lawnmower is overheating

[bertsmobile1]

One side has a breather on it and that side side tends to be a bit oilyon the side of the plug.
White electrodes confirm that you were right in the first place, the mower is running lean.
Proper buring will leave a tan colour on the electrodes.

Remember we can not see or hear your mower.
You are our eyes & ears so you need to explain exactly what you see and what you hear, not what you think is wrong.
The white plugs bit is very important.

 

[J_Carr]

I drained the gas tank today. There appeared to be some of the rubber gasket from gas cap in the tank. After it was drained I took the fuel filter out and inspected it. It was clean the screen inside was still silver and clean there were some loose deposits in it that had been filtered. Took my air compressor and blew from the hose towards gas tank for several seconds. Vaccuumed any dirt and debris I saw in tank. Put a couple gallons of gas in it and started it up. Motor doesn't seem to be running very smooth. Drove it around with out the blades ingaged and within two minutes it shut off. But it started right back up. With the engine running I pulled the spark plug wire off of the left side and the engine seemed to run smoother. When I pulled the right plug wire off the motor became very upset and started backfiring and running very very poor. It wouldn't let me drive it around enough to get it to heat up.

 

[bertsmobile1]

well there is 1 answer, it is running on 1 cylinder.
pull the rocker covers off and watch the valves while cranking the engine. prefferably by hand.
compare the movement and positions fully in and fully out.
Also check the oil level as there is a cut out and if the oil gets too low the engine will shut off.
Then the oil drains down into the sump and it will run again till a lot of oil gets thrown up the top end causing a drop in the sump level.
If you have a compression tester check both sides they should be no more than 10% difference between them.

I have never had any problems with the hydraulic lifters but some others have a resume of typical modes of failure.