White smoke from small engines

1600vw said:
15138927721859833603
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Ah, got it. Boy, considering what a 1.3 or whatever hp that little Stihl leaf blower did stoking a decent sized smelter/forge, that thing would be incredible!
 
1600vw said:
Back in the early 90's B&S purchased all of Honda's engine line of small engines. Honda revamped their engine line and sold all thier NOS to B&S. This is why if you purchased an OHV engine from B&S is said made in Japan for those where indeed Honda engines.
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So the Toro machines I see with an OHV B&S engine are Honda engines? Good to know... That means full parts interchangeability from what I read, right? These are direct and complete as Honda stock, right?
 
1600vw said:
Just imagine if every small engine did this. There are millions of small engines in every state of the union just on push mowers. Imagine the amount of pollution we would have if ever lawn mower in America did this on start up.

This is why you no longer see chokes on any small engine. With there being millions of these little engines in use the EPA banned the choke system. They did this because on start up, that is when the most pollution was being produced. It was because the choke systems ran so rich during start up. To lower these emissions the EPA did away with all chokes on small engines.

The EPA is also regulating small engines in the 24 hp and lower range. This is why we are seeing 4 stroke weed eaters, and chokeless lawn mowers, they now use a primer bulb, less emissions. The EPA would like to do away with all 2 stroke small engines because of the emissions they give off. They had a date of 2012 set but could not met that date. So know its 2020. Things like carburetors will be gone. In place will be EFI. Electronic fuel injection. You will start seeing these on your lawn mower in the near future. They have been working on these systems now for a decade.

Some info on the small engine and where its heading.

Tony
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The EPA probably has my address red-flagged. Every time I start up my 2-stroke jet ski running pre-mix I smoke out the entire neighborhood. Last time I had the jet ski out a guy at the dock says "burnin' sum ooool, arnchya?". Yup. :lol:
 
Gerhardt said:
Two major differences, and why standers became incredibly popular overnight. The best part about standers is control. You can take hills much more easily and they are a lot more manueverable. Tire size is everything on a ZTR when it comes to control, which is why commercial units have much larger tires than those made for homeowners. Talk to anyone who has taken a sit-down Z on wet turf or a hill and you're talking to someone who has lost control and has learned his lesson.

Standers are also nice because almost all of the mower is the deck, so you can get in tighter spaces that a Z can't. None of them are cheap, but standers will make you pucker when you see the tag.

For steep hills nothing is safer than the old walk-behind units that are falling out of fashion. MUCH more control.
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I have only driven one Z unit, and it was a top of the line commercial, that's all this guy ever bought.:lol: Tiger something I think. I drove it only on flat ground in FL. It had the high RPM deck and all that, I was impressed because I could smoke along and cut really accurate curves. I was used to pulling a JD 945 swather that I had to steer with extra hydraulics to get that good.:lol: What is the issue with if you lose traction on a hill, does the nose fall off downhill? I grew up with regular tractor style and push mowers, nice thing about boats is lawn care is really minimal.
 
1600vw said:
This is why you no longer see chokes on any small engine. With there being millions of these little engines in use the EPA banned the choke system. They did this because on start up, that is when the most pollution was being produced. It was because the choke systems ran so rich during start up. To lower these emissions the EPA did away with all chokes on small engines.

Tony
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I just bought a 2kw generator, it has both primer bulb and a choke. It won't start with just the primer on cold days. It's just built in 2015 so I know it's new. Maybe the EPA is trying to get rid of them, but I see a choke on most all generator engines.
 
Henning said:
What is the issue with if you lose traction on a hill, does the nose fall off downhill?
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If you're going down the hill there's almost always something at the bottom. Around here it's usually a fence, with someone else's back yard on the other side. Occasionally it's a creek at the bottom of the hill. The good thing about that is that there's normally a row of brush buffering the creek that will save you. It's bad this time of year when the ground is wet, because once the wheels start skidding, even a little, they've collected mud on the tires and it's like being on ice.

If you're going sideways along a hill and the wheel downslope loses traction the mower now has a new course. The front wheels are castering (they provide no help to retain your tracking) and the mower is heavy, so there's almost no chance of the wheel that has lost traction of regaining traction immediately.

You'll see the ROPS (roll over protection system) bars on the commercial Zs. They serve two purposes. The first is to add more weight to the mower for traction. (and sometimes you'll see weights on the front of the Zs as well). But more important, the bars offer some protection in the event of a rollover.
 
I really wish I had ROPS on my old Ford 8N. I'm always working on a grade and the brakes on those are usually iffy. I might invest in that this summer, and a decent seat with belt. But I like to stand up so I can mash the brake pedals as well.
 
PaulS said:
It wasn't a complaint, it was an observation. If you don't keep the valves adjusted they will eat one, at least the 13 hp gsx. My lawn guy has had two of them go on leaf blowers, one he gave to me and I rebuilt it.

Is there anything you haven't done or any piece of equipment you haven't used?
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The white smoke is a sign that the hamsters running the engine have elected a new leader. If it were black, it would be a sign they're still deciding.
 
docmirror said:
I really wish I had ROPS on my old Ford 8N. I'm always working on a grade and the brakes on those are usually iffy. I might invest in that this summer, and a decent seat with belt. But I like to stand up so I can mash the brake pedals as well.
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The seat belt actually buys you better leverage than standing I found on the old Massey.
 
docmirror said:
I just bought a 2kw generator, it has both primer bulb and a choke. It won't start with just the primer on cold days. It's just built in 2015 so I know it's new. Maybe the EPA is trying to get rid of them, but I see a choke on most all generator engines.
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Yes you will still see some of the choke systems on some equipment even today. Not as many generators running in back yards as lawn mowers and weed eaters. But even now most companies have come to find the EPA is behind on what they predicted. They put out this bulletin back in the 90's that scared every small engine manufacturer into believing if they did not change their equipment would not be sold in America. That threat did not last long before many saw it as an empty threat.

This is a hard one for the EPA. How does one get the power to run a weed eater out of a four stroke? Also just imagine how much our lawn mowers will cost with fuel injection and computers on every one, along with every part that makes an EFI engine run. All things that has moved this deadline forward from 2012 to 2020. I have been out of the loop for so many years that today the EPA might have dropped this idea all together. But I doubt it very much. How many times has that happened that the EPA drops something like this. But it could have happened.

I do miss working. I loved it so much. I never in my life thought I would miss working as much as I do.

Tony
 
I have a four stroke weed eater. It's a little heavier, but it's way quiet.
 
1600vw said:
This is a hard one for the EPA. How does one get the power to run a weed eater out of a four stroke? Also just imagine how much our lawn mowers will cost with fuel injection and computers on every one, along with every part that makes an EFI engine run. All things that has moved this deadline forward from 2012 to 2020. I have been out of the loop for so many years that today the EPA might have dropped this idea all together. But I doubt it very much. How many times has that happened that the EPA drops something like this. But it could have happened.

I do miss working. I loved it so much. I never in my life thought I would miss working as much as I do.

Tony
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You won't see EFI, you'll see a program like the aviation low pressure fuel injector. Study the PS5-C by Bendix that was on many early engines like the E-185. It operates on ~6PSI and has no float bowl or venturi. It's technically a pressure based injector, but it's not like a high pressure FI system. There's no choke on them, but it does have a enrichment circuit.

I have a 4-stroke weedeater I was just using a few minutes ago. Power isn't the problem for that but the weight of the engine is a bit of a hassle. I like using the 4-stroke over the 2 stroke because I can regulate the speed easier, it's just the weight that gets me after a while.
 
I have a Honda GX160, 127hrs. everytime i start the engine, it blows white smoke for 1-2 mins and then stops.

any thoughts on cause?

i did see Tony mention crank vent. I will inspect that possibility.
 
Mitch2020 said:
I have a Honda GX160, 127hrs. everytime i start the engine, it blows white smoke for 1-2 mins and then stops.

any thoughts on cause?

i did see Tony mention crank vent. I will inspect that possibility.
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White smoke is usually fuel, not oil.
 
Is that bike water
Mitch2020 said:
I have a Honda GX160, 127hrs. everytime i start the engine, it blows white smoke for 1-2 mins and then stops.

any thoughts on cause?

i did see Tony mention crank vent. I will inspect that possibility.
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Is that bike liquid cooled? I've seen just that behavior from a couple of engines with a head gasket leak. The white was actually steam and as soon as the engine warmed up a little it stopped steaming (visibly).
 
jsstevens said:
Is that bike water

Is that bike liquid cooled? I've seen just that behavior from a couple of engines with a head gasket leak. The white was actually steam and as soon as the engine warmed up a little it stopped steaming (visibly).
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A GX160 is a 160 cc single cylinder air cooled engine, usually put in some piece of landscaping equipment.

I've seen this behavior many times from different small engines. Since these are so cheap at to not be worth repairing, I just keep running them until they don't. Granted, in my case that's 8 - 10 years so if you tend to go through a lot of engines you may want to figure out what's going on.

Since air cooled engines run loose tolerances, I've always guessed that it's a combination of oil leaking into the cylinder and leftover gasoline from when the engine was shut down.
 
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Bell206 said:
What is it installed on? Any chance you tend to tip the equipment on its side? Have you noticed if the oil appears diluted?
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That's a good point. I sharpen the mower blade every time I cut the grass, and do so by tipping the mower on its side and having at it with a Dremel. After that, it occasionally puffs smoke at startup.
 
FormerHangie said:
That's a good point. I sharpen the mower blade every time I cut the grass, and do so by tipping the mower on its side and having at it with a Dremel. After that, it occasionally puffs smoke at startup.
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How big is your lawn that you need to sharpen the blade every time?! Even on a lawn & landscape crew we only sharpened blades once per week, and that was about 30-40 1/2 acre lots per mower.

Tipping it to one side is causing fuel to pool in the carburetor, so when it fires off it has to burn off the fuel for a bit before the float stabilizes. If you are tipping it toward the carb-side, stop doing that. That can cause fuel to soak the air filter and a backfire will possibly ignite the air filter element.
 
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