OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions on Other Engines Kawasaki FJ180V

Just wondering if these 6HP units run oil pumps? I looked at one the other day that had an oil filter and pressure lubrication written on the starter cowl. Another I looked at yesterday didn't have a filter or the pressure lube sticker but was identical externally in every other aspect.

Yesterdays motor had a manual and it said that it could be run up to 30 degrees in all directions. Perhaps an indication?

Aldot,

If the engine has an oil filter that usually means that it has an oil pump.

aldot, the Kawasaki FJ180V has a Hobourn-Eaton (ie, trochoidal) oil pump driven by the camshaft. An oil filter is optional. The old side-valve Honda engines had a similar arrangement except there was no filter, but Honda discontinued the pump when they switched to OHV in the early 1980s. Kawasaki kept it. That may be part of the reason Kawasaki allows tilt angles up to 30 degrees for that engine (Briggs limits slope of its side valve engines to 15 degrees. Honda allows 20 for its OHV engines.)

In case you are interested in the engine, here is the owner manual:
http://www.poweruplawncare.com.au/bushranger/owners_man/fj180v_owners_man_web.pdf

If you are need more information, say so.

Thanks fellas. I picked the secondhand unit up and will give it a once over before I play with it.

After fixing an old Tecumseh 6.0HP and sticking it on a Rover base and giving it to a mate to use I like the OHV motors as I can make valve adjustments easily. The Tecumseh was very rattley when I got it but a quick valve adjustment quietened it up considerably and made it much easier to start.

These Kawasaki motors seem to get mixed reviews.

aldot, since you are going to work on that engine you may find the service manual useful:
http://www.kawasaki.com/kengine/Enginesecure/ServiceManuals/99924-2099-01_FJ151_180V_English_eBook%5B1%5D.pdf
It looks to be a very detailed, decent document from my quick inspection of it.

Thanks Grumpy, that is a great service manual. My engine is an '08 build but I imagine things would not change much.

One change I did notice was the a subtle difference in the air cleaner compartment design. The one I have has a fault which could cause dust ingress but bypassing the filter if you were to knock the front of the mower. The filter housing is not fixed solidly to the intake manifold. I'll try and get some pictures. The manual was great in explaining how to adjust high speed idle.

I had a quick read on valve adjustment but must have missed temp for adjustment, hot or cold?

Air cleaner design to prevent the filter being bypassed, is a constant challenge it seems. A whole generation of Intek V-twins had problems in that area.

On the subject of tappet adjustment temperature:


(On page 2-12, Periodic Maintenance.)

I can't actually remember a car engine on which the tappets were adjusted hot, since the Austin/Morris engines of the 1950s. The whole concept was crazy: the results you got depended heavily on how long it took to to adjust that many tappets. Imagine doing the same thing on a V8.

Thanks Grumpy, I need to concentrate.

As for the valves done hot I have a Nissan 4.2 litre diesel and they are set hot. But considering the design principles of that motor it probably was conceived around the same era as the Austin. Nissan have been running that motor for eons.

And so they should keep running it. the 3L is a pile of crap.



Ive got one of these motors too. needs a new starter ($$$expensive$$$) and air filter. Im at a loss what to do with it as its only got a 7/8 shaft. If it had an 1" shaft it would have been used by now.


Ive also got the smaller 160 here as well. Its on a granberg side throw. Was making awful noises. Yet to look at it.


Thanks for the link Grumpy.

I have read on here a few times that it is difficult to get a usable compression reading on engines with decompressors. On the FJ180 the manual in the link provided by Grumpy above gives the instructions on performing a compression test. How does this motor compare with a Briggs on giving a reading whoch is useful?

Here is the test

aldot, most side-valve small engines have a compression ratio of 6 to 1, while most OHV small engines have a compression ratio of 8 to 1. This is the biggest single reason for the much lower fuel consumption of the OHV ones. However it means the OHV engines need decompressors. The decompressors usually work by bumping the exhaust valve open momentarily, halfway through the compression stroke. Above 600 rpm the decompressor disconnects itself.

As long as it is a pushrod engine, there is a simple technique for doing a compression test which Honda specified in the workshop manual for the GXV120 - it does not seem to be in the manuals for the other pushrod engines, which were introduced later. All you do is remove the exhaust pushrod, then carry out a compression test in the normal way:



Personally I do not like the idea of loading the recoil starter that much - it is pretty hard to turn the engine over without the decompressor - so I rotate the engine with a large back-geared electric drill on the flywheel retaining nut.

The Kawasaki engine has a similar compression ratio to the Honda, IIRC, so pressure reading with the pushrod removed should probably be similar. Pressures measured with the decompressor working may differ greatly from one make or model of engine to another, however, because of differences in the exact place in the compression stroke where the decompressor operates.

Just to make this thread a complete geek-treat, this is how the Honda GXV120 decompressor works:



It just flips a little steel pressing onto a position against the cam lobe to bump the exhaust valve open. The centrifugal weight you can see flips the pressing out of the way above 600 rpm. (Note this camshaft is from a GXV120 - the only small Honda that uses a metal camshaft, AFAIK.)

Because most engines with decompressors use a method something like this, you can check whether they are working on OHV engines just by removing the rocker cover and watching the exhaust rocker while slowly pulling the starter rope. There is an easily-visible "bump" movement of the rocker in the middle of the compression stroke. This verification that the decompressor is working may be useful to people with Intek engines, since the decompressor on those does not work if the exhaust tappet clearance is as little as 0.001" above maximum specification..

Thanks for that Grumpy. I will give it a go but I might just try some heavry grass first and see how the engine powers on. From what I have read these Kawasaki motors have good power so I will see just what it can cut. It has been starting and running very well actually so I cant complain on that part. It took a little fiddling to get idle speeds and top end speeds spot on. The mechanism was a bit sticky from the mower sitting for so long.

About the last thing I need to do it trim some cord from the starter pulley. It was originally a handlebar mounted starter and I am not a fan. So I removed the retainer off the handlebar and allowed the starter to retract fully but there is too much cord and it doesn't retract cleanly.

Aldo, I don't know what kind of piston rings the Kawasaki uses so it may or may not be the same as Honda. With Honda OHV engines the top ring (compression ring) is chrome plated, but on the older versions of the engines, the oil rings were cast iron and were not plated. As a result, the oil rings wore very much faster than the compression rings. Those OHV Honda engines can be literally smoking up the whole street, while giving perfect compression test results. Very wisely, some years ago (I don't know how many) Honda began fitting at least some of those engines with chrome plated steel rail oil rings, which can last about as long as the compression rings. The middle (oil scraper) rings are still not plated, but were always a lot more durable than the cast iron oil rings.

If your engine is not burning oil, and it is running well, there is no real reason to worry about the compression pressures.

I cannot find a specification in the workshop manual for length of starter cord, or the number of turns to be wound onto the reel, or the amount of reserve movement remaining in the spring when the cord is fully extended. It seems you are probably supposed to do what you are doing, and see how much rope it can wind onto the reel. However there are several diameters of cord available, so this can easily work out badly for the starter spring. Remember to ensure the spring has at least a full turn of extra rotation available before it coil-binds, after the cord is fully run out. When I follow Honda's procedure I find there is 1.5 turns of extra rotation capacity. Not leaving enough extra will overload the spring and result in it not lasting very long.