Billowing smoke

[rcosta]

Hi, I have a Briggs and Straton 550 Series engine on my 21" Craftsman push mower.

Today, it was running fine and after it was done, I decided to change the oil. After emptying and refilling it, I started the engine again. After an initial 10 seconds of running fine, it started to billow very thick white smoke. At times when the smoke got very heavy, the engine hesitated. It never shut off but I did turn it off after a minute or two. Even after it was off for about 10 minutes, I saw small whiffs of smoke when the wind kicked up.

After a few hours of sitting, I tried it again tonight and the same thing happened.

Any thoughts? Thanks and have a great week.

 

[rcosta]

OK, I might have answered my own question by reading some suggested posts after I wrote mine.

I read a few places where over filling the oil might cause smoke. I was sure I did not do that, so I checked my manual and I realized I messed up. I misread it this afternoon. It has a fuel capacity of 1 quart, which I read as oil capacity. The later only can take 20 ozs.

So, I will take out some oil and see if that is it.

If it sounds like I have missed anything, jump in.

Thanks.

Hi, I have a Briggs and Straton 550 Series engine on my 21" Craftsman push mower.

Today, it was running fine and after it was done, I decided to change the oil. After emptying and refilling it, I started the engine again. After an initial 10 seconds of running fine, it started to billow very thick white smoke. At times when the smoke got very heavy, the engine hesitated. It never shut off but I did turn it off after a minute or two. Even after it was off for about 10 minutes, I saw small whiffs of smoke when the wind kicked up.

After a few hours of sitting, I tried it again tonight and the same thing happened.

Any thoughts? Thanks and have a great week.

 

[KennyV]

Adjust the oil level... if you have not pushed out an oil seal the only damage May be a slightly fouled spark plug, it will likely burn itself clean... :smile:KennyV