An expensive lesson-long story

[IaLeo]

July 30, 2008 the X534 John Deere lawn tractor stopped, blowing clouds of white smoke, ONE DAY AFTER THE WARRANTY ENDED! The right hand cylinder of the 2-cylinder Kawasaki engine totally disintegrated, blowing parts into the muffler.
520 hours on th meter, some 20 hours past warranty.

The dealership responded quickly and found that the engine cover was packed full of dead grass, probably the cause of the “meltdown”.

$2500 for a new engine as the rest of the tractor was in good shape and it is also used to blow snow.

Dealership allowed as the reason for the right hand cylinder lack of cooling was possibly caused by me not having the plastic flap on the mower discharge, allowing more of a cloud of dust on the right hand side of the tractor. I partly buy that, as I often ride in a cloud of dust, especially when the wind is off from the right side.

I have not used the flap thing for years on the 200 series JD’s as I am always squeezing through tight spaces. Besides this high volume capability mower has need of all the outlet space to do it’s work.

The engine cooling slots did not show need of cleaning, at least to my inexperienced eye.

Oil and filter changes every 50 hours, some warm-up before mowing, a little cool-down after stopping.

This story a bit long, but may be of interest to some else running this kind of machine.

Leo

 

[lnk]

You did mean 2018? Right?

 

[grizz02]

E-bay 25 h.p. Kawasaki 1800.00 free shipping briggs and kolhor 700.00 free shipping

 

[Duner Wi]

I have good luck with Pats Small engines in Isanti MN for genuine Kawa parts.

 

[Destroked 450]

The other $700 was probably labor.

 

[IaLeo]

Yes, I meant 2018! And the dealership said that the engine cost about that much (as mentioned) and the rest was labor, hauling, etc. I just don't have the moxie to do the work myself. Leo

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Before I threw in another $2500 I'd cut my loses and buy something like a Farmall Super A or AC B with a woods mower and have a machine that would wear out half a dozen of those
junky modern machines.

 

[4520BW]

I bought a gator for the kids to use and
one day it just died. I could not get it
started so I just put it in the barn till
planting season was over. I discovered the
cam was broke so off to the dealer I went.
The motor had a one year warranty and it
broke in that year but was 13 months when i
took it in. I was told that my model had
head gasket problems that year and would
suck all the oil from the pan. They tried
to warranty it but deere said to late even
though it was a know problem. The local
dealer sold me the new motor at their cost
and loaned me the clutch tool. The worse
thing was I just bought a new Z trac mower
from them. Let's say I will never buy
another gator( still have 2) but have good
luck with the rangers and just bought a new
one.

 

[rlp in Co.]

Sorry for the bad luck. I wouldn't have
thought much grass could get thru the
little holes in the flywheel. I should
check my motors.

 

[grandpa Love]

We bought a farmall cub with a belly mower for 600 bucks. I bet it out lasts that $2500 motor........ smooth cutting old tractor

 

[lnk]

(quoted from post at 17:59:51 08/01/18) Yes, I meant 2018! And the dealership said that the engine cost about that much (as mentioned) and the rest was labor, hauling, etc. I just don't have the moxie to do the work myself. Leo

Wow, sorry about that. Only you can decide what to do. Perhaps part it out or sell as is. Might be able to recoup some of the loss. Good luck.

 

[dlbuck]

Most people don't have a pasture to mow and need something smaller.

 

[T.R.K.]

I see that regularly on my job. There usually is a slot in the head where the air can circulate through around the valve guides. When that
area packs up with grass (or other debris-I've seen fiberglass insulation packed by mice in more than one) and air can't flow through, its
only a matter of time before a valve guide moves, a pushrod bends, or some other failure happens. The only way to inspect it is to remove
the cover, and nobody does that until something fails.

520 hours? Are you cutting commercially? That's over thirteen fourty hour weeks.

 

[fixerupper]

(quoted from post at 15:04:18 08/01/18) Before I threw in another $2500 I'd cut my loses and buy something like a Farmall Super A or AC B with a woods mower and have a machine that would wear out half a dozen of those
junky modern machines.

I have a B Farmall that’s had a woods belly mower on it for all of the 45 years it’s been on this farm. It’s been as dependable as the day is long for all those years and has been very economical but it has sat idle in the shed for the past three years because the Grasshopper can do the job faster going around the obstacles we have to deal with. Yes the Kohler in the grasshopper has a much ,shorter longevity and the hydros are no better, but the Grasshopper goes where the Farmall won’t so the Grasshopper wins out.

 

[Bob]

Those have been good engines.

Put yourself on "the other side of the desk" for a moment, would you care to buy a new engine for a careless/sloppy owner that didn't keep the cooling fins clean?

Could you design a better air cooled engine (facing the constraints that the mfg has to deal with) that is less likely to suffer from overheating damage from clogged cooling fins)?

 

[oldtanker]

Leo hate to say it but yea, they most likely are right. What do they have to gain by lying about it?

For you A or B IH lovers. I wouldn't want one even if it was free. Too hard to get on and off of plus sits too high. I'd be trimming trees for days or else doing a lot of trimming with both a string trimmer and a push mower. Fact I got rid of a rear mount Woods mower that I used behind an 8N in favor of a zero turn. Would never think about going back!

Rick

 

[ss55]

I've had mice pack grass and seeds in the cooling fins of air cooled engines. It's hard to blame the dealer or manufacturer when that happens. Check the tractor and engine owners manual, cleaning the cooling system is probably on the periodic maintenance list along with oil changes.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Sounds like you need a herd of goats not a lawnmower(LOL)

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Well that's fine I'm just not going to throw thousands of dollar$ into junky built equipment,I'll figure a way to get the job done with something that's economical to run.

 

[IaLeo]

TRK, I chose to retire to the country on a 6 acre old farmstead with many mature soft maples, a couple of old buildings and prefer planting new stuff and mowing rather than golfing and volunteer work. There are nearly one hundred old and new trees to mow around and it takes me two days plus each mowing. The lawn is not ball park like but I like to think, park-like.
I have to duck under apple trees, a pear tree and a couple of pecan trees. Often the grass gets ahead of me and I give the machine a work-out! Sometimes I pull a 60" Swisher tow mower also, but it is a wimp and makes it hard to mow around things. Leo

 

[Blackhole49]

Agree with you on the A & B. I have a hand crank A that I mow 2 acres with at a remote location. It does the job. but I sure wish my 8n would squeeze into the barn instead. The 8n is much nicer on the 1 mile trail I mow next to the house, but for my 3 acres, I wouldn't trade the F-2000 for a new ZTR. It use less than 1/2 the fuel, will turn an 18" circle, rides better, can be driven with one hand and is great in the snow. I use the B-7200 for the leaf machine in the fall.

 

[pcsaw]

Thanks for sharing I will be blowing mine off a lot
more I know there is a lot of heat coming off the
engine

 

[David Snipes]

I have a piece of twine on my flap. I put a loop in it and for a tight spot I pull the flap up and hook in on one of the instrument panel levers.
When I pass the tight spot I just let the twine loose and hook it at a lower point.