Mower engine!

[NiceCupOfTea]

D'oh!

I was cleaning some fox st off the bottom of the mower () and had to turn it upside down (yeah I know). I was blasting it with water but was careful not to wet the engine.

Anyway notice "fluid leakage" and realised I was being a spanner!

It starts fine but after about 30 secs starts smoking (white) and smells of burning when I stop it.

So I'm guessing fluids are mixed. Could be water in the fuel I suppose but it looks OK. Took the plug out and poured some oil in it and turned it over a few times before putting it away (with the plug out).

So is it knackered now or will it be OK?

<puts on dunces cap and goes and stands in the corner>

• This* is why I don't do my own servicing!

[Pigeon]

White smoke sounds like water in the fuel, shouldn't be too hard to drain the float bowl and tank. Smell of burning probably something poxy like some grass in contact with the exhaust.

[Avocet]

Was it a 4 stroke engine like a Briggs & Stratton? If so, it's probably oil that's got into the inlet and / or exhaust manifolds when the engine was turned upside down. I one did something similar (pushed out little garden tractor on its side to change a belt) and it smoked like a pig for about 1/4 of an hour afterwards! Check the oil and top up if necessary then just run it and put up with the smoke. It should sort itself out in 15 minutes or so. If it's any consolation, my little incident was a couple of years ago and it's still going!

[NiceCupOfTea]

Yeah, 4 stroke B&S.

Will run it for a bit tomorrow and see if it sorts itself out, failing that will drain the fuel

[epark]

Before runnng it remove air filter. If it is foam type clean in petrol and refit, squeezing out excess oil. If it is paper element type it will need replacing. The filter is bound to have oil on it, and until it is sorted won't run properly.

[ELAN+2]

as its a briggs, I'd go with the oil in the inlet, the crank breather usually goes into the airbox, chances are your filter is saturated, as mentioned above rinse the foam type in clean petrol, wash out the excess oil in the airbox and check the level of oil in the sump, they dont hold a lot. Use SAE30 rather than a multigrade, car oils tend to wash out the carbon deposits these engines need to retain to keep the compression up.

Nothing to worry about in my opinion, have done the same to my Hayter many times!

Mark

[NiceCupOfTea]

Cheers guys

Cleaned air filter - manual said it needs oil on it so reoiled. Topped up oil. Left it running for 10 mins, lots of blue smoke turning to white smoke which then stopped altogether. Cleaned the plug afterwards. Seems fine now!