214 JD lawn mower

[morris roessler]

Yesterday I was mowing with the 214 JD and it let out just a little pop and died.Tryed to start it and NO compression.Walked back to the door yard trying to decide what i might look at and grabed a few wreches and went back(about 15 minutes}turned the key for the heck of it and it turn over about 4 0r 5 timed with compression and as soon as it was about start it let out a little pop and then no copression again,, waited awhile and the same thing happend,anyway pulled it back to the shed and no compression at all now..one would think of blown head gasket or maybe stuck valve or or somthing to do with compression release(and i don't even know where that is). Any comments or suggestion on what to look at would surely be apreciated... Thanks Morris

 

[Bob]

Sticky valve? Loose valve seat?????
K 321 engine manual w/specs & troubleshooting

 

[Bill Lisbon]

I had a Cub Cadet do the same thing, it was a stuck valve. Since gas no longer has lead in it this happens, because the lead lubricated the valves.

 

[ACSam]

I had a 210 that would do this. When it would (pop) and quit, I would remove the spark plug and crank the engine for about 15 seconds and put the plug back in and it would usually fire back up and be fine. Sometimes I had to do that a couple times to get it to run. Turned out to be a lot of carbon buildup on top of the piston and sometimes a piece would come off and stick a valve open causing the loss of compression. It was just dumb luck that I could crank it with no plug and temporarily clear it. Once I removed the head and scraped the carbon off and replaced the head gasket, even though it looked ok, I never had any more trouble.

 

[JD Seller]

I had a JD 314 that would POP and die. It would then restart and run another 5-10 minutes and do it again. It was the exhaust valve sticking open. I removed the head and the valve. The seat was in fine shape. The stem had OLD gas/varnish on it. I have a wire brush on my bench grinder. I brushed all of the crud off and put it back together. Run fine.

 

[Anon]

Exhaust valve probably has a carbon build up at top of the guide. You can take it out and wire brush it clean but I would just put a new valve in as they are relatively cheap. Probably $30-$35 in parts.

 

[jimg.allentown]

Gasoline has not had lead in it for over 20 years. And a good thing!!
As a retired and experienced automotive engine mechanic, I have seen the difference that lead made. In the '70s, I had an average of 3 valve jobs a week. I also saw an average of one bad engine a week - usually with a thrown rod. The inside of the engine was always caked up with lead deposits. In the '90s, I had maybe one valve job a year. Thrown rods became very uncommon, and engines were SO MUCH CLEANER inside!!!!!