i1042 Cub Cadet blew an engine at 183 hours

I also have another Cub Cadet RTZ S 42. It has less than 100 hours on it.
Oil on both was changed when ready. Every 25 to 30 hours.
I have been using Castrol synthetic in them. I cannot justify putting a new engine in the i1042. It is 1013 dollars. It has a timed deck that has been a problem since it was 3 weeks old.
The oil in the i1042 looks like it had NEVER been changed when it blew up. It was my wife's machine.
It appears to be over full. Might be gasoline contaminated.
If it is, would that cause a rod to come loose? And where would it have got into the oil?
Every other mower I ever had wore the decks out, but the engines were still fine in them.
I was wondering if I need to go back to a petroleum oil. For a 1.5 or 2 quart system I thought I was doing the engines a favor by using the synthetic.
Also, I always let the engines cool off for about a minute before I shut them off. We were advised against that by a mower mechanic. He said just leave them run full speed when you turn the key off. There is supposed to be a solenoid in the carb that will shut off the fuel. Her i1042 would "pop" when it was shut off sometimes.
DOUG
 
If the oil level was high, and you're sure it wasn't overfilled, then it had to be gas contaminated. It got in through a bad fuel pump diaphragm or an extremely rich carb, (choke not opening, flooding). A mixture that rich would have been running bad, black smoke, for along time.

Gas contaminated oil is plenty good reason for the bearings to fail. The oil would have turned black from extreme overheating during the failure.

Synthetic oil is just fine for those engines, even better in my opinion, it resists heat better, but no oil can withstand the kind of heat a bearing failure generates.

As far as idling down the engine before shutting off, I have always done that, and will continue to do it! Never caused any problems. Would anyone rev their car/truck engine to 3600 RPM before shutting it off? LOL
 
My 2010 CC LTX 1042 is still going strong.

I do let it idle for a few minutes after working it to let the engine and hydro cool down.

However, before shutting it down I do increase the throttle and then turn the key. If I don't do that it will backfire.

I follow the instructions in the Manual, as I'm not one of those folks that seem to know more than the engineers the designed the engine.
 

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