PaulInMaplewood
New member
I am trying to figure out how much oil my 184 is burning/leaking. Can someone tell me if the distance between the Low and Max marks on the dipstick is one quart, or is it more than that?
I carefully filled 30 weight oil in 2 ounce increments to just reach the Max mark. I started it up, drove it out to the lawn and turned the motor off. The dipstick showed 15/16 of the distance from Low to Max just from doing that--just below the Max mark. I started it and ran it for 30 minutes in fast idle, shut it down, and the oil level didn't appear to budge. I cut the grass, which took an hour and a half, put the tractor back where I keep it and shut down. The oil was down to 7/8's -- it definitely wasn't down to 3/4.
Careful to not overfill, I then added oil in small amounts to reach max, and it took 12 ounces to do this.
It is like a family member who eats a lot and one asks, "Where do they all put it?" I pour oil into this tractor, and where does it all go? It leaks oil from underneath the oil pan when parked, and I catch a couple of ounces each time in a container. Could it be leaking oil at a higher rate with the engine under load? I want to fix this because I don't want to disperse engine oil over the lawn.
Last time I checked the compression, it was even on all four cylinders.
With the engine in fast idle, I held a piece of white paper against the exhaust, and I didn't see any soot. I don't see any oil smoke coming out the exhaust either.
Under load with the mower engaged, there is some white-ish-gray smoke coming out from underneath the oil dipstick cap, which appears to be the crankcase breather on this engine. The engine produces enough power to mow reasonably thick grass without stalling, and this is after I had service place do a tuneup after I reported a lack of power. Afterward, the engine "pings" from "spark knock" in heavy grass--a researcher at the University who studies gas engine combustion told me that oil getting into the combustion chamber can cause spark knock. He told me that oil is "anti-octane", and that it only takes a drop of oil in the combustion chamber to do this.
If I can cut this lawn with about a gallon and a half of gas and 12 ounces of oil, I guess I am happy. For a car this would be a frightening level of oil consumption. Is it worth paying a service place to put new rings on this engine? A lot of 184 owners appear to have skills to do this work themselves.
I carefully filled 30 weight oil in 2 ounce increments to just reach the Max mark. I started it up, drove it out to the lawn and turned the motor off. The dipstick showed 15/16 of the distance from Low to Max just from doing that--just below the Max mark. I started it and ran it for 30 minutes in fast idle, shut it down, and the oil level didn't appear to budge. I cut the grass, which took an hour and a half, put the tractor back where I keep it and shut down. The oil was down to 7/8's -- it definitely wasn't down to 3/4.
Careful to not overfill, I then added oil in small amounts to reach max, and it took 12 ounces to do this.
It is like a family member who eats a lot and one asks, "Where do they all put it?" I pour oil into this tractor, and where does it all go? It leaks oil from underneath the oil pan when parked, and I catch a couple of ounces each time in a container. Could it be leaking oil at a higher rate with the engine under load? I want to fix this because I don't want to disperse engine oil over the lawn.
Last time I checked the compression, it was even on all four cylinders.
With the engine in fast idle, I held a piece of white paper against the exhaust, and I didn't see any soot. I don't see any oil smoke coming out the exhaust either.
Under load with the mower engaged, there is some white-ish-gray smoke coming out from underneath the oil dipstick cap, which appears to be the crankcase breather on this engine. The engine produces enough power to mow reasonably thick grass without stalling, and this is after I had service place do a tuneup after I reported a lack of power. Afterward, the engine "pings" from "spark knock" in heavy grass--a researcher at the University who studies gas engine combustion told me that oil getting into the combustion chamber can cause spark knock. He told me that oil is "anti-octane", and that it only takes a drop of oil in the combustion chamber to do this.
If I can cut this lawn with about a gallon and a half of gas and 12 ounces of oil, I guess I am happy. For a car this would be a frightening level of oil consumption. Is it worth paying a service place to put new rings on this engine? A lot of 184 owners appear to have skills to do this work themselves.
