# Here's an odd one for ya...



## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

I was getting a used snowblower ready for sale this evening at work, and the mechanical compression release (MCR) wasn't working. I pulled the handle off the starter rope twice trying to start the thing, so I pulled the engine and plopped it on the bench. First, I tried to drain the oil. No dice. The crankcase was full, but nothing would come out of the drain pipe. I figured it must have some deposits in the pipe, so I just capped it back off and pulled the sump cover. 

My reaction went something like this:    

The entire crankcase and internal parts were covered in what looks like spray in bedliner. Its rubbery and comes off in sheets, it is tough, and it isn't greasy or oily. I have never seen anything like that in my life. Even my Farmall H with 60 years of sludge deposits was cleaner than this engine. I can't even say they are deposits from the oil because the stuff smells sort of sweet like molasses. The oil in the engine was still golden brown, and he couldn't have drained it because the drain pipe is plugged solid full with this stuff. I plan to snap some pics tomorrow, but it looks like I am going to have to replace the governor assembly due to heavy deposits (don't trust it at all). I was able to get the MCR working again by burning the crap off of it with a torch and wiping everything down and oiling it. The plastic governor gear won't survive the torch.

Whatever the stuff is, it burns very easily. I had to clean off the MCR spring, so I held it in a needle nose pliers and just passed it in front of the torch. The stuff instantly started on fire, burned for 5-10 seconds and then went out. I brushed it with my finger and it was all loose ash. Cleaned that spring up in less than 30 seconds.

Anyone have any ideas as to what the heck this guy put in his crankcase? He claimed that he had it serviced by a local guy for close to 20 years, and it was running pretty good when it came into the shop (just had to clean the carb). I know the guy who did the services, and he is pretty competent mechanically (worked maintenance at the local foundry).


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## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

Well, I think I have it figured out. I spoke to a guy at our parts supplier, and it seems that if you put oil additives like Slick 50, STP, Marvel Mystery Oil, etc. into an air cooled engine, you get just what I found. An air cooled engine runs much hotter than a liquid cooled one, and the additives sort of "burn" up in there and form that rubbery, black coating. He said it usually kills the engines fairly fast due to oil starvation and holding in extra heat from the coating. He said to never use any additives in the oil, but if someone insists, make sure it says its safe for air cooled engines (most aren't). I just hope this saves someone else the headache of blowing an engine after using an oil additive.

Here are some pics of the carnage:

The first four are pics of the crankcase and sump cover. Mind you, this is after I had scraped most of the gunk off of the parts that I could reach.





































The governor gear. The mechanism is completely gummed up, yet it seemed to work as the engine didn't overspeed. I replaced it and the spool just to be safe.



















Some of the gunk that I scraped off the inside of the engine. Some of it is close to 3/8" thick where it had settled to the bottom of the engine crankcase.











And, yes, I realize that there are little animals on my shop towels. They are from a place that makes them from remnants of the stuff they make baby wipes from. Super absorbent, nice and big, cheap, but sort of embarrassing at times...


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## Kevin Beitz (Sep 17, 2003)

Yum yum.... or is it Yck yck....


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## jhngardner367 (Apr 5, 2011)

:lmao:Hey CountryBoy, I don't see anything wrong with the little animals.......I'm just wondering if the "remnants" were USED,or clean,when they made them into paper towels !!!


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## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

:lmao:

No, they are clean. Come in a huge cardboard box that lasts me about a year or year and a half. They are actually sold as cow towels for wiping the cow's teats when prepping them for milking, but I found they work well as shop towels.


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## jhngardner367 (Apr 5, 2011)

:lmao::lmao::lmao:I don't drink milk,anymore.My friend died from drinking cold milk...the cow slipped on the ice,and crushed him!


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