White smoke in the crankcase...

[PaulH]

Today while riding my '06 Recon I was going up and down some really steep hills one right after the other being pretty agressive. No problems. When I was done playing, I rode for about 2 minutes going slow. The engine started to sputter like it was out of gas and it died. It wouldn't restart, just turn over. So I pulled the top off the air cleaner box and, POOF, it was full of white smoke. It would then start and only idle when I gave it gas because white smoke was still coming out of the crankcase vent filter. So I ended up disconnecting the crankcase vent hose at the engine and rode it back to my truck for about 10 minutes. When I got back to my truck it was running perfectly fine. So I connected the hose back up and called it a day. Is something wrong or is this normal? What exactly happened? Oh, I forgot to mention that I checked the oil level and it was low. Where did that oil go! Just checked the compression... 185 psi, right where it should be.  No leak down after 1-2 minutes.

[blupits04]

chances are if you were going up and down steep hills you probably had oil going around your rings and getting on top of the piston.a lawn mower will do the same thing if it's running and you tilt it back too far.but with it being a 06 I would take it back to the dealer so they could check it out and atleast have a record of it for warranty reasons.

[PaulH]

I'll probably take it in if it does it again the next time I'm out.  It wasn't smoking out the tailpipe at all.  Just the case vent.  It cleared up after a few minutes.  I don't know how the oil sump works in this thing so I have no idea if this is normal if you stick the nose in the air.

[PHN]

I'm not an expert, but you may have had a flooding problem. If enought gas got into the motor it could dilute the oil as well, and then the oil would get past the rings also, causing the low oil. The white smoke sounds like a flooded condition to me. Did you burn extra fuel, and does the remaining oil smell like gas?

this thing is an ATV, not a lawn mower. It has a pressurized oil sytem with filter etc. It is designed to go up and down severe inclines as long as everything is working correctly.