18 horse briggs having periodic smoke fits

[gbettner]

Doing my boss a favor and fixing his dixon mower ( model DM-80-80466 )

18 horse briggs els500 single cylinder

model#310777
type 0110E1
CODE 040429ZD.......Might be a "1" on the end after the "D" but I'm not sure.

Problem is it starts and runs great with no smoke whatsoever but after you run it for a few minutes under load every once and a while it will have a fit and bog down bellowing thick white oil smoke for about 5 seconds leaving a huge cloud of smoke like a teenager just did a burnout then completely clear up. And run perfect again.
I took it out on the road so I could really tax the motor to force it into smoking again and I can get it to do it easily over and over again. You have to stop whatever your doing when it happens or it feels like it's going to completely stall out...... then it builds itself back up to par and completely stops smoking. Normal driving around the yard doesn't usually make it do it unless the blades are also engaged and you bogg it down a little with some tall grass. I let it run wide open with no load for about 10 minutes and it never smoked a bit.

Compression test reads about 115 PSI.

Oil level is only about 1/4" above full mark

I don't think the mower is very old, it still has some plastic on the seat and appears ( guessing) to only have a couple hundred hours on it tops.

Does anyone know what the heck is causing this? Head gasket? Rings?

Please help me out here fella's.

[Restrorob]

Originally Posted by gbettner

Oil level is only about 1/4" above full mark

Do you realize how much oil is involved if it's 1/4" above full ?

Drain it down to the full mark where it should be and try it out again.....

[gbettner]

I must admit I didn't believe a 1/4" overfull on oil could cause this like you said but I noticed you had over 8,000 posts on this sight so I figured I better do what you say.

I drained about 1 cup of oil out of it to get it just below the full mark and run the crap out of it for about an hour with no issues, no smoke whatsoever. I got to thinking and sure enough after smelling the oil in the pan I drained out ( only a few hours since last service), it smelled strong like gas.

With your much appreciated help I'm going to conclude I just need to put a new needle/seat assembly in carb it since it must be slowly filling crankcase overfull with gas in oil, clean carb while I'm at it, and a fresh oil change.

It don't get much easier than that! Thanks a million!

Oh and by the way, is 115PSI on the compression test within spec out of curiosity? Not sure what it should be, just curious.

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!

[Restrorob]

Originally Posted by gbettner

I noticed you had over 8,000 posts on this sight

Ah, That's all in this section too !!!

Maybe I really am the smart azz my boss calls me.....

Good call on sniff'n the oil you drained.....

[piston slapper]

Hmmmm.....maybe.......smarter than the average biscuit and gravee eater 4sure..
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