John Deere 115 Automatic burning oil and won't start sometimes.

[Aquanaut247]

Hey guys!

A friend gave me his mower that he is "fed up" with and I'm trying to tinker with it. The mower seems to be ~10 years old and burns oil. Symptoms I am seeing/he told me about:

-Puffs of white smoke when engine receives/is relieved of load (when I throttle up/down, a puff comes out)
-No smoke clouds during steady-state operation.
-Following running mower for an hour or so, will not start again due to spark plug being clogged.
-Under the "hood" of mower, there is certainly a spot that seems oily, below the head (I can provide pictures if forum lets me...)
I also have a video depicting all of the above. However, I can't find out how to post it, I keep getting an error message.

My question: what should I be doing to tinker? Is this a definitive head gasket issue?
Thanks so much in advance! Looking to have some fun with this mower.


_I'd be happy to FaceTime or anything easy to diagnose it quickly.

Jason

 

[bertsmobile1]

Hey guys!

A friend gave me his mower that he is "fed up" with and I'm trying to tinker with it. The mower seems to be ~10 years old and burns oil. Symptoms I am seeing/he told me about:

-Puffs of white smoke when engine receives/is relieved of load (when I throttle up/down, a puff comes out)
-No smoke clouds during steady-state operation.
-Following running mower for an hour or so, will not start again due to spark plug being clogged.
-Under the "hood" of mower, there is certainly a spot that seems oily, below the head (I can provide pictures if forum lets me...)
I also have a video depicting all of the above. However, I can't find out how to post it, I keep getting an error message.

My question: what should I be doing to tinker? Is this a definitive head gasket issue?
Thanks so much in advance! Looking to have some fun with this mower.


_I'd be happy to FaceTime or anything easy to diagnose it quickly.

Jason

To avoid being spammed out of existance the forum has been modified with a time & / or number of posts requirements before you can attach photos, videos & hot links.
It has worked a charm.

Your description sounds very much like a blown head gasket.
After the engine has stopped, pull the dip stick out.
If you get smoke signals from the dip stick tube then you can be fairly sure it is a head gasket ( or cracked head ).
Head gaskets are cheap and the replacement is dead easy but people will stuff around with carbs for decades before they pluck up the courage to pull the head.