Troy Bilt TB230 Push Mower Problem

[Tincup19]

Hi,

I pulled my lawn mower out of storage yesterday to use it. I've only ever used premium gas in it but when I started it a lot of white smoke was spitting out of the muffler and it was sputtering. I took the carb off (which I just bought and put on last summer) and cleaned it. Put everything back together, it started up normal and ran normal for a few minutes but then started to intermittently sputter. It progressively got worse and worse and now it barely runs when I get it going and will eventually die. I tried a new spark plug yesterday but that didn't have any effect. What could be going on or where should I begin looking? Thanks.

 

[Rivets]

First thing I would do is check the oil level. See if it is over the fill mark and smells like gas. If so you will need to remove the oil/fuel mixture and put in fresh. Restart the engine and see if the problem returns. If it is not over filled and does not smell like gas, the white smoke is an indication of water in the fuel. You should then remove the old fuel and put in fresh. If these two things don’t solve the problem post back.

 

[Tincup19]

Thanks, I just put in brand new gas yesterday. And I don't think the oil is over filled, it ran fine last summer after changing the carb. I haven't added any oil to it since then. It's not puffing out white smoke anymore. It's kind of a weird design where you don't "change the oil just add as needed" according to the manual. But I'll double check everything just to make sure.