Oil flush?

[FinnL]

Just purchased and old, old Hustler SuperZ with a Kawasaki FX850V. Disconnected hour meter seemed to indicate 2640.
Previous owner said it used more and more oil. I ran it for several hours and kept adding oil.
Removed flywheel and generator coil.
All that's left of the oil seal is the metal C-ring. Did see small prices of seal plastic under the flywheel.
So here is the question: should I do an engine flush to get any remaining oil seal pieces that may have gotten into the engine flushed out?
If so, which engine flush to use? Seafoam? Something else?

I really don't want to remove the engine from the mower if at all possible. Looks like I can just press the new seal into place and reinstall flywheel, etc.

Finn

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

Just purchased and old, old Hustler SuperZ with a Kawasaki FX850V. Disconnected hour meter seemed to indicate 2640.
Previous owner said it used more and more oil. I ran it for several hours and kept adding oil.
Removed flywheel and generator coil.
All that's left of the oil seal is the metal C-ring. Did see small prices of seal plastic under the flywheel.
So here is the question: should I do an engine flush to get any remaining oil seal pieces that may have gotten into the engine flushed out?
If so, which engine flush to use? Seafoam? Something else?

I really don't want to remove the engine from the mower if at all possible. Looks like I can just press the new seal into place and reinstall flywheel, etc.

Finn

You have a Kawasaki FX850V engine with lots of hours on it. This is a good engine when new, but now is probably using oil due to worn piston rings, etc. I would simply change the oil and filter, replace the engine seal, and run it and keep an eye on oil level at every use.

 

[StarTech]

Plus I have been seeing a lot of blown head gaskets on the Kawasaki twins along with bad valve stem seals lately here. Matter of Fact I just pulled a head yesterday on FX850V and the head gasket was blown. Along with a sticky intake valve and a migrated exhaust valve guide which destroyed the valve stem seal. New head on the way.

 

[FinnL]

So you think I don't need to flush to get any plastic bits and pieces from the disintegrated oil seal out of the engine?
Hope that they got flushed into the oil filter?

Note that I've never flushed an engine (other than coolant) so I don't really know what the benefits and disadvantages are.

Yes, it will be interesting to see how much oil it burns after I've stopped it from pumping oil out of the engine with a new seal.

Finn

 

[hlw49]

You said old old Kawasaki engine if it is an FH series engine check the top main bearing to see if it is worn out. Turn the magnet on the flywheel away form the ignition coils and see if you can move the flywheel back and forth. Those old FH series engines had a tendency to wear the top main out and if it has it will just wipe the seal out again.

 

[FinnL]

Thanks for your reply, but did you read my postings? All that is left from the top oil seal is the C-shaped metal ring that's normally enclosed in the plastic.
I just got the new seal in the mail. It has a spiral spring inside. So now my additional concern is: where is that spring from the old disintegrated seal? I now also see that part of the metal ring rim is broken off. If that gets into the ball bearings that would be bad.

There is no noticeable side play of the crank shaft at the flywheel end.