What happened to my Exmark?????

[smartwork]

Lazer Z XS - 60" with Vanguard 31 HP - only 30 hours on machine

Tonight I mow the grass and park the machine on the drive while I weed-eat. I come back about 1 hour later to move it into the garage and here's what I get:

1. It won't start in its normally very easy fashion.
2. I try different combos of throttle and choke and finally get it to kick off, but it's struggling. It'll run for a moment with about 1/2 throttle and 1/2 choke. Shutting off choke kills the mower. Reducing throttle kills the mower. Increasing throttle works a little and then also kills the mower. It's billowing HUGE amounts of smoke. Although it was near dark, it appears to be "rich" smoke (rightfully so).

Both tanks have gas, and she was running 100% prior to parking. When I view the linkages for the throttle and choke, it looks like hardly nothing happens with the throttle from about 0 to 1/2 throttle. Is that right?

What the heck happened? Ideas? Did something fall off and allowed it to run until I parked it and now it's whacked?

Thanks!

[XB 2002]

Sounds to me like it is not getting enough gas. Make sure you get gas at the carb. I think it is starving. But with only 30 hrs I would just take it back to your dealer Good Luck and let us know what they find !!
XB 2002

[smartwork]

Just a follow-up. I dumped all the fuel and filled with fresh. No change. I then dumped the oil just to check the state of the oil (no moisture) and it looked fine. I then installed new plugs and that seems to have done the trick. From research online about white smoke (not steam) in various engines on different types of vehicles, it seemed to be the consensus that thick white smoke is actually unburned fuel being turned to vapor (but not ignited), so I guess I may have had a fouled plug that perhaps wasn't allowing one cylinder to burn completely which was causing excess fuel to exit the cylinder and be converted to thick white smoke upon exiting the exhaust. At least that's how it seems to have gone. New plugs and she fired right up and so far has run smoothly.