Puzzled by 28 HP Kawasaki problem

[Wayne 55]

Check the coils. Sputtering at times makes things sound like a fuel issue when in fact its the first sign of Electrical issue. Now days with the Ethanol fuels and especially on a mowing machine the engine temps run hotter than normal sometimes simply due to too much grass clippings plugging the air supply for cooling and of course ethanol mixed fuels run hotter due to the fact fixed jet carbs are jetted for gasoline not a Ethanol blend. All this add up to heat, heat kills electrical components. Do a check on the coils to start.

[arkie_3_fan]

Originally Posted by Wayne 55

Check the coils. Sputtering at times makes things sound like a fuel issue when in fact its the first sign of Electrical issue. Now days with the Ethanol fuels and especially on a mowing machine the engine temps run hotter than normal sometimes simply due to too much grass clippings plugging the air supply for cooling and of course ethanol mixed fuels run hotter due to the fact fixed jet carbs are jetted for gasoline not a Ethanol blend. All this add up to heat, heat kills electrical components. Do a check on the coils to start.

I haven't been using fuel containing ethanol, but that's not to say the coil may not be going bad since that seems to be a common problem on Kawi motors. From what I've read, my symptoms sound like a coil failure, but if that is the case, why would the motor run better when I shut the fuel valve off?

[Wayne 55]

Simply by shutting off the fuel you are leaning the engine. Less fuel to ignite by a already weak spark. This is my theory to your problem. Now I am not sure where you are getting fuel that has no ethanol? Not saying it is not impossible but for the life of me I can not find it. The main reason ethanol is such a pain is simply it absorbs moisture from humid air. but unlike isopropyl (dry gas) it does not atomize the water to allow it to be burned off basically the water will sit on the bottom of the fuel tank. It also plays havoc with corrosion of Aluminum carburetors corroding them then simply plugging off the journals which gives everyone head aches when spring rolls around and nothing runs right. Anyone who races and runs Alcohol as a fuel 99% of the time Purges their engine with gasoline to eliminate the problems caused by the Alcohol. The engines today or should I at times say owners are not quite advised about properly caring for engines running ethanol. It's a huge learning curve.

[arkie_3_fan]

Originally Posted by Wayne 55

Simply by shutting off the fuel you are leaning the engine. Less fuel to ignite by a already weak spark. This is my theory to your problem. Now I am not sure where you are getting fuel that has no ethanol? Not saying it is not impossible but for the life of me I can not find it. The main reason ethanol is such a pain is simply it absorbs moisture from humid air. but unlike isopropyl (dry gas) it does not atomize the water to allow it to be burned off basically the water will sit on the bottom of the fuel tank. It also plays havoc with corrosion of Aluminum carburetors corroding them then simply plugging off the journals which gives everyone head aches when spring rolls around and nothing runs right. Anyone who races and runs Alcohol as a fuel 99% of the time Purges their engine with gasoline to eliminate the problems caused by the Alcohol. The engines today or should I at times say owners are not quite advised about properly caring for engines running ethanol. It's a huge learning curve.

There are a couple of local gas stations that advertise ethanol free gasoline, and just about all of the stations around here advertise their premium gas as as containing no ethanol. These fuels are what I usually run in my mower, but if I ever get it running correctly again, I'll probably also use an addition additive pretty regularly in hopes of helping keep the fuel system in top shape.
I mainly wanted to revive this thread since the grass is starting to grow and I haven't touched my mower and addressed it's rough running problem since December. The last thing I checked was pulling each of the plugs with the mower running, and not being able to tell a difference.
The first thing I'm going to have to do is drain all the gas, and then start taking stuff off so that I can access the coils and the carb.

[teckjohn]

Check it out. take tank off and clean it. take valve off n clean it?

[herler]

Thanks I'll skip on the ethanol free mostly because it's government mandated which leaves me curious as to how exactly these supposed "ethanol free" service stations are wording things, I suspect there's a fine chance the wording has been carefully chosen to such a degree that it could be possible some are selling the same fuel everyone else is selling but their advertising might lead some to believe otherwise.

Like saying "ethanol free" means we don't charge extra for it, same price as the regular (which we don't have).

It has made me wonder more than once if some folks, this isn't the case.
Because you have to know, it likely wouldn't hurt sales.
Hell the only thing it's bad for is our economy.

In my area the only place to get it would be at the airport and I somehow don't think they would sell it to me but even if they would I'm not even bothering.

[arkie_3_fan]

Originally Posted by herler

Thanks I'll skip on the ethanol free mostly because it's government mandated which leaves me curious as to how exactly these supposed "ethanol free" service stations are wording things, I suspect there's a fine chance the wording has been carefully chosen to such a degree that it could be possible some are selling the same fuel everyone else is selling but their advertising might lead some to believe otherwise.

Like saying "ethanol free" means we don't charge extra for it, same price as the regular (which we don't have).

It has made me wonder more than once if some folks, this isn't the case.
Because you have to know, it likely wouldn't hurt sales.
Hell the only thing it's bad for is our economy.

In my area the only place to get it would be at the airport and I somehow don't think they would sell it to me but even if they would I'm not even bothering.

I'm not exactly sure how the stations get the ethanol free gas, but I have a friend that works for the wholesale gas/oil dealer that provides fuel for several local stations. He's actually the one that told me a couple of other stations in towns carried ethanol free gas, besides the one station that is always advertising and charging a higher price for theirs.

That said, the fuel is still my primary suspect in getting my mower back going. It could be the coils, but I'm really leaning towards trash in shut off valve or the carb.

[herler]

Originally Posted by arkie_3_fan

That said, the fuel is still my primary suspect in getting my mower back going. It could be the coils, but I'm really leaning towards trash in shut off valve or the carb.

Fine but trash has nothing to do with ethanol.

Have you replaced the fuel lines and the fuel filter?

[arkie_3_fan]

Originally Posted by herler

Fine but trash has nothing to do with ethanol.

Have you replaced the fuel lines and the fuel filter?

I replaced the fuel filter and the line from the filter to the fuel pump, as well as the spark plugs.
Hopefully I will get some time to work on it this weekend.

In the meantime, I also have a motorcycle (Yamaha xt225 that was a diet of crappy ethanol gas) and a Stihl MS280 that I need to get running.

[Valk]

Worth a look - scroll down to your city:

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=AR