GX 345 replacing intake gaskets

36 A · Jul 22, 2019

I'm thinking i need to replace the intake gaskets . One spark plug is white whole the other is golden brown . What all is there to mess up in the governor throttle linkage ? I never was much of a small engine person so treading on new ground .

buickanddeere · Jul 22, 2019

. Try a dose of spray penetrant oil around the intake gaskets to check for leaks.
Does that version of the engine use the single barrel or two barrel carb ?

Drew · Jul 22, 2019

I just had the carb and governor linkage off my GX345 this spring. As you put it, there are several things to mess up in the linkage when you take gov. arm and carb off.

*There is a little linkage from gov. arm to carb. Mark which end goes to carb, and which end goes to gov. THIS IS IMPORTANT, gov. will bind and not move freely if backwards.

*There is a small spring that goes on this linkage to take any play out. This spring MUST hook back up EXACTLY as it is supposed to or the gov. will bind up and it won't go back to idle right. I fought this on mine. (I bought it with a problem, someone else worked on it, and I had to fix it)

*Gov. arm to governor shaft position. I dont remember off hand how to time the gov. arm to the gov. shaft. This information is in the Kawasaki engine manual which I found free online.

Take photos of how everything is put together to have to reference to when going back together.

JD Seller · Jul 22, 2019

Do you idle the motor much???? Run it less than full throttle?? They have a tuned intake manifold and at speeds lower than high idle they will have more fuel on one cylinder than the other. The carburetor is off center so the intake manifold has different sizes of tubes to balance the air flow at full throttle. Running them at lower than full throttle will eventually foul the plugs.

When the first twin cylinder Kawasaki motors came out we got hit with a lose of power issue on several of them. Well we came to find out they were just running on one cylinder and you could not tell it by sound. Installed new spark plugs and they were fine for about a month, then they would be back. Both of the ones we had were owned by older fellows. Come to find out they did not want to "hurt" their new mower and did not run it at full throttle. Explained the issue to them both an they ran them wide open after than and no more trouble.

36 A · Jul 23, 2019

I do run it at lower rpm cause it seems to be plenty high . I will spray around the intake and if nothing guess I'll run it. Thanks

Drew · Jul 23, 2019

It is supposed to run 3600. Wind it up and run it.

buickanddeere · Jul 23, 2019

Low rpms save nothing and causes trouble .

JD Seller · Jul 23, 2019

That motor rpms at full throttle is supposed to be 3600 RPM. It is designed to run there. I have GX345s that I sold, that are now showing over 2000 hours running full throttle.

Running it slower actually strains the mower. The deck is not running at its designed speed so there is more torque on the belts. The motor will over fuel one cylinder running it that way. That can cause thinning of the oil.

LarrySTN · Jul 25, 2019

I would be curious which plug was golden brown. It's very common for small engine manufactures to purposely try and run cylinder two slightly richer to combat the higher operating temperature of that cylinder. The engines with 2 venturi carbs jet number 2 cylinder one step richer in both the pilot jet and main jet. Your carb is single venturi but the offset of the carb on the manifold could cause cylinder two to run slightly richer. I would not be concerned with a little difference in plug color on that Kawasaki engine. This is what is taught in Kawasaki small engine school and what I experience in many years of small engine repair.

GX 345 replacing intake gaskets

36 A

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buickanddeere

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Drew

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JD Seller

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36 A

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Drew

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buickanddeere

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JD Seller

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LarrySTN

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