I alternate between two mowers. One has a replacement B&S 20HP V-Twin that I bought new 2-3 years ago and it only has about 25 hours on it. It had been sitting for about three weeks and when I started it up there was an incredible amount of white smoke that came pouring from the muffler and it continued for much longer than I would have expected and the muffler was much hotter than normal, along with a strong smell of unburnt fuel. Later I noticed that the under-hood gas tank was almost empty. My thought is the needle valve has already started leaking and the solenoid controlled fuel valve leaks too, so the gas had slowly leaked through into the cylinders and then the muffler.
I bought a bag full of fuel shutoff valves when I was working on other mowers and outboards so I ran it almost empty and spliced one into the fuel line. I already have shutoffs on all my other small engines but I figured the mowers with their solenoid shutoffs didn’t need them. Guess I was wrong.
I bought a bag full of fuel shutoff valves when I was working on other mowers and outboards so I ran it almost empty and spliced one into the fuel line. I already have shutoffs on all my other small engines but I figured the mowers with their solenoid shutoffs didn’t need them. Guess I was wrong.