Kawasaki 22hp bogging while cutting after running for 30 minutes

Thanks in advance for any info. 4 year old Zero Turn with 22hp Kawasaki twin. About 30 minutes into cutting this season the motor seems to lose power while blades are engaged.

Original fuel filter and air filter was dirty and plugs were dark.

I did the following:

- New fuel filter
- New air filter
- 2 new spark plugs
- New oil filter and oil
- New 87 octane gas

Still seems to bog down after 30 minutes of cutting full power.

Any ideas? Thanks. AW

 

Is it really the motor changing speeds or is it just having a harder time making it up the hills?
If the engine is not changing RPM's I'd bet the hydrolic belt is starting to slip and needs replacing.

 

Try loosening the gas cap and see if it improves next time it starts to bog down. If it improves, the vent in the cap is stopped up. What's the engine on?

 

Thanks guys.

The engine is on a Toro 42" Zero Turn.

I will try loosening the gas cap next cut to see if it helps. If it does not, I will replace the belt.

Will report back. Thank you again.

 

The gas cap problem will affect engine speed. The engine will bog or slow down as you described. If it's a belt problem, the engine will not bog down, it will continue running as it always does but the mower will slow down. Which is happening?

 

Definitely seems like engine speed effected. Feels like bogging when blades are engaged and when going up incline. Again only happens after motor has been running for a time.

I ran the Z Turn again yesterday. Before running, I checked the gas cap and the vent was clear. After about 20 minutes the bogging took place. I loosened the gas cap, and it did not help. I inspected the belt and it appears to be in good shape.

The smell of gas is heavy of late when running since this started happening. Wondering if its not carb related? Just strange that it always happens 15 - 30 minutes into a cut.

Any advice appreciated.

 

Could be the carb needing service. The inlet needle could be intermittently leaking, the bowl vent could be clogged, or even one cylinder may be dropping out at times due to a bad coil. Coils tend to give the first signs of trouble when they get hot, which might explain the 15-30 minute wait. If you can put an inline spark tester in each plug wire, you might be able to determine if one wire stops sparking when the power loss is experienced and narrow it down to ignition or carburetion.

 

Thanks cheese. So I started her up tonight and let it run for 5 minutes without engaging the blades before it started to bog. So I first removed the right spark plug wire and she still ran...I then took off the left wire, and she immediately shut down and let out one loud backfire. So I am guessing it's the right coil that is bad, based on the fact that she still ran with the right disengaged...am I correct?

Where is the best place to get a replacement coil for this engine? Its a FR651V 22hp. How easy does the shroud come off that covers the spark plug wires and engine? Is replacing the coil an easy enough job for me to do?

Many thanks for the continued advice.

 

Some aren't that bad to change. You might want to visually verify that it's not sparking. There are other reasons besides the coil that could cause it to run on one cylinder.