Smoke show

[rjundi]

Our Simplicty Regent(Kohler single cyl 16HP CV460) now 11 years old typically gives off a little smoke at start of season. This time it was a new world. Smoke started out blueish and then finally a huge plume of white heavy smoke. The motor is not knocking but is a difficult to start.

I am wondering(hoping) if something is arry with carb or something?

 

[mrsilv04]

Is it possible that someone put some diesel in it?

That'll do what you're seeing.

 

[JHZR2]

Did you tilt it to service? I've seen some engines smoke really bad after tilting due to oil getting into the carb or cylinder or something.

 

[Eddie]

Was the oil changed and someone forgot to drain the old oil first so it is over filled?

 

[rjundi]

It was parked the winter on a slight incline. Maybe the oil spilled into engine somehow. The muffler is a bit oily. I have not changed the engine oil yet. I did not nothing to it except turn it on to move it to change oil.

 

[cknight49090]

I started my mower the other day and quite a bit of smoke was burning off the exhaust, after a few mins it cleared up.

 

[dlundblad]

I would mow at least once with it before changing your oil and see if it clears up.

 

[A_Harman]

I've been having a similar problem with the Briggs on my riding mower. Whenever I fill the oil to the full mark, the engine will get oil into the cylinder and put heavy white smoke out the exhaust when I mow on a steep downhill. If I run at the low mark, this doesn't happen.

 

[NHGUY]

Some engines when tipped will empty the contents of the carb into the crankcase.Filling the engine with fuel and hydrolocking it.Check oil level to make sure its not overfull...

 

[Rand]

is that a gravity feed gas design.

I've had issues with them draining into the crankcase and you cant see it on the oil dipstick because its clear and on top of the engine oil.

you run it for abit then boom its all mixed up .. overfull and silty looking.. usually happens with briggs twin engines that have the gas tank under the hood with gravity feed.

The rear end fuel tank design with a fuel pump doesnt have this issue .. although the carb can drain down abit every shutoff.. its not a massive amount

 

[JTK]

Oil can also flow from crankcase to inside the valve cover (on OHV engines), such that on startup, that excess oil gets sucked through the breather tube and into the carb. Massive cloud on startup when that happens and it can last a few minutes.

Typically vertical shaft engine riders are parked nose-down, this will happen, since the valve covers are at the nose of the machine.

Being overfilled with oil can cause this too.

 

[rjundi]

Thanks gentlemen.

I drained the oil and refilled. Could not break the filter loose as a shop installed it too tight.

It smoked like crazy just blue and finally subsized. It smokes a tad but I think the Mobil 1 5w30(what I had on shelf) may be too thin. I will find some sort of thicker oil maybe to alleivate that.

 

[bubbatime]

It was slightly overfilled and the oil seeped past the rings into the cylinder.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Very normal if it is an OHV engine. It will leak past the valves over storage.

If a vertical crank engine, then it will leak by the rings. No problem whatsoever. A properly cared for engine will usually outlast any equipment with exception to a few.... (Kohler Courage).