17 horse Kawasaki wont restart when hot. Smokes when cold.

[LawnMower]

I have a 17-horse power Kawasaki on my bobcat. When ever iv been using the machine and shut it off, I cant restart it for a wile. It won’t even fire. When this first started happening last season, it would start, but would run on only one cylinder for a few minutes. Then the other would start firing.

It’s also very very difficult to start when it’s cold. I would say about 10 pulls. The engine fires put it wont stay running. Ones it’s running it runs great.

I also want to mention that sometimes when I start it from cold it chokes blue smoke for a few minutes. After the engine stops smoking it burns clean. It doesn’t seem to use any oil. It never smokes when I start it warm. If I can get it started.

Any ideas to my little problem here?

[General Grounds]

:blob3: the engine not running when hot sounds like a coil problem.

the blue smoke sounds like oil is burning off, as for the hard starting, sounds like the choke isnt closing all the way. tony

[Arnold]

I had a Kohler that did the same thing(but it used oil, alot of oil) we tried all the normal stuff but over looked the points. replaced the point and she ran great (for a kohler with 3800 hrs on it)does yours have points?

[Fish]

Sounds like a leaky carb needle. Your fuel tank, is it below the
carb, and you have a fuel pump?

[LawnMower]

My dealer is going to order a couple of coils for me. Because it runs great when it’s running, and wont restart when it’s hot. Everyone has been telling me that it sounds like a coil problem. As far as the oil smoke, it’s a huge mystery. It hasn’t done it in about a month. But with out warning it will choke blue smoke when I start it from cold. I mean its really really really thick blue smoke. The exhaust even sounds different until it burns off the oil. Then ones the oils burned off, it runs clean. Never uses any oil. The oil is always on the same line every morning when I check it.