Lawn Tractor Smoking

[moog5050]

My tractor seems to be puffing smoke occasionally.  More of a dark gray smoke than white or blue.  Some days worse than others.  Doesn’t seem normal but has run like this for over a year, maybe 2 to 3.  No oil consumption.  My son complains about the smoke.  I tell him to ignore it but probably not wise.  Thoughts?   I am not a mechanic but May have to find someone to look at it after this year.   I haven’t done anything because it just keeps going. 

It’s a 46” 22hp Troy Bilt.  Maybe 8 years old. 

[Bionic]

Rollin coal on a gasser, trend setter

[G-Man]

Not over filled with oil? Air cleaner free of debri?

[moog5050]

1 minute ago, G-Man said:

Not over filled with oil? Air cleaner free of debri?

Not over full.  Didn’t check air filter.  Maybe that’s a good place to start. 

[moog5050]

3 minutes ago, Bionic said:

Rollin coal on a gasser, trend setter

You think it’s the charcoal grill I run on the hood?  Never considered that but a fresh burger is nice when cutting.  Not giving it up. 

[Bionic]

Just now, moog5050 said:

You think it’s the charcoal grill I run on the hood?  Never considered that but a fresh burger is nice when cutting.  Not giving it up. 

Haha that’s awesome! Sorry to clutter your thread, was thinking out loud, and having fun! Multi-tasking irrelevantly 

[moog5050]

No biggie.  I have not been very diligent about addressing it.  

[G-Man]

38 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

Not over full.  Didn’t check air filter.  Maybe that’s a good place to start. 

Air filter, grass/seed heads packed against motor anywhere smoldering..  oil is usually white ,and unburned fuel blue.. your sounds like a outside fuel source.. mouse nest under dust cover of motor  or in air cleaner are possibilities 

[avg. joe]

Maybe a small oil leak that drips on the hot exhaust. I have a mower that did that. Just an occasional puff of oil smoke. It was the valve cover gasket that had a small leak that a drop or two would drop onto the muffler, which was just below the valve cover.

[grampy]

48 minutes ago, avg. joe said:

Maybe a small oil leak that drips on the hot exhaust. I have a mower that did that. Just an occasional puff of oil smoke. It was the valve cover gasket that had a small leak that a drop or two would drop onto the muffler, which was just below the valve cover.

This is what I was going to say.

[fasteddie]

1 hour ago, avg. joe said:

Maybe a small oil leak that drips on the hot exhaust. I have a mower that did that. Just an occasional puff of oil smoke. It was the valve cover gasket that had a small leak that a drop or two would drop onto the muffler, which was just below the valve cover.

I had that happen with a TroyBilt Bronco lawn tractor . A slight drip on the hot exhaust . I checked each time I used the tractor and the oil level was okay . I cut a can open and placed it where it was slightly dripping from and that helped . Then I put some oil stop leak in the oil and it quit dripping . When I was out and about doing Real Estate signs , I came across a guy mowing with the same model tractor and it was smoking . I told him about the oil stop leak . Saw him a few weeks later and he said it worked and thanked me . 

[moog5050]

Thanks guys

[LET EM GROW]

Im guessing your air or fuel mixture is off.. or your muffler has build up.. does it run well? 

[turkeyfeathers]

Slap a couple of these on it   

[moog5050]

23 minutes ago, LET EM GROW said:

Im guessing your air or fuel mixture is off.. or your muffler has build up.. does it run well? 

It runs strong Bryan.  One of the reasons I have ignored the smoke. 

[fasteddie]

46 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

It runs strong Bryan.  One of the reasons I have ignored the smoke. 

"Where there's Smoke , there's Fire" !

 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Check the fuel pump if it has one. My John Deere goes through a pump every 2 years and it's becasue of the Ethanol in the fuel. It eats the rubber diaphragm in the pump and allows the oil, (used to pulse and pump the fuel from the tank to the Carb) When it starts to go you get little puffs of smoke like you described and it progressively gets worse. Have you noticed any drop in the oil level?  Eventually my oil concentration in the fuel gets to high and it quits running. 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

 

Looks like this and you may notice a little bit of oil coming out of the brass screen in the picture. 

[moog5050]

5 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

Check the fuel pump if it has one. My John Deere goes through a pump every 2 years and it's becasue of the Ethanol in the fuel. It eats the rubber diaphragm in the pump and allows the oil, (used to pulse and pump the fuel from the tank to the Carb) When it starts to go you get little puffs of smoke like you described and it progressively gets worse. Have you noticed any drop in the oil level?  Eventually my oil concentration in the fuel gets to high and it quits running. 

Oil level is reasonably stable.  I may add a bit every year.  I will really have to take a closer look.  I have been pretty lazy about maintaining that machine, unlike most machines I own.  Growing up we beat the crap out of our lawn tractors with minimal maintenance and then bought a new one when they died every 10 years or so.  I guess those bad habits have continued.