Log splitter blowing oil from exhaust

[psquared]

I restarted my (borrowed) log splitter this afternoon after running it for an hour and taking a break for a few hours.

It immediately started smoking heavily and painted the I-beam with oil from the exhaust. It ran great for the first hour; no hint of a problem.

It is a 22 ton TS with a Brigs 6.5 hp vertical shaft engine.
Machine is several years old, may have 100 hrs on it. oil has been kept clean. Never noticed smoke before and it doesn't burn oil. I pulled the plug and it was not oil soaked.

Could an exhaust valve seal have suddenly come loose to let oil onto the exhaust?

Any ideas on what could have failed so suddenly?

Nothing like having problems with borrowed equipment. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[mga]

could be the valve seal....or....

cracked piston ring(s)?

reminds me of a guy who gave me a year old lawnmower. he said it started throwing oil out of the exhaust and he didn't want it. naturally, it was free so i brought it home and played around with it. the problem was he had way too much oil in the darn thing. i drained most of it out and it still runs perfect to this day.

 

[jmc0780]

Did you move it before restarting? I know it's obvious but make sure it's level. I used one one that did that after towing or if it was not level and sat for a bit...oil ran into the top end. It burned off and ran fine, of course I kept a close eye on the oil level.

 

[psquared]

As a matter of fact... I towed it back to my garage to gas it up, then parked it facing down the driveway with the head down hill from the crank case.

No oil on the plug makes me doubt rings.

Maybe a bit-o wear on the valve seals and help from gravity did the trick.

I think I'll count on that being the case, run it and see what happens. I bet that's it.

Thanks guys,

 

[Andyshine77]

You flooded the valve spring chamber with oil, it's very easy to do on a B&S engines. As soon as the oil clears out it will stop smoking and run like normal..

 

[jmc0780]

If I remember correctly, there is a breather tube that runs from the crankcase to the valve chamber on B&S engines, it probably runs through that when tipped?

 

[Andyshine77]

Correct.

 

[psquared]

The verdict is in:

I just ran the splitter for an hour and a half w/no problems after the oil burned off.

I'm sure it was parking on the hill that did it.

Thanks for the great input!