white smoke at startup, briggs 7.25 ex

[edwardh1]

I have a 3 or 4 year old briggs 7.25 ex 190 cc engine on a snapper walk behind. bought it last season, from a neighbor who did not use it much. just recently when I start it (it always starts on first pull) I get a 3 of 4 ft long plume of white smoke just as the engine starts and comes up to rpm. there is no visible smoke once at full speed or when it runs. I have been putting a small amount of chemtool in the gas.
any ideas what causes the white smoke?
thanks

 

[Brian123]

Headgasket

 

[Audios]

My 09 175cc did that as well, came from an old man who barely used it, and it would smoke on startup all the time. Is it overfilled at all? I heard theyre sensitive to that, also the breather tube is pretty low so sometimes it will splash into the intake.

 

[Fastcompany]

Is it one of the easy start engines? The new ones that auto prime and auto choke? I have a Kohler that does just that and I assumed it's running rich with the auto choke. It goes away fairly quickly and never smokes under load.

 

[edwardh1]

yes it is.

 

[tomcat27]

I had the same thing happen with the Briggs 8.25 on my Snapper mower. about 4 years old. I figured that was a little early to have that type of problem - albeit minor.

 

[Linctex]

It might be a tad over-filled.

Engines with a horizontal piston have a tendency to have oil creep along the bottom and leave a couple drops of oil in the cylinder. It burns off at start up, and isn't anything to worry about.