Smoke and oil from the exhaust

[bertsmobile1]

I drained all that gasoline saturated oil out of the crankcase. I got a new float valve and am about to go through and clean the carb.
In doing that I noticed that the solenoid on the fuel bowl doesn't release when I turn the key. Could this have caused the fuel to go into the crankcase.
I'm not going to put it back together until I get a new solenoid.

No
It is a common belief that is incorrect
The solenoid shoves a plug into the main jet passage stopping the venturi drawing fuel into the carburettor & hence the engine.
IF there is no air passing through the carburettor then nothing gets drawn through the main jet.
What happens is the float valve fails to stop the flow of fuel into the float bowl .
The float bowl over fills to the point that the fuel leaks out of the air vent.
Decades ago there used to be overflow tubes and you would see the fuel dribbleing out.
However this fuel that evaporates will cause life on he planet to cease to exist in the puny minds of the EPA so the drain & air passages have to be internal.
Thus you no longer see or smell the fuel spilling out because it is spilling into the engine so in place of you noticing it and fixing it early, you don't know it is happening till the entire contents of the fuel tank has ended up in the sump.
So now the EPA has caused 100 times the pollution that their idiot rules sought to prevent

 

[Projectdiy]

No, You can either replace the solenoid or just snip off the metal plunger rod and be done with it, mower will work fine with out it. or sometimes a good cleaning will take care of it, i usually use WD40 to clean the plunger and the bore.

Do you have an idea as to what caused all that fuel to end up in the crankcase?

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Do you have an idea as to what caused all that fuel to end up in the crankcase?

Read what Bert posted above, #21

 

[Projectdiy]

Read what Bert posted above, #21

Yes I read that and it appears the float valve is the culprit here. Although I was very careful when I took the float out to make sure the valve was mounted correctly and it was. It appeared to be fine although I guess it could have gotten stuck somehow. The tip seemed to be fine as well. I have a new one to put in when I put it back together. Both head gaskets seemed fine as well, no sign of leakage.