Suspiciously clean oil?
 

Hey guys,

I've had my new-to-me Cub 149 functioning for about a month now and every time I check the oil, it looks brand new. I've run the old girl pretty hard, so I'd expect there to at least be a little discoloration. Should I be concerned at all?

Yesterday I ran the tiller (441U-1111) for about two hours, even pulled up a small stump I must have missed with the excavator, so needless to say the belt that came with the tiller when I bought it is no longer with us. So I have some time to tinker waiting for parts to come it.

Anything I should be checking?

I'm running Rotella T1 SAE 30

Do you sleepwalk? :bigthink: :biggrin2:

Hahaha, I did briefly consider it to be the work of some very thoughtful elves, but my garage is locked up pretty tight. I'm just concerned that with their being no pump maybe the oil isn't getting where it needs to go. The engine sounds great and I only get a little white smoke on a hard start-up.

Ah white smoke, that explains it.
yer smoking good shit, then change the oil and never remember it :beer2:

From ol' George's mouth to God's ears, only thing that alleviates all my IH fears.

The only time I ever got a dark coloration in the oil was when I either forgot to turn the petcock back on or recap the spark plug, so I'm guessing it pushed some gas where it shouldn't have gone in those instances.

Maybe I just got extremely lucky and this was one of those rare barn finds that truly ran when it was parked.

Still going to proceed with caution, I've invested too much time and money in this ole girl to list it as a "ran when it was park" for the next poor sap.

I suppose your rod could be missing all or part of its dipper. That's the main thing that "gets your oil where it needs to go."

If yer "dipper" is short or broken, yer in a world of hurt, sooner than later.
:biggrin2:
Seeing as it would be two short to properly lubricate things that need to be lubed.
Sorta like fishing in a pond with a short line, not gonna get much action in the pan to get things thoroughly splashed.
I highly doubt a "short" dipper is the problem as they usually bring it to attention quickly, and with a loud exit.:bigthink: