I've had this lawn mower for several years and have not had a problem till this spring. Got it out for mowing back in April and had not issues. Fired right up first time. Cut our 1/2 acre lot about 4 times so far and no issues. Then started to notice it was smoking a little on the 5th mow. Then by the 6th and 7th it was like a James Bond car escaping from a bad guy. Here's what I did:
Checked the gas - good
Took the carberator off, cleaned it out - good
Checked the oil to see if there was any gas or water in it - it was good