1811 burning oil question
 

So it appears that my new acquisition burns oil... close to a quart every 3-4 hours...

Now as I am tinkering with it, I found what I would assume is an extreme amount of oil.
Took the air filter off to clean off the foam prefilter, and looked down the throat. Now I know that the filter is soaked in oil, but there seems to be a lot of oil around the filter, and looking down the throat from the air filter, I would say there is enough to puddle in a crevice of the air intake. If my memory serves me correctly, I should not see any oil around here except for the little that might come of the oiled filter. Could this be where to start trouble shooting the burning oil? Or do I really have to plan on this spring to be pulling pistons and replacing rings/sanding piston bores?

Second question, which may appear dumb, but hey, not asking a dumb question makes me truly ignorant and likely to blow my 'new toy' into major repairs.
What is the proper method for checking the hydro fluid? After it has been sitting for a while, or while the engine is running and the hydro system full, and not drained back into the pan?

Shawn

Shawn, it sounds like you're valve breather is bad allowing oil to get into air cleaner.

You also may have worn rings. You can get a cheap leak down tester that will tell you what could be going on. Worn rings will cause you crankcase pressure to go up causing excessive oil in the breather. Good luck! The 1811's are great tractors.

I am not sure if your magnum engine is anything like my command but my breather is on top of the engine and when I opened it the mesh was almost totally disintegrated. Also two of the four bolts were not very tight, one I could remove with my fingers. Got a kit and replaced the mesh filter and gasket and when all bolts were tightened I had very little if any oil in my air filter.

Just started my 1811 last night for the first time after putting new crank seals, oil filter gasket, valve cover gaskets and breather. They changed the design of the breather, the old is a red rubber umbrella (very fragile) and the new is like a metal reed valve. might be worth upgrading that for $20 before taking the cylinders off.But if u r burning that much oil u may have many things going wrong. Just wondering how many hours on the thing. I only had my engine running for 15 min so i still have my fingers crossed. Dave

Bcdsfcret
 

Replace the breather valve. Should fix your problem. If is does not you are not out that much money and time.
Good luck!
Brian:American Flag 1:

Any one on the proper way to check the hydrostatic oil level?