My lawnmower is putting out a lot of smoke - the smoke is white rather than blue or black?
Curious asked:
What is wrong and how do I fix it. It is a John Deere self-propelled mower with a Briggs & Stratton engine with OHV.
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on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Maintenance & Repairs.
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What is wrong and how do I fix it. It is a John Deere self-propelled mower with a Briggs & Stratton engine with OHV.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:18 am
check the oil. it sound like the oil burned out. just refill it. but now that you’ve burnt it out you’ll need to put more oil in more often than normal.
April 4th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
White to blue is oil…. make sure you didn’t overfill it (if you did, drain it to the proper level) and make sure the oil doesn’t smell heavily with gas, if it does, the float in the carb is either sticking open, or the inlet needle and or seat is not seating. Or the float is full of gas.
Also, if the paper airfilter is wet with oil, replace it.
Now, if the oil is perfectly fine, make sure you have no air leaks from the dipstick and all. Might have a blown head gasket. This is easy to fix, take all the bolts out of the head, get a new gasket, clean the surfaces up, and replace it and torque it down to 220 inch pounds.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
You probably overfilled the oil. Maybe the muffler is old an not doing it’s job.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
If it sat to long before the last use , or it sat outside you may have water in your gas. Try draining the tank and refilling or try a small amount of dry gas. White smoke will also indicate moisture in your fuel.
April 11th, 2009 at 4:38 am
I used to work at a auto parts store and I have always heard that white means water and black means oil. A motor is a motor so I am sure it applies to any kind. I would say to drain the oil and change it & also the fuel, possibly even the spark plug just to finish off the tune up. Between the three of them you should come out on top and for barely any money spent.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Curious to curious now that is curious. Anyway, back to your question. Sounds like oil rings to me buddy. Get a compression test and that will tell you if you need new rings.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I have a different take on this one. How long have you run it with the white smoke coming out? If you tip a lawn mower up to clean under it you can drain some oil into the cylinder and muffler. Most of the time when this happens you can run the unit for a while and it will clear up without causing any damage. Be sure to check the oil.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:40 am
OIL PRBLEM SEE PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCTS