rosscopeeko

Hi guys.  I bought my first mower last year and got some good advice from you guys on it last year.  My mower ran well all last year and before i put it away for winter i changed the oil.  I ran Chevron Delo 15w40 in it all summer and then changed it out to Mobil 1 10w30 before storage.  I get some fresh fuel and pull it out for it's first use.  I never started it after the oil change last fall.  It starts after quite a few pulls and starts smoking heavily.  It's burning oil while i let it warm up and continued to do so.  I start mowing after about a minute and it's still really smoking.  I began to worry the the rings were worn and that it was burning oil because of the thinner oil.  Well, after about 5 minutes of mowing it clears right up and stops smoking.  Do you think i could have overfilled the crank case with oil and it just burnt off the excess?  or do you think the engine had to warm up fully to seal off the piston rings?  The mower runs well and seems to have good power.  It's a 91 honda hr215hx .  Any ideas?

I posted earlier that i had bought a used 91 hr215.  Today i went through the entire machine and used it for the first time.  It had double mulching blades on it.  I cleaned the air filter, changed the plug, completely drained and changed the oil with Chevron Delo 15w40.  It started first pull but i noticed 2 things.  It surges a little rpm wise.  It also wouldn't shut down when i turned the throttle to stop.  I related this too cable stretch and tried to adjust it a little but it's still not right.  Now when i have to shut it down i push the throttle lever all the way back to Off, then forward a little and it dies.  One other thing i noticed is that with the double blades on it, it is very tough on the blade clutch.  I actually had it slip on me and wouldn't engage once, but i guess the lawn was long and it wasn't baggin all that well with that blade and it was gumming up.  For the front lawn i changed it out to the regular bagging blade and it worked much better.  The blade clutch had no problem with this blade and the motor ran pretty good. 

In relation to my throttle problem, i'm not sure my hr215 is running at the right rpms.  If i push the throttle past high into the choke area it revs higher and sounds smooth, not like it's running rich when the choke's engaged.  I'm wondering if i need to fine tune that throttle cable??  Wish i knew what rpm it was supposed to run at high throttle setting.

Future plans (within a month) are to drain the oil again and probably go with a synthetic mobil 1 10w30, and change the hydrostatic tranny oil.  I had the tranny cover off today and noticed there is what looks like a black fill cap and also a little screw just in front of that (10mm) that i figure is a drain bolt.  I'm going to drain all fluids on my next tune-up and then drain this tranny by tipping the mower upside down and letting it drain.  Has anyone ever changed their hydrostatic tranny oil before?  Sorry for all the questions, just trying to make my new mower last for years and years.  New mower and new house for a first time owner, well both used, but i take pride in my stuff.  Thanks,

Mike

I went through all the online honda manuals and none of them talk about changing the hydrstatic tranny oil.  My dealer said that on commercial mowers they recommend it being changed every year, on a personal mower every 3 years or so.  I bought the fluid so i'm going to change it.  I'll probably buy a manual for it.  I'll look for another oil and use the 15w 40 Delo oil in the bottom end of my honda cr250r. 

Are you serious that this mower won't work well with a high lift blade for bagging?  The dealer probably just tried to get me to buy more and more.  The original owner found the blade plate i ended up buying and this stupid dealer doesn't want me to return it for a refund even though it's in the unopened package.  If he's lying to me about my blade too i'm going to be pissed.  I've got a bad vibe from these guys from the start and won't be going back if they've screwed me.  i'll look for a manual and maintain this badboy like i do with all my machines (cr250r, accord, etc.)  So how about the oil, should i not use the Chevron delo 15w 40?  It's a high quality diesel oil for high temps, hard duty?  I think it's equivalent to a 10w 40weight oil.  Oh, and one last question, has anyone changed their hydro tranny oil before?  The way the dealer was talking it's totally different than the crankcase oil.  thanks for the help guys.\

Mike

I just brought home my 91 HR215 mower.  I bought if a coworker who know longer needs it because his ex wife prefers the electric over the Honda.  Anyways, their loss my gain.  It has relatively low hours for the year but shows signs of wear.  It starts right up, doesn't smoke, but it doesn't shut down when you turn the throttle to off.  I'm sure the cable just needs adjusting so I'll tackle that first.   I'm sure the hydrostatic tranny has never had the fluid changed so I'm going to do that as well.  I'll clean the air filter, change the oil, buy a new plug for it.  Anything else i should worry about? 

It has a double blade on it right now and my Captain ( coworker, I'm a junior firefighter) said that he thinks it was for mulching.  I got talked into buying a new high lift blade at a Honda power equipment seller for $18 Canadian.  I had to buy the bracket for the bagging blade because they misplaced it.  I bought some Hydro Tranny oil from this seller and the fricken stuff cost me $13.56 or something for a litre.  He then told me I'd need longer bolts to mount the bagging blade since they need to be longer.  I'm not sure if i trust that place but it's the only place i have to deal with.  The dealer told me that to drain the hydrostatic tranny oil i need to remove all covers on the engine and he says I'll see a drain bolt.  He also said I'd need to make a funnel and tip the mower upside down and leave it for 24 hours since it drains so slow.  He said it will take 500ml's.  Does anyone know this for sure and does this sound like the correct procedure for changing it?  He said I'd have to drain the oil and gas too before i do the tranny oil change.  For engine oil i'm going to use Chevron Delo 15w 40 diesel oil because of the high detergent factor.  Dealer recommended it and also told me to change it once a month because oil's cheap.

Sorry for the long winded post.  I'm excited about getting my first mower for my first house.  Want to take care of this baby and make her last.  Got my HR215 for $100 Canadian.  I'm happy.

Mike