Wednesday, April 29, 2009

how many people have oil leaks before 300 hours

I work on these engines all day. I've found a problem 3 years ago and Kawasaki told me it is a maintenance problem and screwed me out of appox. 2000.00 in repairs because I sold this product and I believe in the engine.
If you buy a new 19 hp vertical engine and run in very dusty condition, it will fail about 400 hours .
The reason is the crankcase breather plate in made of steel and the block is aluminum,the plate will not expand as fast as the block, causing the four 6 m m bolt to loosen.
When this happens it will leak small amounts of oil to be discharged into the cooling fins, which collects dirt and causes major failure of the enigne(head gasket,valve overheating,more oil leaks from seals).
The maufacturer say's to me"it's maintenance problem,not their fault!"
One of their most popular items they sell is the breather gasket, number 2 in the nation?
let's see how many of me are out there. Please respond to this and we'll get some payback some how?

16 comments:

  1. smoke comes up from the cooling fins after shut off. How do I fix this before it becomes a major problem?

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  2. Is this easy to fix or do you have to pull the engine?

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  3. Is this easy to fix or do you have to pull the engine?

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  4. I replaced the crankcase breather plate and gasket. Have to pull flywheel. Took less than half a day. Mine had the problem for a long time before I found your blog so I'm guessing it started around 250 hours. Just hope 19HP did not get so hot from oil and dirt that it did permanent damage that will shorten the life of the engine.

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  5. 150 hours on mine and back of engine soaked with oil,

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  6. 150 hours on mine and back of engine soaked with oil,

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  7. 350 Hrs. Overheated due to oil soaked- stopped up head fins. Could not believe how nasty is was when I tore in down. Replacing one head (valve guide broke loose from overheating) and valves, seals and gaskets. $200.00 in parts plus a lot of work.

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  8. My 19 hp Kawasaki won't turn over. I replaced the carb, filters, checked oil, ect. It cranks for a bit the gas come out it he exhaust. What am I missing or what can I do to fix?

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  9. My 19 hp Kawasaki won't turn over. I replaced the carb, filters, checked oil, ect. It cranks for a bit the gas come out it he exhaust. What am I missing or what can I do to fix?

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  10. My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

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  11. Replace stator started engine without completely putting it together ran great had to pull fly again put back together now won't start any just back firessuggestions

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  12. I too have oil on the rear of the engine. Mine turned out to be a broken muffler mount above the valve cover. The muffler was bumped while backing up which made a crack through valve cover gasket. Im going to try to JB Weld that piece back on and not use it as a mounting hole. Anyone else have this issue on a Hustler Mini Z?

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  13. I have 2 Kawasaki V twins. one is an FX730V with 860hrs and it leaks oil. The other is an FX480V (Not 100 sure on model#) with 1124 hrs and it also leaks oil. While both still run and are used almost daily, the leak is from the part you mention AND the governor shaft seals

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  14. So mine was used and when i ripped it apart the whole thing was clogged up like you said... i eventually blew the motor and now am looking for parts or a new motor... any ideas?

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  15. Mine is on a skag mower and when I took the cover off the fins were clogged as you said. The head and fins on this machine are covered with a metal shield which would seem the enhance the issue of clogging the fins. Are these shields necessary?

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