1st oil change on the Club Cadet RTZ S42

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It was a nightmare situation. I could not remove the oil drain plug until I asked my neighbor who used two 12" long crescent wrenches.
The drain plug had red thread-lock. Also the factory oil filter removal required channellock pliers that mutilated the filter.

Why do they torment us and turn a 5 minute into a one hour plus task?

Next time, it will be 1 minute oil change since I installed a tool-less drain plug at the end of the engine drain tube hose.

Tool-less Drain Plug

Size: 3/8"-18 NPTF Kohler KT-725 22hp 7000 series
 
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Those work really well. Both my Toro and Craftsman riders came with them installed. Much less of a mess made especially when I connect plastic tubing to it and place the other end into my oil drain pan.
 
Shell T5 Rotella 10W-30 CJ-4 2.5gal @Autozone: $15 minus the $12.50 rebate.
FRAM FPS3614 ultra synthetic oil filter which is slightly longer than the original Kohler KH-12-050-01-S

The Fram 3614 is a near perfect match to the over price non-synthetic filter media Kohler.
 
Briggs, Kohler, and Kawasaki all put the filters on with an
air tool. they are all to tight. Hand tight is sufficient but
factory assembly doesn't allow for the time, so an air tool is used
and they don't want any leaks so it's set higher torque wise.
 
Great so far. I had a Honda Harmony 1011 10hp 30" which used take to 60min for 1/2acre lot with trees and bushes. The Club Cadet 42 cuts the task down to 36 minutes (.6 hr) and if I bought anything larger I probably would not have enough battery charge time. lol

I have a pig-tail hose that runs down from the drain plug to the rear of the frame. This is where I attached the tool-less oil drain plug. Pics later.
 
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IMG_1181_zpsfq7ymrap.jpg


Tooless oil drain valve that I installed.
 
You mean it doesn't have one in the first place?
I thought that the engine manufacturers were adding those to all engines
these days. I have a 2000 model Sabre and it has one, and it's one of their
lesser models too.
 
I maintain a Cub RZTS54 with the Kawasaki motor. It now has 650 hours on it. I'm doing 100 hour oil changes based on the last couple of UOA's. As of this writing the filter is at 366 hours. The 575 hour UOA + particle count showed Low, single digit wear numbers, (Fe 4. Al 1 Cu 1) I was pleased with Si @ 5ppm. The real driving reason for this post is the particle count with an ISO code of 15/14/11. The >4micron count is 192. That is an incredibly clean oil that I attribute to the efficiency of the filter. I will continue to run this increasing-efficiency oil filter until the particle count starts to come up. At 100 hours the TBN was still 6.1.
I've been using Amsoil Z-Rod 10-30. I have no specific rationale for that oil other than I have a case of it.

Happy mowing.

Dave
 
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