White Smoke Billowing and I Am Bummed!

Macdaddy

Just bought a refurbished 2006 cart and after some extended driving maybe 20 minutes or so, I climbed a hill and smoke started boiling out and it cut off. Two days before the oil was spot on the mark. Let it sit, coasted to flat ground, waited a few minutes, oil was in bottom half of hatch. Started it up, ran ok, smoked less, after a little cruising it was like it never happened. Went back and climbed the same hill. No issue. (the hill is not that steep nor long and I had already climbed it a number of times through the day).

So what's going on you think?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Joe

BGW

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Macdaddy

Oh, meant to add that the hill has a good sized rock that I bumped over just before the smoke...but it was nothing major...

Dave Box

Has the cart been lifted? If so the measurement on the dip stick may be wrong and thus it was inadvertently overfilled. As you rode up the hill the excess oil hit the bottom of the pistons and got burnt off. If this is the case I would find out how much oil your cart requires (1 3/4 quarts?), drain the oil, refill it with the correct amount and mark that spot on the dipstick.

If your cart is not lifted then you have just wasted 3 minutes of your life.

Dave

Macdaddy

The cart has a five inch lift, but I'm not sure how that would change the dipstick reading?

rib33024

did they drop the front mount of the engine cradle when they did the lift ?, to make the engine sit level??

Macdaddy

Don't know. I just figured a five inch lift was even in front and back and wouldn't change the engine angle. Talked to the guy I bought it from today, he said his experience was that I should consider about the middle of the hatch in the dipstick as full, and that if his guys filled it to the top of the hatch it was likely over-full and the long run I made (4 miles or so) plus the hill and the bump flooded the carb (?) with oil and burned it as a one time event. Sound reasonable as an explanation? No issues since. Interestingly, the oil level is about middle of the hatch now....he said "full" in this 2006 Robin engine is 42 ounces (I had read Somewhere that it took
1.5 qts = 48 oz). Anybody know?

Firescooby

If it's lifted, it NEEDS to be in the lower part of the stick. If you fill it to the full mark, it is over full and the cart will get rid of it for you...as you have found out.

I'd chalk it up to a good lesson.

Dave Box

To answer that question, the front of the engine is fixed in its cradle somewhere near the middle of the cart. When the cart is raised all that happens is that spacers are placed in the suspension which has the effect of lowering the rear of the engine in relationship to the front. Now your oil pan which was level is now at a fairly sharp angle causing the oil to run to the rear of the engine. If the dipstick is positioned in the front half of the engine then it will read low and if you bring it up to the mark it will be too full. Your cart probably has a splash oil system so all that happened was that the impeller threw so much oil around that some got past the rings and burnt off. You have not damaged your engine so you shouldn't sweat it.

That said it is best to have the correct amount of oil in the engine which is why I suggested that you find out the capacity, drain the engine, put that amount in and grind a new mark on the dipstick.

Dave

Macdaddy

Thanks for all the help guys. A good lesson for me and really nice to understand what happened so I don't have to worry about it in the future.