Demon4x4.com

Let me start off by stating that my mechanical skills are probably on the low side......


I have an old Murry lawn tractor that has been giving me fits. Amongst other problems it stopped running. I determined that there was no spark. I read online that I had to check for spark with the shut off wire disconnected. I pulled the wire and still had no spark. So I determined that it was a bad coil. I bought a new coil today, installed it and the tractor roared to life. Victory!!! Right? Well.. Not yet...

I started mowing the lawn and suddenly the tractor started choking on blue smoke. The blue smoke would come and go depending on load and levelness of the tractor. It finally stopped running altogether after belching out a huge mushroom cloud of blueish white smoke. Bummer!

I pulled the air cleaner and it was soaked with oil. I checked the oil level and it was low.... This means I am sucking the oil into the carb... right? (That would explain the blue smoke.) I plugged the hose that runs from the crank case to the air cleaner and cranked the motor. I loosened the dip stick and it popped into the air, surfing an wave of toasty hot engine oil. This bad... right?

With my limited knowledge I believe that this indicates an issue where compression is going into the crankcase. (Just call me Capt Obvious!) Could it mean bad rings? Or something else?

Is this new motor time or can it be rebuilt or just fixed? What is the least expensive path to a running lawn tractor?

Thanks for any and all advice!


Timothy

I also am not that mechanically inclined, but I've had this issue with my regular push mower. Mine was choking and blowing the smoke, took out my filter and it had oil in it and was just clogged from use. I replaced just the filter and things went back to normal. It may or may not be that simple for yours, but the cheapest fix to try as of this point. I believe that because my filter was clogged it was causing some back up and forcing oil in its direction.

Just my $.02

The online Brigs and Stratton trouble shooting guide is suggesting a blown head gasket. Is this something hard to replace? Anyone ever done one?

Timothy

I've done one on an explorer, I'm sure it's much less difficult on a lawn mower. I hope.

Removing the head isn't difficult replace the head gasket also install a new spark plug that one will no longer be good