K301a Smoking/Using Oil

jsoluna · #1 07-10-2011, 04:41 PM

Well, the 129 has done a lot of work this year. My first Cub Cadet has proven to be both a joy and a time consuming magnet for wife's jealousy.

It's a love-hate thing going on here. I started by first doing oil changes over and over again, for every 3 hours of labor on that engine. Eventually, though, it developed smoke on startup and now it smokes after warmup too. It uses about 1/3 qt of oil for every hour of use now. After its been run at WOT for a half hour it will clear up a bit, but you can see the smoke when you mow next to something, and it's worse under a load. I've been sooooo meticulous with the maintenance, I think the poor Cub just didn't know what to do except show it's wounds that had accumulated over the years.

What's my best bet? A rebuild, or an upgrade to a lower-hour engine? I've heard that the Series2 Kohlers were a bit better about oiling themselves on inclines and such, and I live in a very hilly area - and I use the Cub for my lawn care business as well as my own lawn (average about 10hrs a week of heavy use total)

I'm still very careful with the oil, I've never let it drop. I have a hunch though, that I'm the first owner to have taken so much care in this machine. It's happened to me on so many machines - the clean oil after a life of abuse makes the problems come to life

I'm bummed.

I understand it couldn't be a perfect first buy, but Ive just put so much of my heart and soul into this machine, here she is now:

Matt G. · #2 07-10-2011, 05:06 PM

Rebuild it. Most of the tractors of that vintage didn't have an hourmeter, so finding an actual 'low-hour' engine might be a bit of a challenge.

The series I/series II thing only applies to the KT-17 engine and has nothing to do with the K-series singles.

jsoluna · #3 07-10-2011, 05:11 PM

Ok, I see. I misunderstood. So then, a rebuild - what are the most common wear points on these engines? Given the symptoms I'm having, I'd think that at the least I'd need a new piston and rings. I remember when I took the head of and put a new gasket on, I could actually move the piston side to side at the top of the bore. It didn't have a bunch of wear on the side close to the valves, but it seemed to be a bit loose to me.

Matt G. · #4 07-10-2011, 07:05 PM

The best thing for you to do would be to read the service manual, and measure the components according to it. That will tell you what you need to replace and have machined.

jsoluna · #5 07-10-2011, 07:13 PM

Yeah, I figured - I need to use the Cub for the rest of the season though. I wondered if there would be a weekend job that I perform to keep it from burning so much oil, like a quick hone and piston and rings. It all does depend on how worn out it is inside though - something I don't exactly know yet. It seems I've read a lot of posts about smoky Kohlers - is it that common?

jsoluna · #6 07-10-2011, 07:55 PM

...and I'm curious....how long does it take a well running Kohler to dirty up it's oil for an oil change?

Reading the manual, I think they recommend every 25 hours after the break in period. I'd love to be able to go half that before having to change the oil in my 129. I swear, in about 2 hours it ready to be changed. It's not totally black, but it goes from perfectly clean to nasty real quick. Must be from combustion blow-by. I used Marvel in the gas and a bit in the oil when I first got it to clean things up, but there's no band-aid fix for this tired engine...