# Troy Bilt Riding Mower Burning Oil



## Jeff1969 (Aug 25, 2010)

My wife's grandmother bought a TroyBilt Pony with a 17.5Briggs motor on it last year. A few weeks ago, something got wrapped around the blades and stopped the motor pretty hard. Now, when I can get it started,  it blows A LOT of white smoke from the muffler. I took the plug out and used the key to turn the motor and a lot of oil came out of the plug hole. 

Could this be a blown gasket or seal, or is the motor kaput? 

She can't find the original receipt, so we're going rounds with Lowes about warranty coverage......even though we can give the check it was paid for with.

Thanks in advance.


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## Redneck1919 (Aug 25, 2010)

Sounds like broken piston rings. Don't know what to do about Lowes. Go higher up the food chain.
Jim


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## Backlasher82 (Aug 25, 2010)

Jeff1969 said:


> She can't find the original receipt, so we're going rounds with Lowes about warranty coverage......even though we can give the check it was paid for with.



Have you contacted Troy-Built? It's their warranty, not Lowes unless you bought an extended one from Lowes.


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## 7Mag Hunter (Aug 25, 2010)

Does it smoke constantly while running, or just a little
smoke as soon as it starts ???
I have the 21HP model and occasionally mine will puff
a bit of smoke when it 1st starts, but does not smoke
while running....
I'd put a fresh plug in it and see if it will burn the oil out
while running...You might get lucky and just sucked
some oil into the cylinder when it stalled...


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## Jeff1969 (Aug 25, 2010)

It blows the smoke continually while running. Seems to run okay, as far as not making a lot of "damaged" sounds, just smokes like a beast, and I'm afraid to run it too long out of fear of it locking up on me or anything?

Would running a bit of that Restore that you can buy for engines do any good to help it seal up or would it do more damage?


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## 7Mag Hunter (Aug 25, 2010)

Pull the plug after running to see if you have less oil showing on top
of the piston...It could take a while to completely burn any oil
in the combustion chamber....Just check the oil to make
sure its properly filled....If it ain't rattling or clanking, I would let
it run 5 mins to see if it clears up or gets worse as it heats up...
Is this 1 cylinder or 2 ??
Mine is 2 cyl and has 2 plugs....


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## Jeff1969 (Aug 25, 2010)

Single cylinder. I thought about maybe getting some electrical contact cleaner and shooting in the cylinder and leaving the plug out a day or so to let it dry.


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## Jeff1969 (Aug 26, 2010)

Okay, I got the plug cleaned up and started the mower. It smoked like a beast for the 4-5 mins I ran it. I have been browsing Briggs and Strattons website and they say it could be a blown head gasket?


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## poohbear (Aug 28, 2010)

If you turned the mower on it's side to get the blades untangled sometimes will let oil in the cylinder and it takes it a while to burn it out of cylinder and muffler, don't know how long you run it.


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