Briggs and Stratton 44M777 24HP tons of blue smoke

[Craftsman Garage]

I have a Briggs 24HP vtwin on a craftsman pyt9000 that is quite a mystery… Typically I run my engines about every few days (yes I know it I’d a waste of gas, but I don’t really care about dinosaurs much) and all’s well, but I hold off for about a week. And now it’s smoking blue! Its very faint at first but within seconds becomes much more prominent. Was running great a week ago! Have another extremely identical mower that runs like a sewing machine. I’m lost! Confused why this would just happen out of the blue. This has since been a hardy unit with no major failures ever, except from the loud noises of the hydro-gear, so I was very surprised to see this! I just wanted to haul the trash cans up the hill Changed many head gaskets in my days, so this one’s obviously burning oil. I can tell that it is the right hand cylinder ( view from drivers seat) by pulling the plug wires and running each side without one attached. Is there a way to externally differentiate between blown head gasket and failed rings? Crossing my fingers for a head gasket failure. TIA

 

[hlw49]

Did you check the oil to see if it is over full and my have fuel in the crank case. Compression check and cylinder leak down test might show it.

 

[Craftsman Garage]

Did you check the oil to see if it is over full and my have fuel in the crank case. Compression check and cylinder leak down test might show it.

Was a little bit over when I was looking at it, my fault, but only by a sixteenth of an inch. I drained a little bit out and it still smoked. What is a leak down test?

 

[Craftsman Garage]

Started it up this morning and no smoke??? Quite strange but I’ll start it later this afternoon and give an update