Farmall Cub

I was servicing my 1450 to get it ready for summer. I did a little light mowing with it and ran it in the barn for plug, oil, and air filter.

The airfilter was horribly dirty (only one season) and somewhat oil fouled. While I had the filter and air cleaner cover off a little more oil dripped out.

How is oil getting to the filter housing (carb?) on my 1450?

Is the crank case vented to the carb and I just never noticed it?

The valve cover vent is immediately behind the air cleaner. I suspect the intake vacuum is pulling the blow-by into the air filter. Mine does it too...

Yes, the crank case breather vent is the litle rubber hose that goes into the back of the air filter plate. Unfortunately, if you're getting a lot of oil, that equates to blowby, which means the piston rings are worn. How worn, or how much blowby is too much, is hard to say. I'm guessing you use a half quart of oil for a 2-hour mowing period. That's a typical 40-yr old Kohler engine. It's probably due for a rebuild, however, if you keep an eye on it, you can probably get a few more years out of her.

The only rubber "hose" that goes in the back of the air filter base is the air cleaner intake. Air is drawn from the flywheel/blower housing through the rubber hose, through the air filter and into the carb. The crank case breather is the vented, rectangle plate, below the carb. There is a reed "valve", baffel, breather plate, seal, filter, and a couple of gaskets under that plate, but it is not connected to the air filter in any way, although it is possible for the vented crank case pressure to be dwawn into the air cleaner if the cover seal is damaged or missing..

I had the aircleaner completely off - there is no hose from the crank vent to the aircleaner. The air intake from the blower housing is clean and dry. I cleaned everything with carb cleaner and put it back togather with a new airfilter and clean foam precleaner. I'll check it tonight after I've run it a while.

While it was apart it dripped a noticeable amount of oil onto the side panel. It appears the oil is leaking from the carb but for the life of me I can't figure out how this is possible.