Troy Bilt 17 hp kolar motor smoking badly

My motor started to smoke really bad on my troy bilt 17 hp Koler motor. My friend had the same problem it was the push rods on front of the motor. One is steel and one was aluminum. The aluminum rod was broken so he made a steel rod to replace it and how runs great. Has anyone had the problem? Is there a steel rod available to fix this? Thanks
John

How about giving us a model and spec number from the engine sticker so we can see which of the thousand variations of engine that you are working on.