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what does this indicate?


GWGAllisfan

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What does it mean when the muffer glows red? I mean beyond the obvious, that it's hot....:D The story: Last evening, I was mowing with my Landlord FDT,(9hp 23d) In fairly high grass, somewhat damp, after a week of rainy weather and no real sun to dry it. Because of this I was mowing in 1st gear most of the time and wide open so it could throw it out well, plus my drive belt slips so it pulls the hilly places better in 1st. So after 2 hours or so I began to run out of daylight, and that's when I noticed the muffler was glowing red, as well as part of the pipe leading to it. Interestingly, the back of the muffler wasn't glowing, just the front. Even more curious, the exhaust out of the muffler was like blue flame, more like a plasma effect. (The muffler is on of the replacement "pepper Pot" types) It was considerably more pronounced whenever the governor opened up, that is, longer flame. Just out of curiosity I slid the choke over and just before it began to stumble, the "flames" got even longer. It stayed like this for the last 20 minutes I mowed, in increasing dark, then as soon as I parked and throttled down, the glowing stopped. What could be causes for this? and is it worrisome? Possibly too rich a carb setting? (This one does have the 4 bolt carb instead of the 3, since that's what I had available, could that make it too rich at full governor?) Ignition timing/point gap? (Has been converted to coil ignition)
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generally speaking, too lean runs hotter... too rich will run cooler... maybe adjust to decrease air to intake or possibly leaky throttle shaft or gasket
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Stumbling and a glowing muffler is an engine that is going lean under a load. Might have gotten some crud sucked up in the main jet ports. Give the carb a cleaning and reset jets to factory spec and retune. Been there done that on K series Kohlers when I ran Cub Cadets. You also might check for mouse nest inside the shroud blocking air flow around the jug fins.
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quote:
Originally posted by mtoney
Stumbling and a glowing muffler is an engine that is going lean under a load. Might have gotten some crud sucked up in the main jet ports. Give the carb a cleaning and reset jets to factory spec and retune. Been there done that on K series Kohlers when I ran Cub Cadets. You also might check for mouse nest inside the shroud blocking air flow around the jug fins.
mtoney offers good advice... first though, you might try to avoid taking the carb apart by, while running the engine, back the fuel screw out to possibly allowing some piece of crud to flow out of the jet then reset screws as mtoney said
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Sounds to me that its running fine. That's a normal symtom under heavy load in the dark. My B-12 does the same thing under full load in the fall when I'm picking up leaves after dark. Mine also has the pepper shaker can on it. I wouldn't worry about it. Just my 2 cents.
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quote:
Originally posted by mwells
Sounds to me that its running fine. That's a normal symtom under heavy load in the dark. My B-12 does the same thing under full load in the fall when I'm picking up leaves after dark. Mine also has the pepper shaker can on it. I wouldn't worry about it. Just my 2 cents.
I also agree, mine under heavy loads in the dark makes the muffler and the pipe glow a bit it a kohler k341 16 horse
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Sounds perfectly normal to me, too. I think some people misunderstood when you talked about the engine stumbling but that was when you applied the choke. It was running ok without the choke, correct? You should see a gasoline farm tractor out plowing at night. The whole muffler will be red hot. The glow goes away in a few seconds when you get to the end of the field to turn around.
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At 30 sparks per second, it's hard not having some fire and glow. Even Diesel engine at 15 fires per second will belch fire for a short distance out the head.
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