On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:04:42 -0500, "Don Young"
wrote:


"News Groups" wrote in message
news
Thanks for all the replies, it runs fine except for the smoke. The blades,
pullies and belts are all ok. The tractor ran fine for several days before
I jacked it up so I know its something I did. I had a mechanic tell me
that I might want to use a higher viscosity oil to see it that may help
ast all( long shot) so today I changed the oil from 30wt to 50wt. I let it

But this doesn't conform to the fact that it ran fine before you
jacked it up. It was running on 30wt then. You're talking about
straight 50wt, not 50W-30? 50W-xx shouldn't be any different in a
lawnmower than 30 weight, because the W stands for Winter (tbat is,
cold weather, not a Florida winter) and people don't mow the lawn cold
weather. So 50W-30 is basically the same as 30weight oil in the
spring and summer.

But if you went to straight 50, I think I'd go back again. You didn't
break anything jacking it up. I take my push mower and put the
handlebar on the ground, under a bush to hold it there, and that
doesn't do any damage. Maybe you went a little farther. Sometimes I
turn the whole mower on the side. I think then I turn it on the side
away from the muffler for some reason I can no longer remember.

I agree with the below, that idling is not running. In a car it only
uses a tiny amount of gas. And in a lawnmower it probably doesn't get
very hot, so part of the oil is smoking but other parts are just
sitting there.

run another hour and still smokes. I filled the oil level to just below
full. Any suggestions if the additives will work?
Thanks John

"John Lawrence" wrote in message
A very common problem. Most likely base oil ran out through the crank base
vent. If you can get it started, that's good. Top up the engine oil, start
it and let it run until the oil is burned off. Smoke should stop then. It
may require cleaning the plug a number of times. next time don't hoist it
up as high. lol
"News Groups" wrote in message
. com...
I was given an old Craftsman riding mover. It needed new blades and not
knowing how to take the deck off I jacked up the front end as high as I
could. It sat overnight. The next morning I started it up and it started
to smoke a little(white smoke from the muffler) as soon as I put it in
drive it started smoking like it was on fire. I checked the plug, it was
completely fouled up, I checked the air filter compartment and there was
a fair amount of oil at the bottom. I changed both of them and started it
again, still smoked heavily. Turned it off and had to clean the plug to
get it to start again. I let it idle for over an hour, then put it on
full throtle - still smoked. Did I screw up the engine? I was thinking
of trying a engine addative and see if that thickens up the oil incase I
busted a seal. I could really use some help here. Its really not worth
taking to a mechanic for any type of major engine work.
Thanks
John




If you have been just letting the engine idle it probably has not gotten hot
enough to burn out the oil. Try mowing with it under a pretty good load
while monitoring the crankcase oil level. It can take quite a while to clear
up a badly over-oiled engine.

Don Young