# New problwm has occured



## scramble (Aug 25, 2015)

I have a five year old SEARS lawn tractor. It was recently serviced. When its running it will suddenly start to spuder and a huge cloud if white smoke will come out the exhaust. At times when this happens the engine will die. Is this maybe from old gas that may have had water in the fuel. I'm trying to burn off the gas that's in it now. Has anyone had anything like this happen?


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## BigT (Sep 15, 2014)

Hello scramble,

Welcome to the tractor forum.

You would be better off to drain the old fuel out of the tank, rather than run it thru the engine. If I know that I'm going to leave an engine sit idle for months, I run the engine till the tank is empty. This practice prevents gummed-up carburetors.

I sometimes get smoke out the exhaust due to tipping an engine at a high angle during servicing to work on it. Oil gets into the crankcase gas recovery system and is run thru the carburetor and burned. It should clear up once the oil is gone. 

My neighbor accidentally put diesel fuel in his riding mower's gas tank. It wouldn't start. We had to drain the tank and put fresh gas in it. When it started, it smoked bad for a few minutes.


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## jhngardner367 (Apr 5, 2011)

What you see is oil smoke. It can be caused by a plugged crankcase breather,or a blown head gasket,or high oil level in the engine.


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