Kawasaki 17HP problem

I working on a lawn mower that has a kawasaki 17 HP motor on it. It starts and runs pretty good, but when blades are kicked on it doesn't go ahead and open up like there is a problem with the governor. Today with the air filter of I noticed it was spitting gas out of the front of the carb. Not a lot, but would wet your hand pretty quick. Could it be an intake valve leaking or some internal gasket? If someone can help me on this I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks Gordy. That's where I thought I'd go next, but I've noticed that on here you can get a variety of ideas because just about everything happens to a Allis owner. LOL  But thanks again.

Thanks Dave. You've just proved my point. Everything has happened to an Allis owner, and that word reversion seems reasonable also. Well I'm going to tear it apart tomorrow and we, see what we will see. Going to try a compression test first and check the valve adjustment before I tear into it. Thanks again guys.

I have the same problem with a green tractor that has a little 12-1/2hp motor, An this little fellow won't even start. All this tractor does is pull a lawn sweeper around so it isn't really missed, but I've been tinkering around with it for a year off an on.

I checked everything I could think of and the only thing that stood out was the fact that it only had 50 lbs compression. Then read somewhere that number is normal. Normal?

So I was planning to lap the valves and try it again. I had someone tell me about some kind of Chevron product that was supposed to help that Kawasaki valve problem. But he didn't say they were sticking, he mentioned carbon build up holding them open.

but I'm not sure about any of this info. I'm saying what I've heard, right or wrong.

Les, several yrs. ago when I worked at Gasper's Trk. Plaza we had a litle green machine like you're talking about that had the kawasaki engine and the crankcase gasket blew. When I tore it down to replace it, actually I made it from a manila folder, I thought at the time this is the best built dang little motor I ever saw. I think they ran that little booger at least 15 yrs. with no major problems. From what I've been reading it seems our sorry over rated gasoline is a major culprit in our having these kinds of troubles. But thanks again for the continued ideas and I'm going to try them all until one fixes it.   Leon R  Cmo

Did you check valve adjustment?

Yes, I checked the valve adjustment. RH side the Ex. valve was tight, tight, tight. In. was way to loose. No compression on that side. LH side had 90# comp. but valves were very loose. So it looks like we've found the problem. I also checked the air gap on the coils and they were off bad. The magnet and the coils were rustiest I've ever seen. So it looks like the thing can be saved. I'll let you know.

Just to make sure we're not comparing apples to road-apples to pomme-de-terre...

The thread and issues are for a Kawasaki V-twin... so specific in nature to a model and type.

If the 'green machine' tractor has a different engine, please tell us which one SPECIFICALLY.

GENERALLY speaking, valve lash on one series of engine will drift differently from another based on many factors as part of design, manufacture, and original assembly. MOST of the issues I've seen with my Kawasaki V-twin lawn engines, and singles as well, came back to the carbeurators' float pivot bracket cracking, causing the float to jamb, overflow the bowl, and dump large volumes of gasoline down the intake, which inevitably fills the lower cylinder and hydraulically locks it while the other is still breathing, and unfortunately, screaming wildly, the locked cylinder goes catastrophic, and ventilating the block with a twisted-up connecting rod. The singles tended to stall out soon enough to just stall and flood.

The note on automatic compression release should be taken strongly- many of these engines' compression release concepts will make typical test readings inaccurate, unstable, or moot. A messed up exhaust, intake, or head gasket will do the same, and leave the technician baffled.

Another thing that frequently happens, particularly on engines with low compression or wildly varying burn temps, is the 'coking' up of unburned fuel and oil around the exhaust valve stem... and the end result, is that the stem starts to bind in the guide... causing power loss, and eventually, killing the engine. On Kohler K-series flatheads, adding some Marvel Mystery Oil to the gasoline will help clean that out, and I've used same technique on other engines to varying amounts of success.

But whatever... just make sure that if you're describing a problem with a specific engine, that you make sure that it's either exactly same as that identified in the thread, or you identify exactly what engine it IS, because engines are not categorically all identical in their specific weaknesses... jumping to an immediate conclusion of one, does not assure any success with another.