# Help with MTD riding mower



## cc3337 (Aug 29, 2006)

Hello

I need help with my MTD riding mower, Recently it just stopped running, when I tried restarting, the engine acted as if if wanted to not turn freely, kind of like the battery was weak. Finally I got the engine restarted, and it smoked heavily with white smoke, it was also blowing some oil on the bottom corner of the engine. I removed the head very carefully to examing the head gasket. Looks absolutely perfect. Any suggestions? It is a 14.5 hp

thanks


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## peppy (Jul 19, 2006)

Either you cracked something (block) or blew out something(gasket) Do you know were the oil is coming from?


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## kbalona (Apr 27, 2006)

did you mow on a steep slope? maybe you got oil in the wrong place by having the engine at a steep angle. bottom corner of the engine? check to make sure its not dripping from somewhere else. Maybe the sump (oil pan) gasket blew out


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

You didn't see a dark colored spot right in the thinnest part of the head gasket?? (might be kinda oily)


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## certifiedtech (Jun 30, 2006)

It sounds like you have an oil leak in your "sump" gasket. Most likely the gasket is torn. "Any" and all oil leaks( including a loose dip stick or damaged seal seal) will (not might) but will cause the engine to smoke from loss of crank case vacuum. The bigger the leak the more it will smoke. The engine must be pulled from the tractor in order to replace the gasket.


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