it idle about 30 seconds before i i shut it off, I also use the choke as little as possible. I also use 10-30 valvoline dino oil and it seems to work great... only other thing i can think it might be is a fuel issue, you could always try to clean the carb and see if that helps, i doubt it will do much but ya never know

 

yup my 20 HP Smokes a ton some times too...


i dont mind.. it keeps the mosquitoes away :sidelaugh

 

:sidelaugh

 

I'm resurrecting this thread to post a few comments.

My new 27 HP Prestige with 7 hours on it smokes a brilliant cloud on startup. It always stopped smoking after running for a few moments, until I restarted it while it was warn this weekend. This time it continued to blow smoke while running. Not a big heavy cloud, but I could tell it was either running rich or burning some oil. It didn't stop until I throttled it up to full and started driving it around the yard.

The other comment I want to make is about shutting down the engine. The simplicity tractor manual says to shut down at full throttle since the engine has a shutdown solenoid that will cut the fuel off immediately. You can hear this working as you shut the engine down (the sound of the exhaust changes). The Kohler manual also states the same shutdown procedure if your engine is equipped with a shutdown solenoid.

 

My Sabre did the same smoke on a 25 hp Kohler. Park it with front wheels elevated so the oil doesn't seep into cylinder. Either up hill or on two bricks. (one each wheel) Never smoked again. I always shut down above 1/2 throttle to keep the backfiring away.

 

Mine smokes a little sometimes when I first start it up after cranking it with a full choke. I might try only 1/2 or 3/4 choke and see if that helps. BTW, this is the first Kohler engine I've owned. Can you tell by looking at the engine if it has a fuel shutdown solenoid? :thanku:

 

If it has wires going to the bottom of carb, it does.

 

There is a reason and a cure. cure not 100% effective but idling, running with low engine rpm's and parking with nose down exacerbates the problem. Oil collects in the air box and doesnt back into the engine. Ill have to try to find what I was told to do but if i remember right you need to trim the little rubber hose that drains the oil back to the crank case. Oil builds up in the air-box and spills over into the carb giving you a mosquito foggier for a few minutes. hope this helps..

 

My 27 hp did this real bad. It would fill the garage with smoke for a few minutes on start up. I could live with it untill my Mother (88 years young) said why does your new thing smoke so bad? I took it to the dealer at 66 hours and they replaced pistons and rings. Problems fixed. All I had to pay for was air filter and new plugs.

Kenneth

 

This is the problem. I have a presitge with the 23 HP Kohler and have had this problem from day 1. I now have 170 hours on mine. Kohler kept saying that it would stop once the rings seated but it didn't. The problem may be a little worse in the Prestige because the larger rear 24 inch tires forcing the engine to sit more downhill and allows just a tiny bit of oil to seep past the rings. It is not a carburation issue nor is it how you start the engine. It is a trace amount of oil getting past the rings. If you want to park the tractor with the front elevated this will stop it from happening. But that's kinda hard if you need to shut it down out in the middle of your yard like I did last week. The neighbors were out on their shiny new John Deeres when the wife called me in for lunch. When I returned 20 minutes later and fired her up a really nice big ball of blue smoke rolled on out to the snickers of the neigbors. Enough was enough and I made calls to both Simplicity and Kohler and she's getting a new short block next week at Kohlers expense. They finally admitted a problem with the pistons and rings. It doesn't cause any long term issues just an ego kinda thing. Not to mention it does stink up my shop. It must be a very small amount of oil because my level doesn't drop.

 

Well, I fired her up today to mow the lawn, and I decided to try a different starting method.

Instead of full throttle and full choke as instructed in the manual, I started with 3/4 throttle and no choke. I started cranking and then upped the choke until it caught. NO SMOKE AT ALL. Granted, it seems to start faster with the other method, but it only took an extra 2-3 seconds to get it going from cold the new way.

This also tells me that it's not oil that's being burned when it was smoking, but excess fuel.

Oh, and did I mention I love this tractor?

 

I`ve had the same problem with the 25hp Kohler in my JD but it smokes just a little on start up then goes away, doesn`t use any oil. I run it hard and use 10-30w oil.

Got a 23hp on the Z Master and it doesn`t smoke at all got it used with 242 hours on the meter and I know that it was well cared for by it first owner.

Got 15hp Kohler CV15 single on my walk behind and it will smoke on start up its a Command Pro motor thats a pull start, starts on first pull after been run a while after its 3 months rest in the winter it may take 2 pulls to get it running.