"Update" Scag Cheetah STILL using oil at 130 hrs. Advice?

[Ridin' Green]

Originally Posted by Tharrell

I wonder if the Kohler oil puffs and consumption issues could be related to the hydraulic lifters?I remember a stander with a 22 Kohler that puffed every time on startup.
My 15 Kohler uses oil and I am going to break it down this weekend to see if it's got something to do with the valves, seals etc...

I owned an 18 HP Command for a few years, and it never puffed at start up, nor did it use any oil. It had the hydraulic lifters. My 25 HP last year smoked like a fiend on start up. I guess with them, it's a crap shoot anymore. That makes me think that Kohler may have QC issues in trying to keep all their buyers orders filled. I know I'll go out of my way to avoid buying anything with a Kohler in it now.

[Tharrell]

I have 2 of the 15's on walkbehinds.
Only God knows how many hours are on my Scag WB, it's the one burning oil and occasionally smoking.
There's a lot of buildup that I can see and it will smoke from the exhaust header area. Don't really notice it while I'm cutting, just when I go to trailer it.
Some oil will be on the deck cover and some seems to sizzle in/on the pipe.
Resealed the valve cover thinking that was the problem but apparently it wasn't.
Gonna strip it today and figure it out.

[lawnsquadnc]

Scag is just going to have kawaski and Briggs engines now. Kohler doesn't make an engine that meets emission standards anymore.
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[Ridin' Green]

Originally Posted by Tharrell

I have 2 of the 15's on walkbehinds.
Only God knows how many hours are on my Scag WB, it's the one burning oil and occasionally smoking.
There's a lot of buildup that I can see and it will smoke from the exhaust header area. Don't really notice it while I'm cutting, just when I go to trailer it.
Some oil will be on the deck cover and some seems to sizzle in/on the pipe.
Resealed the valve cover thinking that was the problem but apparently it wasn't.
Gonna strip it today and figure it out.

Post up what you find out if you wouldn't mind.

[Ijustwantausername]

Thanks for all the input/opinions. I have decided to give it another 10-15 hrs, if its still using some oil I'll carry it in.

Also, when I did the first 100 hr oil change, I shortchanged the oil by around 100ml, (it says 1.8qts and I didn't quite do that correctly, so I got a calculator and figured out exactly what it needed) hardly enough to notice anything but it brought the oil level to almost the full line.

Keep in mind though, it was still using oil the first 50 hrs.