Sigh..yes, I know, this has probably been discussed to death here, but what's one more thread?
Here's the scoop.
1995 1864 with the Kohler CH18s.
Had a massive oil leak. I mean, massive. Engine was completely covered in gunk. Here's what I did:
Pulled the motor
Cleaned it all up
Replaced the following:
1) Both head gaskets. One side of gasket looked cooked on the oil filler side. Starter side head gasket looked ok, replaced anyway.
2) Replaced all intake/exhaust gaskets
3) Replaced Flywheel Oil seal ( this is where I thought the leak was coming from...after replacing the PTO seal a few times, I know when these fail they can sling a lot of oil around)
4) New breather cover gasket. The reed looked fine.
Now, I got it all back together and it fired right up.
She is literally gushing ALL the oil out of the breather tube. I mean, one stroke of the pistons and it just pukes out. I ran it for less than 10 seconds and lost 90% of the oil. Guess where it went? Right into the carby...but that's another issue.
So, in my limited reading, this looks like Piston Ring failure correct? This has me stumped because I always thought when the rings were gone it would be really hard to start, but it fired right up. Better starting now then before I did all that stuff to it.
Can a bad valve do this?
I have a leakdown test kit...never used one before...I guess now is the time to learn?
I really love this machine. There really isn't anything out there now to replace it with...to get power steering, 54" cut, hydrostat, etc, you're looking at around $8000-$12,000 grand up here for anything comparable.
Maybe I already know the answer but don't like the answer???
Anyway thanks for letting me rant. Feel a little better now.