Predator 22hp smoking under load

[rich_kildow 269]

I know it's not a stock engine, but where do I begin looking for the cause of my Predator 22hp sucking oil into the carb? FYI, the carb sits on top of the engine and it appears that the oil is coming from the breather hose that goes behind the flywheel to the crankcase breather.

It only happens at heavy load, mainly mowing at higher speed on tall grass, or slowly in really tall stuff. The thing is that it happens reliably. I can throttle down or disengage the deck and it stops, but it will happen right away if I recreate those conditions.

I pulled vacuum on the breather tube and it appears to function fine, but I'll have to pull the engine to replace it. I also just changed to oil to 10W-30 which is recommended, and it is not overfilled. What else do you check with a smoking engine?

[Kenh 37]

It almost sounds like excess blow by under load. If you have access to a leakdown gauge that would be the definitive test.

[rich_kildow 269]

I can check that out. Maxwood mentioned that these are sensitive to overfilling the oil in his experience, and I have read the same about GX670's and the Lifan clones. I have it right at the top mark so I'll drain some tomorrow and see what it does. This thing only has 7 or so hours on it, so barring mine being the first horror story I've found on these engines, I'm guessing it is something simple.

[rich_kildow 269]

It was definitely overfilled with oil, albeit not according to the dipstick. I drained it down to just below halfway between the hash marks on the dipstick and ran the snot out of it last night. 30 minutes of mowing trails with wet grass that was 8-10" tall. It would have been fogging mosquitoes a 1/4 miles away the other day, but not even a hint of smoke.

So far, I'm VERY impressed with this engine.

[Kenh 37]

Kohler had an "issue" with oil burning on one of their models. I don't remember off hand at the moment which one it was but it resided in an ExMark mower. The remedy was to run the oil at the add mark.

Ken

[jrmorrill 30]

I swapped a Predator 22hp into my Landlord 2010. It's been an interesting machine and during the first few hours it smoked heavily when going across a slope. Definitely an oil level issue. After using the motor for a number of hours the smoking stopped, as it burned away.

[rich_kildow 269]

I've put another 5-6 hours on it since this issue came up with no problems at all...not a single puff of smoke even mowing knee high grass on some of my trails. You can't bog this thing down.

[isetta 50]

Rich do the engine specs call out oil capacity and if yes does that level correspond to the full mark on the dipstick?

[theniteowl 29]

Check your oil for the smell of gasoline. If the carb floods for any reason you could end up with gas in the oil which causes it to thin out and then can get sucked back into the carburetor easily.

[theniteowl 29]

jrmorrill, how did the swap go for your 2010? Any major issues?

How was the fit?

I am considering putting one into my Allis 416 which has more room than my 2010 and 101's but they would be a good gauge to determine how it would fit in the 416 and I may consider the swap for one of the 101's as I have one poorly running engine and one that self destructed during a snow storm last winter.