1450, stuck valve?

[krhoover]

It's been a while, but everyone helped me out before, so I'm back again looking to the experts. What is wrong is my 1450 won't start. All summer on start up it smoked pretty bad then cleared up. Then it snowed. I had put on the snow blade earlier and went out to plow and couldn't get it to start. It would fire once and flood. I would clean the plug, change it, then the same thing. Could it be a stuck exhaust valve?

[twoton]

Hey krhoover how you been? When was the last time you decarbonized the head?

[krhoover]

I haven't since I rebuilt it. I had the valves ground at that time. I guess I would have to look at the hour meter to get an accurate time, maybe 2 years ago? I have been tinkering with it and I can't remember how much I need to pull off of it to pull the head.

[J-Mech]

You don't need to pull the head. At least not yet.

Are you getting spark? Good spark?

If it's flooding..... that's the most logical place to look first.

[twoton]

So you rebuilt the engine 2 years ago? And It smokes real bad at start up? That doesn't sound right. You got a good battery? Good fuel? Carbs clean and adjusted? Float levels good? Good plug and good spark? Clean points?

[krhoover]

I think its all good, It ran and mowed. Just smoked on start up. Now it won't. It will fire once and flood. Gas is good. Can see spark with plug grounded. Pulled carb off and looked at and opened up bowl and check needle vale ect. One thing that does have me puzzeled and this will give you all an idea as I don't know why is: the carb side of the motor is covered in oil. The area where the inspection/breather is where I think it all came from. It looks like its been leaking for some time. It don't look like new oil but its everywhere. Also the air filter was full of gas, I assumed it was from me trying to start it several times and blowing fuel into the air cleaner from chocking it so much. It seemed to fire when it was choked. I am pretty handy with mechanical stuff and it just acts like it won't do the 4 steps of a four cycle engine.

[J-Mech]

Originally Posted by krhoover

I think its all good, It ran and mowed. Just smoked on start up. Now it won't. It will fire once and flood. Gas is good. Can see spark with plug grounded. Pulled carb off and looked at and opened up bowl and check needle vale ect. One thing that does have me puzzeled and this will give you all an idea as I don't know why is: the carb side of the motor is covered in oil. The area where the inspection/breather is where I think it all came from. It looks like its been leaking for some time. It don't look like new oil but its everywhere. Also the air filter was full of gas, I assumed it was from me trying to start it several times and blowing fuel into the air cleaner from chocking it so much. It seemed to fire when it was choked. I am pretty handy with mechanical stuff and it just acts like it won't do the 4 steps of a four cycle engine.

Why does an oil leak on the breather have you puzzled? There are several possibilities:
1.) The reed valve is not installed correctly.
2.) There is no mesh material to help catch the oil
3.) The oil drain hole is plugged up. If you used silicone to seal this up, that is most likely the cause of the oil leak.... the hole is plugged.
4.) The gasket is leaking.
5.) You have too much blow-by and it's just puking oil

If the motor puffs "smoke" out of the breather constantly, you likely have blow by. Otherwise, pull the cover off and see what is causing the leak.


You say your pretty handy with mechanical stuff, but lets review your findings:
-Plug is gas soaked and it appears flooded.
-The air filter is soaked with gas
-You say you have been choking it.

Well.... the air filter shouldn't have gas in it.... and the carb shouldn't "blow fuel" into the air filter housing. So, either your needle valve isn't shutting off and it's leaking out the carb into the air filter, or you have an intake valve that isn't sealing/stuck open and it's blowing backwards into the carb on the compression stroke.

All in all, I'd say the plug is wet because it's flooded. Your going to have to figure out why the air filter is soaked with gas. Like I said, it's either the needle valve (on the float) isn't shutting off when the bowl is full, the float isn't adjusted correctly, or the intake valve isn't sealing/closing.

It's likely that it smoked on start up all this time because it was flooding on start up.


On another note, you say you rebuilt the motor. Is that a new rings and gaskets "rebuild"? Or a bore and new piston rebuild, new rod, ground crank, new valves and ground seats rebuild?

[Merk]

What was done when you rebuilt the engine?
New rod-piston?
Bore cylinder?
Valves?

[twoton]

krhoover ,

The guys are just trying to get an understanding of the condition of your engine. I’m sure you know most of this stuff but risking boring you with details, just a few thoughts….

I think that the oil on the side of the block is a separate issue that is not currently the main one preventing your tractor starting.

I would put the battery on a charger for a while. I prefer a trickle charger as the best way to charge a battery is long time slow charge.

Take off the air cleaner housing and shut off the fuel. Drop the float bowl and look for crud/water etc.., manually actuate the float/needle while turning on the gas. Check to see that the needle actually is shutting off the gas when the float is up. Visually inspect the level of the float. In the fully up position it should be level. I actually like to set mine “down” just a bit. Put the bowl back on and turn on the gas and check for leaks.

Make sure your spark plug is clean and dry. And gapped to .035.

Remove the points cover. Check to see what kind of condition they’re in. At the least drag a piece of 400 grit paper through them. Then drag a piece of clean paper through them to remove any grit. You can also spray them with brake cleaner and blow them off with compressed air. I would pick up a couple of allen head machine screws to replace the slotted ones that hold the cover on. It’s a lot easier getting the bottom one on this way.

When you get this thing running, and you will, make sure that you shut the gas off before you shut the machine down. You don’t have to run it dry but just run some of the gas out of the float bowl.

Good luck

[krhoover]

I have had the carb off and apart. needle valve is free. The whole puzzle is why will it fire once and fuel foul the plug? Is the intake pulling gas in and the it sparks and fires but the exauhst valve don't close and on the next stroke it pulls gas in and fouls the plug and ends up pushing gas back to the carb.?. It ran, was parked for a few weeks and now this. My first thought was that oil was getting down past the valve guides. I can live with smoke on start up. So, we need compression, spark, fuel and a way to empty spent gasses, correct? Why is it blowing gas back thru the carb after it fires that one time? I can see the intake valve working up and down thru the carb throat. I can't remember if there is an area to inspect the operation of the exaust valve. When I tore the engine down a few years ago(?), I decarbed the head, pulled the valves crank ect, pulled out the so called gernades, changed out the plastic gear to a steel one and had the valves ground. The valves were done at a car race shop by a friend. He says the crosshatch on the cyl looked good and he saw no reason to go farther. All was well until now. (I keep all of my tractors, 4 of them, on battery maintainers.) Iam going to get this thing out of the unheated building up into the garage this weekend, if I can get the hydro valves to release. Seems like everything at once. Pretty long and rambling post, but give me your thoughts. Thanks to all helping