Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

My brand new Toro 1028 OXE. I noticed a open end of a pipe. on the right side its open and the left side its closed take a look on the picture

and here its closed

does it belong like that?

If that side had a cap and you had oil in the engine it would be easy to tell as the oil would be right up to the top of the whole.  Just make sure the oil is full and you will be fine.  If you had full oil and there was a cap missing you would know as soon as you started the engine.

Here is a quote and picture from someone who was fitting a Honda clone on a snow blower:
"And this is what happens when you forget to replace the oil fill plug after checking the oil level, which is on the opposite side, and then start up the engine."

okay.... What a relief! it appears that this 2011 model IS different. here is a picture of it inside...

can clearly see its not open.

since steve have same model Toro 1028 OXE, and he is showing a picture of it caped. I post some picture of the engine sticker. maybe the 2011 engine was build some were else...






Thanks all for your help!!!

Mine was a 2009 model as you can see from the sticker in my pic. It's not surprising that the engines change over a couple of years or so.

At least you don't have to worry any more.

There was nothing to worry about in the first place.  If that hole was open to the crankcase you would know it as soon as the engine was started.  Even if it hadn't been started.
 Oil would have sloshed out of it every time the blower was moved.   If it was supposed to have a cap.  You would see threads inside the hole.  No oil, no threads it's not a passage into the crankcase.  It's a blank hole.

 just letting u know the dealer does NOT drill and tap the casting there ordered that way from the factory..and as borat mentioned they do it for postioning of the engine on different models..obviously its cheaper for them to drill and tap only one side..so on this particular model they only need one fill cap..

niper99 wrote:

Well they drilled and tapped both sides of my engine and they only use that engine on the 1028 model or only did. My guess is Toro has been slowly changing their specs over time. Now of course they are using a completely redesigned engine not a Briggs & Stratton engine. So it will probably be more specific to certain Toro models.

Whats the purpose of the hole all together?? for adding oil, they can't put in oil via the dip stick?

JoelKlein wrote:

My guess is that tipping a 250 lb. snowblower upside down to get the oil out would tend to be problematic. The drain hole just requires tipping it a bit. Very easy to add the oild at the top tho.

JoelKlein wrote:
You can grossly overfill with oil using the dipstick hole.  And when you overfill, you have to suck out the excess through the same hole, or open up the drain plug.

It's just one of those "poka yoke" technique.  Idiot proofing, mistake proofing.  Most Honda small engines have this, you cannot overfill very much, excess oil will just spill out the hole.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
My guess its more of a cost reduction.  One less hole to drill and tap.  One less plastic cap.  US Design engineers like to built in these extras into the product in keep the cost reduction engineers busy.      Their bonus is tied to the cost reduction $.

Honda engineers gives you both drilled/tapped hole and a cap.  They figured it was a lot more simple to deal with one less part number for inventory maintenance and documentation overheads from the get go.  Thus saving money. 

Everybody is reducing costs in different ways.