Troy-Bilt 78 Benutzerhandbuch

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78/83/90 Series Horizontal Shaft Engines
126
Overheated
The MTD engines are air cooled engines. Because of this, cleanliness of the engine is very important to the life of 
the engine. Dirt, grass and sludge all form an insulating layer on the engine. This will trap the heat in the engine and 
cause it to over heat.
As metal parts heat up enough to change their proper-
ties, they will take on a yellowish or blue cast.
As oil is heated to the point that it evaporates, black 
deposits are left behind. This is called “coking”. An engine 
with lots of coked oil deposits inside the crankcase or cyl-
inder head indicates that it has been over heated.          
See Figure 11.9.
Another sign of an overheat failure is warped parts. As 
metal parts heat up, they expand. In an engine a certain 
amount of expansion is expected. Engines are built so that 
when parts are at operating temperature, the parts will 
expand to be within the tolerances needed for the engine 
to run. A problem occurs when the parts are over heated. 
They expand more than they were designed to. Some 
parts are mounted firmly, like cylinder heads (the hottest 
part of the engine). As they try to expand, they fight 
against the head bolts. The head bolts will not move to 
allow the expansion so the head warps to allow the expansion.
This warping of the head allows the head gasket to 
leak. A leaking head gasket allows the compressed gases 
in the engine to escape, lowering the compression in the 
engine and hurting engine performance. As the cylinder 
head cools, it shrinks back down to its normal size, but 
there will still be some warpage of the head.                    
See Figure 11.10.
Localized over heating will leave localized “hot spot” 
indications, such as discoloration.
Rapid over heating of a cylinder, like when there is a 
cooling air flow obstruction, may cause hot spots and 
metal transfer between the piston skirt and the cylinder 
wall.
Over heating of the cylinder head may be caused by 
lack of air flow or exhaust system issues. Typical damage 
from this kind of over heating is a dropped valve seat. A 
dropped exhaust valve seat combined with coked oil in the 
cylinder head would be sure indicators of an over heated engine. 
Figure 11.9
Discolored rockers
Figure 11.10
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