Looks like oil in cylinder

[Good n Dusty]

Hmmm! Interesting debate there guys. Lots of input that led me to take the head off the motor and see what was up inside. I had the carb and fuel shutoff solenoid off and cleaned. The solenoid seemed to be stuck partly open. It moved up and down with little effort and I tried on a 12v battery and it worked. I installed and it worked with the switch. I mean I could hear it clicking when I turned the switch to on and off. I assume it is working now. I have taken the head off and there appears to be two channels in the gasket on the narrow strip between the piston and the push rod cavity. This must be where the oil is coming from. The sleeve is in excellent condition with no scratches or signs of wear from the piston rings. Should I assume for now that the rings are OK and just replace the head gasket? What about the valves and seals. Should I take the valves out and clean them while I have the head off? Thanks for your help.

 

[gregjo1948]

Hmmm! Interesting debate there guys. Lots of input that led me to take the head off the motor and see what was up inside. I had the carb and fuel shutoff solenoid off and cleaned. The solenoid seemed to be stuck partly open. It moved up and down with little effort and I tried on a 12v battery and it worked. I installed and it worked with the switch. I mean I could hear it clicking when I turned the switch to on and off. I assume it is working now. I have taken the head off and there appears to be two channels in the gasket on the narrow strip between the piston and the push rod cavity. This must be where the oil is coming from. The sleeve is in excellent condition with no scratches or signs of wear from the piston rings. Should I assume for now that the rings are OK and just replace the head gasket? What about the valves and seals. Should I take the valves out and clean them while I have the head off? Thanks for your help.

The solenoid can click and still not operate correctly. If you didn't hear it clicking before you cleaned it, maybe it'll be OK, now that you can hear it. You could take the valves out clean and lap them. Lapping them correctly will let you know if they're seating well. You should install new valve seals also. gregjo1948

 

[Fish]

Hmmm! Interesting debate there guys. Lots of input that led me to take the head off the motor and see what was up inside. I have taken the head off and there appears to be two channels in the gasket on the narrow strip between the piston and the push rod cavity. This must be where the oil is coming from.


Should I assume for now that the rings are OK and just replace the head gasket? Thanks for your help.

Now that it is established that the head gasket was the problem all along, just replace it, but just buff all of the old gasket material and carbon off of the valves, you can be mowing in the morning.


Please ignore the "solenoid" on the bottom of the carb, if things run ok. It has nothing to do with carb flooding, it was designed
to help eliminate the afterfire backfire out of the muffler, when the mfgrs. produced the extra quiet mufflers. When you turn the
key off, the engine still turns over many times, and sucks in a lot of unburnt fuel/air, and the newer mufflers with the extra red hot baffles inside, would produce shotgun like explosion after the mower shut down.
When you turn the key off, it grounds out the ignition, so that the coil will not fire.

When you turn the key off, it should cut the power off to the fuel shutoff solenoid as well, as it is just a basic electromagnet, that when off, blocks the main jet on the carb
so it doesn't get loaded with unburnt fuel/air.

It has nothing to do with the inlet needle inside the carb, which will/can cause the flooding.

But in your case, just replace the head gasket, then go mow.

 

[Carscw]

Wow. And I got bashed for saying remove the head.

 

[Fish]

Just take off the valve cover and start the engine on low, and you can see if the head gasket is blown, which it likely is, also look at your oil fouled air filter....

LOL

 

[Fish]

Putting a inline shut off valve does not fix it. It is just a Bandaid
Fix it right and replace the fuel solenoid if it is bad.

First one.

 

[Fish]

80% of the time a oil change will take care of most oil problems.

I have found that Marvel mystery oil works very good. Change the oil and add some to the oil. If it is bad valve seals it will not fix it but will help.

2nd guess.

 

[Good n Dusty]

Thanks for the input again. I have ordered a new gasket and will have it and installed sometime next week. It wouldn't start before so I hope with the increased compression that it will. You have the right head gasket in your photo there Mr. Fish. As far as the valves are concerned because this just started halfway through the last mowing (oil burning) I will take a chance on them and just do an outward cleaning. I know this might lead to an I told you so but I have already ordered the gasket and now holiday so can't wait.
One question about the carb. When I took it off and cleaned it best I could there was one needle valve that I could not take off because of a black plastic cap thing on it. I could turn the valve about a quarter turn and just turned back to where it was. Is there a way to take this needle out? I may have more questions on the carb if it doesn't start but I hope it will.

 

[ILENGINE]

The black plastic cap can be pried off with a screwdriver, and reinstalled later if you wish. Just don't put to much force on the needle valve and cause it to bend or break.

 

[Fish]

If the carb is not flooding and it runs good, leave it alone.

The reason the engine is smoking is because most likely the head gasket is blown like the one I posted the pic of. The compression leaks past the blown are and sends compression to the crankcase which forces oil into the breather of the carb,
it is "Very Common" on these engines.


The solenoid on the bottom of the carb shuts off the fuel to the engine by closing off the main jet, and was put there to eliminate the "afterfire" explosion in the newer style mufflers with the extra quiet baffles inside.


When the key is turned off, the engine still is cycling several revolutions, and still pulling gas vapor into the engine, but the coil is not firing, so all of those un-burnt fumes are collected inside the muffler with all of those glowing hot baffles.....= Boom!!

The older/louder mufflers didn't have all of those quiet baffles, they just aimed the exhaust away from the user, so the unburnt fumes just went out the exhaust.......

Your carb sounds fine, put it back on.

The oil is coming from the blown head gasket.