white smoke and oil spitting out of rototiller muffler~ help?

[Cheryl aka JM]

Pulled out the tiller yesterday~ oil was a bit low so I topped it off per the instructions in the owners manual that says "Engine oil should be to point of overflowing when engine is level."

It started shooting white smoke out of the muffler!

So I changed the oil. Cleaned the air filter.

Started it again~White smoke and OIL shooting out the muffler.

So I got online and learned how to
Remove and clean the muffler
Remove the spark plug and pull cord to clear oil out the cylinder
and I checked the air filter again and emptied the fresh oil I had put in and didn't fill it "to the point of overflowing" just to the point where I could see the oil in the oil fill thingy (I'm not much of a mechanic~ all of this has been a challenge for me!)

Started it again~
It shot white smoke (BILLOWS!) and oil (LOTS) out of the muffler I just cleaned!

Now what?
It's a briggs and stratton motor~ about a year old. I used SAE 30W oil (as the manual said) when I changed the oil both times. Am I overfilling the oil? I'm thinking of draining some of the oil off and trying again (after I clean the muffler again) but I'm afraid of running it with too little oil and the manual says "engine oil should be to point of overflowing when engine is level"...........but all of this started when I topped the oil off yesterday!

Any help?
Thanks!
Well now what?

[kruizeag]

If you got too much oil in the motor, it would have flowed out of the valves and into the muffler. How long did you run it? If it was only a few minutes at most, then it didn't have time to burn the oil out of the muffler. Even if you feel you have it clean, there will still be some residue left behind. Also, what did you clean it with? I put enough oil in these Briggs motors to where it reaches the threads on the check/ fill port.

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

Knowing the make and model of the tiller would be helpful...

Oil burning should be indicated by a bluish tint to the smoke.

Level for the engine is not the same as level for the tiller. On some tillers the engine tilts slightly when the tiller sits at rest.

RF

[EDDIE BUCK]

I agree about the oil level.I used to mow on the side of a hill,going one way it was fine but start going the other,smoke like a freight train. Just started mowing the same way and not mow going back on level ground.

[raymilosh]

I'm thinking that one of the piston rings got stuck over the winter and it is allowing compression to enter the crankcase. Crankcase vapors are vented through a tube to the carbeurator where they are drawn in and burned, rather than releasing them to the atmosphere (because those vapors are bad for the ozone).
A stuck ring may produce sufficient volume and turbulence of air inside the crankcase to be pushing crankcase oil through the tube to the carb, where it is then drawn in and burned.

As a diagnostic, either:

pull the hose leading from the carb to the intake and see if it has a lot of oil in it and then start the engine to see if it is spurting oil or, if that is too difficult to do (because the tube is difficult to access),

remove the oil fill cap, start the engine and feel how much air is coming out. (On a new engine, it is close to none, on a worn out engine there is a noticeable puff of air with each compression stroke of the engine. On an engine with a stuck ring, it'll be even more.)

Anyhow, with either the hose removed or the oil cap off, let the engine run for half a minute or more to see if the smoking tapers off and stops because it is no longer feeding oil to the carb through the vent tube.

If there is a lot of air/oil coming out the hose or the oil fill cap, then there is most likely a stuck ring (or less likely a cracked piston). There are several ways of trying to get the ring unstuck that don't involve opening up the engine. I have listed them below. the first ones are the gentlest and safest, the later ones are more risky.
1. pour penetrating oil in the spark plug oil and let it sit for a few days,
2. add marvel mystery oil to the crankcase and the fuel and let it idle for a while,
3. work the engine hard,
4. carefully drizzle a little water in the carb while it is running (the steam may either knock the ring loose or it may break the rod, so do that one at your own risk)

If none of that works, pulling out the piston and carefully freeing the ring by hand/checking for cracks isn't typically all that difficult, so you could consider tacking it yourself.

That's about all I can think of.

ray

[Old Vet]

Usually it will take care of it self by ruining the engine and letting it smoke. Let it run for about 5 Minuit's and then load the engine. It may not do it but then you can probity tell how low to run the oil. I used to fill it with oil up to where the split in the threads is.

[Cheryl aka JM]

Thanks guys!
That worked~ I turned it on and let it blow smoke until it slowed down enough for me to get and get to work~ ran it for about an hour straight and got a good cut on the garden bed (Wow I'm tired!) and it's stopped smoking! Guess I'd just overfilled it with oil when I topped it off.

Now I'm going to look for a small engine repair book because I really hated that helpless feeling this morning when I'd done everything I could think of and it was still billowing smoke. I really, really appreciate y'all helping me out! Thank you so much!

[Wis Bang]

Vertical crankshaft B & S engines in lawn mowers need to be pushed across a slope with the valve side up hill so the crankcase oil doesn't fill the area where the valve springs sits.

If it was down hill, the valve spring area can flood and allows oil to get up the valve stem into the exhaust port.

White smoke is partially combusted oil. Oil vapor blowby thru the breather tube into the carb would burn enough to turn blue, same as a large amount getting past the rings.

Naval vessels spray fuel oil into the exhause gases where the partially combusted oil makes a smoke screen of dense white smoke!

If you overfilled a horozontal B & S enough to push it into the exhaust, the engine would have a hard time running cause it would be so overfull, did you tip the tiller over to drain the oil? That might flood the valve spring area and make white smoke on starting.

A B & S needs to be filled to the to cover the top of the cutout you can see in the fill.

[coup]

if you store the tiller on a slope or upend it before starting you can have the smoke also... be sure and park it with the spark plug level or uphill.......