Used mower - high oil levels

S

slomo

Lawn Pro
What is the most oil that you've drain out of the oil sump? Not talking carb needle issues. Oil smells like oil.

Question, is 3 quarts too much out of a Briggs 3.5hp horizontal engine? Guy said it smoked LOL. Little guy had 20 bucks worth of oil in it LOL.

slomo
 
Just the other day a neighbor came over and said his push mower was smoking. It was a mess with oil all over the top of the deck by the exhaust can. Oil was about an inch too high on the stick. Drained it out and replaced with 1/2 quart of clean 30W and it started to smoke less. Will take a while to clear and may need to clean his spark plug, but we'll see.

You fill it with gas and check the oil, not the other way around.
 
...the rest of the story is - the neighbor bought his first home with a lawn that needs mowing, so he has no experience with mowers at all. I showed him where the oil level needs to be and he was content to test it noting that it smoked less.

"You fill it with gas and check the oil, not the other way around."

I wouldn't say that to an inexperienced owner, but it's what needs to be demonstrated. Some people have no experience or training with machines. I take it for granted having grown up on a farm with 2 grandfathers - one do-it-your-selfer and one car mechanic. The car mechanic would come over for dinner after grandma died and ask: "Have you got anything that needs fixing?" He fixed our toaster and hair curler for the girls and anything else that was broken. We watched him closely. Good model.
 
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YIPES ! That is a LOT of oil.

I bought a Chevy pickup with a 350, 4 bolt main V-8 engine, one time that was really smoking . I saw that the dipstick was showing oil to the top ! . Towed it home & drained about 8-9 qts. out of it. Old type cannister filter housing had 2" of dirt in the bottom of it ! New filter, oil, & started it up. Smoked a lot , then drove it down the interstate to " blow it out !" Then, new plugs, wires, etc. & sold it for a very nice profit.
 
slomo said:
What is the most oil that you've drain out of the oil sump? Not talking carb needle issues. Oil smells like oil.

Question, is 3 quarts too much out of a Briggs 3.5hp horizontal engine? Guy said it smoked LOL. Little guy had 20 bucks worth of oil in it LOL.

slomo
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that is what happens when people have the high mount oil hole/dipstick and just fill it to the top. I think I have drained about 3 quarts if not more out of a few Briggs L head push mowers that had the high mount dipstick.

On the other side of the equation. How many have had people bring in new push mowers that come with the required 16 ounce oil bottle and then only dump in half.
 
Scrubcadet10 said:
Just wait..........
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I have seen a snowblower with no oil in it and a piston that tried to go through the side of the case. Ended up buying it and putting in a $99 Harbor Freight motor in that works great. Turns out the older neighbor who owned it is memory challenged and forgot to put in the good stuff. Wreckage photos:

1625153009430.png
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Another neighbor had a full quart in his push mower last spring. Showed him where it needs to be on the stick. This was after I got a Junker off his curb that had the spark plug threads stripped out of it. A service tag had his phone number on it, so I texted him after I got a thread insert installed. Declined the repaired machine as he had already purchased new, which is the one that was overfilled with oil. Ha! We are now good friends.
 
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ILENGINE said:
I see two or three a year.
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Any damage caused by that? Sounds like an opportunity to train about the level on the stick. Had to teach my daughter that with her car after she ran out of trans oil. Ouch.

Note I added damage photos from no oil in an 8 hp snowblower. See above.
 
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