Cracked block or leaking head gasket

G6 at Snook, TX

Well-known Member
I pulled my 8n out of storage for the first time yesterday to mow the early spring clover, and I noticed a strange smell off of the motor. The exhaust smelled like it was burning some oil. But it didn't manifest any smoke. For the operation of the tractor, it was good, ran well even with old gas that was treated, and handled the load of heavy wet clover without any noticeable loss of power for over an hour of hard work.

Our winter was fairly cool, but we had two spells where we got down to 17 and 11, which for our part of Texas is cold. I run 50/50 Prestone in the machine. After working it, I noticed it was somewhat low, I topped it back off with more Prestone. I checked for the a leaking head gasket but the milky paste of water in the oil was not present.

What would cause that particular smell? I doubt the cold would have cracked anything with the 50/50 in it, but what are the manifestations of a cracked block? Blown head gasket? Aside from the obvious.
 

there are no oil passages in an N head. a blown head gasket wouldn't cause u to burn oil.

have a look at the plugs. oily? steam-cleaned?
 
Maybe some vermin stored some dogfood in the muffler while it was "resting"?

Can make for a VERY interesting smell!
 
what are the manifestations of a cracked block? Blown head gasket?

Normally a cracked block flows both ways. The evidence of clean oil is a good sign. Did you notice any air bubbles in the coolant with engine fully warmed up and idling? The bubble test isn't absolute.

Advance Auto Parts will loan a combustion gas sniffer kit. All you need to purchase is the chemical that you add to the coolant.
 
I had a cracked engine once and you could see anti freeze leaking out. More importantly it leaves a whitish /grey residue on the outside of the block when it dries. My crack went all the way across so a small one may be harder to spot, but look for residue deposits.
 

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