184 Burning Engine Oil

[tucker86]

It has been a while and I have been running my 184 quite a bit recently to keep up with the falling leaves, so I thought I would share an update. I decided to hold off on changing the engine oil until the spring since it was nearing the end of the season, so I am still running the 15w-40. The tractor continues to run very well and I have probably put another 10-15 hours on it since my last update. I have continued to notice much less oil burn and I am also noticing less blow by coming from the breather. I may have burned 1/4qt of oil during those operating hours this fall. I have it put up for the winter now, but am really curious how it will perform next year after I change over to straight 30wt and continuing the Seafoam treatment.

[Glen]

Hi,
Good that the engine is working better.

I suggest that you might not want to use 30wt oil, if you are putting in Seafoam, if the Seafoam is thin oil, it will thin down the 30wt. You don't want too thin a motor oil in hot weather, next year.

I don't know if Seafoam is thin, I don't have any to see.

[outdoors4evr]

Much of your oil burn is likely the seafoam doing its job. Your 1/2 can of seafoam is about 1/4 quart.
Since seafoam is meant to break down debris and contaminants within the engine, I'd like to suggest changing the oil this fall, before those contaminants settle to the bottom of the oil pan and become undrainable sludge.
When I pulled the oil pan off my 184, there was about 1/4" of sludge on the bottom that just wouldn't drain out of the oil pan. It seems like the drain plug is not the lowest point in the pan.
I have tried jacking up one side of the tractor and other voodoo tricks to get more old oil out of the pan, but just never seem to get it all.

[tucker86]

Much of your oil burn is likely the seafoam doing its job. Your 1/2 can of seafoam is about 1/4 quart.
Since seafoam is meant to break down debris and contaminants within the engine, I'd like to suggest changing the oil this fall, before those contaminants settle to the bottom of the oil pan and become undrainable sludge.
When I pulled the oil pan off my 184, there was about 1/4" of sludge on the bottom that just wouldn't drain out of the oil pan. It seems like the drain plug is not the lowest point in the pan.
I have tried jacking up one side of the tractor and other voodoo tricks to get more old oil out of the pan, but just never seem to get it all.

This is a good suggestion, I had not considered the contaminants settling over the winter. Sounds like a good project for my day off work on Veterans day.

[BigBill]

I change the oil 15/40 delvac in the fall add seafoam to the crankcase and fuel tank, I top the tank off with fuel run it on the last run, top the tank and put it to sleep. I put the battery tender on.

Good advice above who knows how these machines were abused before we got them.

I noticed once my cadets are fixed and running they last for decades.