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My mower is nickle and diming me to death. I've replaced a deck support spring, the starter gear (which is already worn and I need another), fuel lines, in-line fuel filter, air filter, spark plug, and an OEM Briggs and Stratton carburetor.

After fixin it up I tested it. It went about 50 feet and was running new when it spewed a white/grey smoke out the muffler and died. I could not get it restarted because of the worn plastic starter gear.

I do not want to dump any more money into this thing without an idea of what might be wrong.

Since i'm a vehicle mechanic I tend to think head gasket but this mower is not cooled by coolant so where could the white/grey smoke come from?

Thanks in advance

Head gasket is correct, smoke is combination of gas and oil. Yes, I know it is air cooled, but if it is OHV I stick with my statement. If you are going through starter gears that fast, either you have bad teeth on your ring gear, the starter is loose, or you may be getting the wrong plastic gear. There are two different gears available, but not interchangeable.

Thanks for the confirmation. I will get a head gasket on the way and hope that's it. Thanks!

You could also be messing up your starter gears because valve lash is not right. I would check that. It does not cost money.

Ok. I just started tearing into it and found crankcase was full of gas.

I got a new head gasket to replace (#7) but how could that cause the issue?

There are no external leaks.

I thought maybe there was a gasket for the cylinder jug but it appears to be one complete cast???

I turned the motor over by hand and the valves are operating like they should.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Bad needle and seat? the carb is new OEM!

Nickel and Dime time again. Cause of gas getting into the crankcase is a float needle and seat not functioning properly. Need to rebuild carb and replace both the needle and seat. You will hear from some on this forum to add an inline shutoff valve to the fuel line, but my take on that is putting a band aid on the situation, not repairing the problem. The choice is your's.

If the fire went out and came back on as the ignition died, would that cause the white and and grey smoke? If it still doesn't light off when you get it back together see if there is any fire to the plug.

Dana

Dana, please don't make this thread confusing. He needs to fix the gasket and carb.

Rivets said:

Dana, please don't make this thread confusing. He needs to fix the gasket and carb.

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He has a new carburetor and probably knows why the crankcase had gas in it as he's a mechanic. I was referring to why it quit running in the first place. I'm no expert but it makes sense to me that it quit running due to no fire to the plug. We know it was getting gas. I had a blown head gasket once on a 16 HP over head valve engine and it ran fine till it got a load then lost power. I made a head gasket out of cardboard to see if an engine would run and it sealed good enough for it to run.

Dana, if you would carefully read his posts you would understand why we are suggesting head gasket and carb rebuild. Did you read about the white/grey smoke and fuel in the crankcase. I have replaced hundreds of head gaskets and even today I had a new carb that leaked, right out of the box. Using cardboard as a head gasket is called McGyvering in this industry, which may work in a pinch, but is only used until it can be fixed properly. Your posts are not helping. I will again ask you not to post items sending him in a different direction, but to post if you have something offer which directly relates to his problems.

Rivets said:

Dana, if you would carefully read his posts you would understand why we are suggesting head gasket and carb rebuild. Did you read about the white/grey smoke and fuel in the crankcase. I have replaced hundreds of head gaskets and even today I had a new carb that leaked, right out of the box. Using cardboard as a head gasket is called McGyvering in this industry, which may work in a pinch, but is only used until it can be fixed properly. Your posts are not helping. I will again ask you not to post items sending him in a different direction, but to post if you have something offer which directly relates to his problems.

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OK rivets. I thought I was helping with my suggestions like you and bert try to help with your suggestions. I now realize this forum is different than some others I like. Most of the members here are here only one time to find a possible fix for their problem and that is all. There appear to be just a few people offering to help. Now that you mention it I guess you are right, I do have a lot of Macgyver in me. I make stuff work with stuff that isn’t supposed to go together. When I grew up if a part went bad you rebuilt it. Now, that practice is not very common. It is removed and thrown away and replaced with new, a throw away society. I’ve owned my 43 year old Crapsman mower since it was new and several parts have worn out. Sears charges ridiculous prices for their parts and some I didn’t buy I made them. I did learn some things from you and bert and I also saw some suggestions that a professional mechanic would know was wrong. Everyone makes an occasional mistake. That reminds me of a funny. I worked with a guy that said he was wrong ONCE but later found out he was right, ha ha. I like to learn new ways of Macgyvering as you call it but I’d say the majority of people here are not interested so I’ll waste my time some where else. I’m not planning on coming back but I did enjoyed my 8 days here.
One last thing. A lot of times experience is more valuable than what some one knows out of a book.

Dana

Danna,

Nothing personnal about it and everyone likes to see people participating.
However the forum is searchable and being on the web will exist in cyberspace forever.
There for it is important what is on here is factually correct.
Most of the professionals on the forum have a sort of eticate where we do not but in on another post except where we see some one has made a mistake that needs correcting.
And everyone can be wrong & I sit on the top of that list.
If you peruse the forum you will see where I have made a mistake I have come back as soon as possible to acknowledge I was wrong and retract what was posted.

In all cases there could be several routes to a solution and while some are better than others ,once a course has been set it is important that it is followed to its conclusion regardless of weather it ends up being correct or not.
Mechanical repairs are a process of elimination,
You start with the most obvious or most common then work your way progressively to the more obscure.
It gets very frustrating and even worse very confusing when a potential source of problem has been eliminated then some one who has not fully read all of the posts pipes up with a quite valid response for a potential source of the problem that has already been eliminated.

No one is telling you to butt out we are just requesting that you real ALL of the responses then have a little think before you post.
Your posts are just as valuable as anyone else.
There is no heiriachy of who is allowed to reply to a post

I've been reading the replies and got to thinking.
If the new carb is bad (needle and seat) and it quit running and blew smoke out the muffler...wouldn't it do the exact same thing with a shut-off valve?