Kohler oil leak

[Ron]

Kohler CV730-0027 in a Husqvarna tractor
Little white smoke while running, maybe more prevalent under load, with some oil leaking out of right side cylinder area. Don't see anything coming from sump gasket so that looks good. Head gasket?

[KE4AVB]

To me the best to find where is leaking is to use an UV tracer dye. Might surprise you where the leak is.

[okie]

I am interested in this dye solution.
What or how do you detect the dye? A special type of light?

Okie

[KE4AVB]

To detect requires an ultra violet light of the appropriate wavelength and intensity. Oh they will sell the UV dye with a pen light and glasses but neither the light nor glasses works very well. I use a Gardom UV light that is 365nm which the UV dye I use specs. It also takes the 3.7 volt lithium battery to produce full brightness. I can actually use it outdoors most days except for the brightest days. Now I only 30 minutes max use between recharges as the UV light eats batteries like Luffydog eating BBQ at a picnic.

Now let see Luffy is around....

[okie]

Thanks
Sounds like a lot just for home owner. I may jut try and clean it real good again.


TRavis

[Arkie]

A hint. I used KEV4AVB's advice awhile back about using dyes to pin point oil leaks with good results.

If you use the dye don't wait very long to use the UV light and glasses to find the leak because the dye after it dries is very hard to remove. I injected some dye into a very slow leaking Vec A/C system and waited about 3 days to look for the leak with the UV light and glasses, found the leak, but after doing repairs I could not remove the existing dye so as to see if my repair was good.
I tried acetone and several other cleaners and finally just had to cover the dye with some black high heat charcoal grille paint for a re-test.

I had tried using a very good high dollar freon sniffer type leak tester previously and it would not find the leak, the dye showed two small leaks in places I would never have suspected.

O'reilly's is a source for a dye kit but I'm not sure they have a good UV light. I used the light from Amazon the KEV4AVB suggested.

You will need the type dye for auto engines and xmissions. Probably about $15. Wear rubber gloves. If you get it on your skin you will glow in the dark. The amber UV glasses also make for real good night time driving glasses to prevent headlight glare.

You can review such on you-tube also.

[okie]

Thanks Arkie

Its seems like it not as expensive as I first thought.
A lot to think about for me.

[Luffydog]

I use to eat them a lot. Makes me think about how kohler and me are linked lol

[Luffydog]

When you run the engine and turn it off pull the dip stick out and see if smoke comes out of the tub. Sometimes it works but not all cases.