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White smoke suddenly came out exhaust

Geo-TH,In

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
I was climbing a steep hill with terramite and suddenly white smoke came out the exhaust of 20 hp honda. I instantly shut off the engine. First thought was a hydraulic hose broke. Then I was thinking a burnt a hole in piston or something came loose inside the motor.

I let it cool off for a few minutes. It fired up, no noise, good compression. no missing, no smoke.

I slowly drove to the pole barn and changed the oil and filter. This time I used 10w30 conventional oil. After the 500 is over I'll see if my problem was 5w30 Full synthetic oil breaking down. Only had 70 hours on the oil. It was dark oil and very thin. Engine oil was normal on dipstick.

I took the air hose to engine to cooling fins. There was nothing blocking the air.

I hoping my problem was oil failure.

I've never had this happen before, have you?
 
What does that motor have for an air intake system?? Dry or oil bath?? Maybe the crankcase vent tube burped a slug of oil into the air intake.-------Loren
 
Probably a little bit of water somewhere in the gas line and when you went up the hill it was moved out and on down the line to the engine.Add a little Seafoam to your gas to clear out any other moisture.
 
I'm along the same line as Loren.
I had a TSC Huskee 20-50 with a Kohler Magnum. If I got on a certain steep angle, the oil in the crankcase would reach the crankcase vent allowing oil to be sucked into the carburetor.
 
I'm going with the flooded crank case vent pushing oil into the air intake.

Especially if that side of the engine was down hill.

If it's a vertical crank engine, angling the cylinder(s) down hill enough for oil to pool on the back side of the piston will also cause it.
 
That's something I'll look into.

Changed oil with only 42 hours, not 70.

Used it on level ground, no smoke.

No metal filings in old oil.

I've gone up hills with it before. Never had a problem.
 
Usually oil smoke is blue ? and antifreeze makes white and it smells sweet too , but sure don't know how an air cooled engine got water in it ?
 

Probably got it up to a higher than normal operating temperature than usual on the extended hill climb . Raised the crankcase oil temp above 212F and boiled the condensation out into the PCV system.
 
I agree with Steve-would not worry about it at all. Just because it did not ever happen before is not something to worry about: could just be a slight difference in conditions-enough to cause the smoke. Oil would not suddenly 'break down'. No noise: no worry. Mark.
 
George you know those terramites are flat land vehicles,, LOL I expect you got a dab of oil somewhere it was not supposed to be.
 
Yeah I've had it happen on an old 3HP Briggs when the rototiller tipped over.

A little oil got past the rings on the steep hill. Nothing to worry about. May as well have kept going.

If the problem was truly catastrophic, shutting it down wouldn't have made any difference, especially since you started it back up a few minutes later. Were you expecting the engine to "heal" by letting it sit?
 
Mike
Two times brush knocked out the dip stick and oil hit the hot muffler producing a cloud of white smoke.
A crew chief on a helicopter said in Nam they sprayed used oil on muffler and made a white smoke screen.
So my first thought was I had oil hitting the muffler. It wasn't until I stopped engine and looked under the hood I saw nothing wrong.

My first concern was oil hitting the muffler could cause a fire.

40 years ago I locked up a honda 305 MC. It was a hot day, I was running full throttle. Pistons locked up and my back wheel started sliding sideways. I pulled in on clutch, straightened up bike, rolled down the hill and at the bottom popped the clutch and broke loose the engine. It sounded like a diesel. Replaced the pistons and had cylinder bored out. I think the oil couldn't handle the hot temps, oil failure.

Just glad I don't have to replace the engine, $2000.
 
one of my riding mowers does that when on a severe slope... scare the heck out of me.. but.. no damage done.
 
I've climbed this hill many times with other terramite that has the original 20 hp kohler command.

Never had smoke come out exhaust before.

If I need to replace the Honda engine I would go back to a Kohler

Terramites are easily flipped so I use seat belt.
 
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