JD X534 Kawasaki? oil useage

IaLeo

Well-known Member
My "new" mower has just 150 hours on it. It has consistently badly darkened the oil every 50 hours since new. Uses next to no oil, but is this two cylinder normal for oil use? Powerful, smooth, a bit too noisy for my tastes, but so far satisfactory. What do you think of that oil polluting? Running ethanol added gas, JD oil filters. Leo
 
Yes, from what I have seen, that Is normal. And probably would not be any better with non-ethanol gas. (but non-ethanol may help you avoid carburetor problems.)
 
I just changed the oil in a JD LX 188. That oil was nasty black. If you didn't know better you would think it was a diesel. I think it's that Turf-Guard oil. I won't use it in my mowers but this is one for a friend and they supplied it. I also don't "believe" in multi-viscosity for little engines. I put 30 weight castrol in all of them. This was 10-30.
 
For the first 6 years I was associated with Kawasaki engines, they said to use 30wt. oil if the engine operated at over 80 degrees ambient temperature. Last December they sent out a bulletin that said it was o.k. to use 10w40 above 80 degrees.
They don't want thinner oil than this because the oil consumption goes up.
 
My jd f725 has around 1700 hours now. I use Rotella T 15-40 in it. It uses no oil to speak of even though sometimes on a hot restart I get some blue smoke. I suspect valve stem seals need replaced. Oil gets a little dark but not black. IIRC my owners manual says to change it around every 50 hours.
You might want to try a different oil ?

P.S. I tried synthetic oil and my smoke problem got worse so I switched back.
 

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