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Mower dead already?

B

bobsmith1492

Diamond Member
So it's not a car thing but it's in my garage and has an engine so...

I got a cheap little MTD push mower for about $150 last summer and mowed perhaps 3 times with it and once this year.

I checked the oil and it seemed to be out; so after refilling it (it swallowed a whole quart), I started mowing. After a few seconds it started billowing out oily smoke! I shut it off for a minute, started it back up, and it was still smoking. It then started sputtering and I turned it off again.

Did I let it run too low on oil? If so I'd guess the cylinder walls are destroyed and leaking oil right in...
 
bobsmith1492 said:
So it's not a car thing but it's in my garage and has an engine so...

I got a cheap little MTD push mower for about $150 last summer and mowed perhaps 3 times with it and once this year.

I checked the oil and it seemed to be out; so after refilling it (it swallowed a whole quart), I started mowing. After a few seconds it started billowing out oily smoke! I shut it off for a minute, started it back up, and it was still smoking. It then started sputtering and I turned it off again.

Did I let it run too low on oil? If so I'd guess the cylinder walls are destroyed and leaking oil right in...
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This happened to me last week and mine isn't starting.
Oil ran out on Saturday while I was mowing. Went to buy oil and added a whole quart. Thing started smoking after I started it. Not sure what was wrong, but I noticed oil was dripping in some places. Realized I probably put to much oil, so my brother and I drained most of the oil out this morning, but it won't start at all...It was starting perfectly fine on Saturday with the overfilled oil, so it's a bit puzzling that it's not starting at all.

Meh...Think it's time for a new mower anyway. We haven't changed one in 8 years. The price to fix this might be the same price as getting a new mower.
I would really like a riding mower since we have a big yard, but unfortunately we don't have a garage to keep it in.
 
i have a POS mower like yours and changed the oil in my mower recently, it said on the side that it takes like 16 oz, which is about half a quart.
 
Ah... so if you put in too much what happens? Does it just overflow out into the gas, or around the cylinder?

Shall I just burn it out of there?
 
find out how much oil it actually takes. mine says right on the side of the mower. didn't even have to find the manual
 
There is a crankcase breather on the engine block usually in the area of the carb. There is a hose that runs from that to the carb.

With it overfilled, the carb has ingested oil. If it was mine, here's what I'd do.

Drain the excess oil. Remove the carb and clean it internally with brake clean because it will do the job in this case, is cheap and will evaporate fast. I would remove the float bowl and clean that area too.

With the carb off, remove the spark plug and clean it with brake clean. Pull the motor over and try to expel as much oil as possible. Reassemble the engine, put the correct amount of oil in it and use that cleaned spark plug as a sacrificial lamb. In other words try to start it with that plug. If it starts and runs leave it run until it quits smoking which may take some time. At that point, if the motor seems to be running well, it's your choice whether to put a fresh spark plug in it or not.

If you still can't get it to start, remove that plug, if it's oil soaked, clean it and try again . You may need to do that several times. If the oil just won't seem to go away, you'll want to replace that breather assembly as most of them are not serviceable. You'll need to remove the cylinder head to clean out as much as oil as you can. Pay attention to the area under the intake valve. You may want to clean out the intake manifold as best as you can too.

With that much oil in it, you've not only overwhelmed the breather, the oil level was so high that the cylinder was partially submerged which overwhelmed the rings. Oil is everywhere it's not supposed to be.
 
Overfull oil can foul plugs. Pop it out and clean it up. Not a whole lot of power in a small engine ignition system.
 
My push mower uses 15.5 oz. of oil, and it's a decent-sized one (5.5hp Honda engine). In case you didn't get it from previous posts, drain all the oil, and then fill it with the amount stated in your manual. If you can't find the correct amount, then start with 10 oz., check the oil, and add 1 oz. at a time until the dip stick tells you it's the correct amount.

BTW, I say to dump all the oil, because the oil's a year old and ready to be changed IMO even if you didn't use it that much.
 
Mowers last forever. It's poor maintenance that kills them early. A year or two ago I helped my dad sell an edger he bought in the late 70's. Sucker still started 2nd pull every time and ran very well.

But hey, what do I know?
 
NutBucket said:
Mowers last forever. It's poor maintenance that kills them early. A year or two ago I helped my dad sell an edger he bought in the late 70's. Sucker still started 2nd pull every time and ran very well.

But hey, what do I know?
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I'd say not quite 100% true any more. I will agree that the engines should last forever. But lots of mowers are built cheaply these days. I've heard quite a few horror stories about the deck cracking, or pieces falling off ... etc ...

I got lucky, my grandma's old Toro broke (fuel leak), I don't know engines, so I had a mechanic friend take a look at it, $10 worth of parts and an hour or so work, and it runs like new. So I got a perfectly good Toro for $10 and a couple cases of beer 🙂 Its from the late 80s, so it's not exactly brand new... but It shows no signs of weakness.
 
^^^ Plug is fouled with oil. Even an engine with bad bearings, scored cylinder, etc, will still start and "run", they are very crude devices and don't require much of anything but spark and fuel to run, even if not that great.
 
BurnItDwn said:
I'd say not quite 100% true any more. I will agree that the engines should last forever. But lots of mowers are built cheaply these days. I've heard quite a few horror stories about the deck cracking, or pieces falling off ... etc ...

I got lucky, my grandma's old Toro broke (fuel leak), I don't know engines, so I had a mechanic friend take a look at it, $10 worth of parts and an hour or so work, and it runs like new. So I got a perfectly good Toro for $10 and a couple cases of beer 🙂 Its from the late 80s, so it's not exactly brand new... but It shows no signs of weakness.
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^ My dad got Honda lawn mower, that thing required cleaning carburetor twice a season, otherwise it kept stalling. At the start of the third season (outside of warranty) one of the bolts stripped threads inside engine block and that was it. POS. If you got reliable mower from 70's or 80's or whatever, hold on to it for dear life and pray it keeps chugging because whatever they sell today is not designed to work for more than 2 or 3 years.
 
fleshconsumed said:
^ My dad got Honda lawn mower, that thing required cleaning carburetor twice a season, otherwise it kept stalling. At the start of the third season (outside of warranty) one of the bolts stripped threads inside engine block and that was it. POS. If you got reliable mower from 70's or 80's or whatever, hold on to it for dear life and pray it keeps chugging because whatever they sell today is not designed to work for more than 2 or 3 years.
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That's true of the base models that are sold at big-box stores, but not true of the more-expensive models sold at dealerships. To get a decent riding mower that will last more than 5 years, you'll have to pony up $2,500 or more and stay away from the big-box stores.

Personally I just bought a 10yo mower for $500 that was $2,500 new. It has 300 hours on it, and the seller thought it would only last 50-100 more hours (just based on the number, not based on the fact that it runs perfectly). My research showed that it should last 600+ hours as long as I take care of it. I posted a pic in another thread, but I'll post it again here since I'm on the subject:

cub%20cadet%202146%20used.JPG
 
lothar said:
This happened to me last week and mine isn't starting.
Oil ran out on Saturday while I was mowing. Went to buy oil and added a whole quart. Thing started smoking after I started it. Not sure what was wrong, but I noticed oil was dripping in some places. Realized I probably put to much oil, so my brother and I drained most of the oil out this morning, but it won't start at all...It was starting perfectly fine on Saturday with the overfilled oil, so it's a bit puzzling that it's not starting at all.

Meh...Think it's time for a new mower anyway. We haven't changed one in 8 years. The price to fix this might be the same price as getting a new mower.
I would really like a riding mower since we have a big yard, but unfortunately we don't have a garage to keep it in.
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You probably flooded the carb with oil (it happens when you overfill the crankcase), and your float bowl is full of oil and probably your air filter also. Drop the float bowl, clean it out, put it back on and it will probably start right up.
 
herm0016 said:
why do people let it run out? i like to check small engine oil every time i start them.
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I use older lawnboys and never have to check the oil. Just mix, fill, and go. Every once in awhile I drop the float bowl to drain any water out that may have accumulated. Takes all of 5 minutes.

So much nicer, plus it makes power every 2 strokes instead of every 4, has fewer moving parts, and has less maintenance. I use the same 40:1 mix in my lawnmower, weed eater, leaf blower, and whats left over at the end of the year goes in my truck.
 
fleshconsumed said:
^ My dad got Honda lawn mower, that thing required cleaning carburetor twice a season, otherwise it kept stalling. At the start of the third season (outside of warranty) one of the bolts stripped threads inside engine block and that was it. POS. If you got reliable mower from 70's or 80's or whatever, hold on to it for dear life and pray it keeps chugging because whatever they sell today is not designed to work for more than 2 or 3 years.
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Wow, that sucks man 🙁
And I do plan to keep this mower for a long long time.
 
Alright, it's back up and running!

It's a little OHV engine. I took off the air filter and carb assembly (bit of oil dripping out of there), the valve cover, spark plug, and muffler. I drained a good bit out of the oil plug and then pulled the starter a bunch of times. Oil shot out the valve assembly for a while then eventually stopped.

Boomerang - I also pulled off the breather hose (ran from the engine block to the carb) and it dripped out a bit of oil, too.

I put it all back together (found a nice screw on the bottom of the carb that lets all the gas come out!), pulled it once, and it fired right up with just a little bit of oily smoke. 🙂 Funny; before this disastrophe it always took a bunch of pulls to start while cold.

Now it's time to mow!
 
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bobsmith1492 said:
Alright, it's back up and running!

It's a little OHV engine. I took off the air filter and carb assembly (bit of oil dripping out of there), the valve cover, spark plug, and muffler. I drained a good bit out of the oil plug and then pulled the starter a bunch of times. Oil shot out the valve assembly for a while then eventually stopped.

Boomerang - I also pulled off the breather hose (ran from the engine block to the carb) and it dripped out a bit of oil, too.

I put it all back together (found a nice screw on the bottom of the carb that lets all the gas come out!), pulled it once, and it fired right up with just a little bit of oily smoke. 🙂 Funny; before this disastrophe it always took a bunch of pulls to start while cold.

Now it's time to mow!
Click to expand...
Cool! Didn't take a lot of effort and no expense either.
 
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