The white smoke from the engine is a pretty serious issue with a lot of major symptoms and reasons. Today we are deciding to reveal, discuss, and cover the significant maintenance factor related to lawn mower white smoke fix. White smoke from the exhaust of lawnmower can be serious and often it is a sign that the excessive unburned fuel is entering or leaving the combustion chamber of the engine.
The oil leakage can be the primary cause of exhausting white smoke from the engine of your lawnmower. White smoke is the indication of a severe oil or coolant leakage and burning in the engine of the lawnmower.
The engine exhausts white smoke when the fuel or the coolant can drop on the engine, and its burning in the combustion chamber causes the white smoke in the result.
Table of Contents
Lawn Mower White Smoke Fix (Major 6 Reasons)
The common possible causes of the white smoke from the lawnmower may have:
- Oil or Coolant leakage
- Overfilling of oil
- Damaged head gasket
- Blown cylinder head
- Cracked engine block
- Damaged cylinders or piston rings
Let’s discuss them one by one thoroughly along with their impact and some repairing techniques for lawn mower white smoke fix.
1. Oil or Coolant Leakage
A coolant or a heat transfer fluid is a liquid substance, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of the engine. An ideal coolant has a high thermal capacity with low viscosity and low-cost, non-toxic, and chemically inert nature.
Oil or coolant leakage from the intake manifold gasket or cylinder head gasket can end up in one of two places:
- It mixes with the engine oil, which is a serious issue and it took no time in destroying the engine.
- It burned with the air-fuel mixture in the exhaust.
What happens when you have oil or coolant leakage
Once oil or coolant got leaked, it will run the oil and the coolant level too low. And there will not be enough coolant to keep your engine at the suitable ideal temperature, and the engine will become overheated. It can further damage the engine in the following ways:
- Engine overheating
- Damages head gasket
- Corrode aluminum pistons
- It can damage the bearings of the engine
- It can clog the spark plug
Avoid oil or coolant leakage – Lawn Mower White Smoke Fix
Frequent Oil and coolant leakage can be more expensive than repairing because these are costly lubricants for refilling. Oil or coolant leakage can occur from a couple of components in the lawnmower. It is necessary to prevent and to stop oil or coolant leakage in the lawnmower to make the mower efficient.
We can overcome the oil or coolant leakage for lawn mower white smoke fix by:
- Use crankcase oil additives to avoid damaging the head gasket.
- Replace old or damaged head gasket to prevent leaking.
- Make sure to check the radiator, hoses, and water pumps regularly to avoid overheating.
- Avoid overfilling the coolant from the marked level.
- Use a high mileage motor oil to reduce corrosion and to stop the oil leakage.
2. Overfilling of Oil
There is always a chance of overfilling, even during routine maintenance. Overfilling the engine oil can cause severe damage to internal engine parts and ultimately clogs your engine.
Overfilled oil can have access to the crankshaft. The high-speed movement of crankshaft aerates the oil, and it entirely damages the engine and its components.
Consequences of Overfilling the oil
- It can cause malfunctions to the engine and its parts.
- Oil becomes milky and foamy, which can not properly lubricate the components.
- It causes overheating, and then it may lead to the loss of oil pressure.
- The engine got stuck due to the lack of lubrication.
How to fix Overfilling – Lawn Mower White Smoke Fix
Overfilling oil can have simple fixes if it occurred. You can easily tackle the overfilling and lawn mower white smoke fix by:
- Always fill the engine with the oil of suitable weight, viscosity rating, and quantity as mentioned in the user manual.
- Perform routine oil changing and make sure to check the oil level with a dipstick.
- Drain the excess oil from the engine through the exhaust valve.
- You can also pull the excess oil to the specific level by using a suction pump.
How to check the oil level
Make sure to check the oil level twice with a dipstick to avoid overfilling and clogging of the engine. You can check the oil level with a dipstick by following these easy steps:
- Stop the engine, cool it down, and let the oil settle down in the engine.
- Carefully pull the dipstick out of the oil tank and wipe it off with a clean piece of cloth.
- Put the entire dipstick in the tank again, and wait for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the dipstick.
- Check the oil level referring to the FULL and LOW levels marked on the stick.
- Add the oil, when the oil indication is at a low level.
- Drain the excess oil if the oil is exceeding from the full level.
The best practice is to maintain the oil level near the full mark.
3. Damaged Head Gasket
A head gasket is a substance made of metal and graphite material, and it lies within the engine block and cylinder head of the engine. To avoid leakage into the cylinders and to seal the cylinders to ensure maximum compression, you can use the head gasket.
The leaked burnt coolant can damage the engine. The overheated engine can be the reason for its damage. Mixing of water, oil, and engine additives can cause severe damage to the head gasket.
What happens when you have a damaged head gasket
Poor, failed, or damaged head gasket can lead to the other engine issues that can harm the engine and the lawnmower in many ways;
- It can cause engine overheating.
- It reduces cylinder compression.
- The engine becomes rough and idle.
- It can cause white smoke coming out `from the exhaust.
- It can cause severe coolant or oil leakage.
Lawn Mower White Smoke Fix – Repairing Gasket
Gasket repair is much expensive and costly than to make a replacement. But it is the only way for lawn mower white smoke fix. So, You can prevent smoke and prevent oil leakage due to gasket by the simple precautions and steps;
- Head gasket failure can cause by engine overheating, make sure to keep your engine in good and working condition.
- Make sure to fill the coolant o a particular level.
- Make sure to check the radiator efficiency to avoid engine overheating.
- Inspect belts and hoses properly, and replacing them to avoid head gasket failure.
- Perform routine maintenance of the engine and all connected parts.
4. Blown Cylinder Head
A cylinder head lies at the head of the engine block. It can protect the intake and exhaust valves, springs and lifters, and the combustion chamber.
The function of the cylinder head is to allow the air and fuel to flow inside the cylinder and it enables the exhaust gases to flow out of it simultaneously.
The head gasket seals the cylinder head, and it ensures to prevent the mixing and excretion of water and oil from the chamber.
Engine overheating is the main reason for a blown cylinder head, and it can cause oil leaking from the exhaust.
What happens when you have a blown cylinder head
A damaged, or blown cylinder head can let the coolant leakage, which adversely affects the engine performance and cooling efficiency and can wreck the engine in several ways;
- It decreases engine efficiency.
- It can cause coolant leakage in the chamber.
- Oil leakage.
- It leads to power loss and affects performance.
Techniques to Repair Blown Cylinder Head – Lawn Mower White Smoke Fix
We are providing you with the methods to handle blown cylinder head easily. It includes repairing and replacement, along with the following industrial techniques. You can easily tackle the lawn mower white smoke fix through these techniques:
- Pinning technique: This cheap and affordable technique uses pins to repair the damaged cylinder head, usually uses to improve the aluminum cylinder head.
- Hot welding or furnace welding: It’s a practice required hot industrial welding technique.
- Powder welding or flame spray welding: It is another alternative industrial technique for repairing damaged or blown cylinder head. It requires comparatively less heat for repairing. Flame-spray welding requires a specific oxyacetylene flare and a tank that supplies nickel alloy powder to the flame. The powder then melts and fuses in the fire to repair the damaged cylinder head.
- Braze welding: It is another simple repairing process. It is an affordable technique but mostly uses to repair the external damage and cracks on the tops of cylinder heads.
5. Cracked Engine Block
An engine block consists of the cylinder and additional parts of an internal combustion engine with a crankcase.
Modern engine blocks include crankcase, combined with the cylinder block as a single component. Coolant and oil passages are also part of the engine block.
What happens when the lawnmower has cracked engine block
A cracked or damaged engine block can lead to the loss in structural and functional integrity, that supports the cylinders, crankcase, and passageways. And it entirely affects the performance and efficiency of the lawnmower.
Cracked engine block can lead to several engine issues that include a list from engine overheating to the drop of engine performance and efficiency.
It can affect the engine and its parts in various ways;
- It can damage exhaust due to frequent smoke from the exhaust.
- It can cause engine overheating from an inadequate supply of coolant.
- Hidden leakage in the passageways can cause the mixing of oil and coolant and generates milky-oil.
- It reduces engine performance and efficiency.
Avoid Cracked engine block – Lawn Mower white Smoke Fix
The possible solutions that you can follow to prevent cracked engine block and lawn mower white smoke fix are;
- You can use the Re-welding technique to seal out all the parts of the engine again.
- You can use the cold metal stitching technique to stitch the two sections together.
- Cold welding technologies are arising in the market to deal with dense engine cracks.
- Standard commercial sealers are also available in the market to seal the engine cracks.
6. Damaged piston rings
White smoke from the exhaust can be an indication of the damaged cylinders or problem with piston rings. It could be an alarm to have a check on cylinders, walls, and piston rings.
The piston rings are the split rings that fixes between the pistons and the cylinder walls. They control the oil pressure and seal the combustion chamber for better heat transfer and to prevent the loss of gasses.
What happens when you have damaged piston rings in the lawnmower
A small but ignored problem can generate severe issue which sometimes may not be fixable. So, to avoid a big issue, make sure to perform regular and routine maintenance of the engine.
Damaged piston rings can adversely affect the engine in several ways and will lead to the following issues:
- White exhaust smoke.
- Excessive oil/fuel consumption
- Reduces compression and affects the rate of acceleration.
- Excessive power loss.
Fixing Damaged Piston Rings – Lawn Mower white Smoke Fix
If you are experiencing white smoke or any other mentioned issue with your lawnmower, then you should make some effort to repair the damaged piston rings for lawn mower white smoke fix using the following test:
- Compression Test: To deal with the faulty or damaged piston rings, try to have a compression test run. It involves the removal of the spark plug from the engine, and the engine can start with a compression gauge attached to the cylinder.
- You can apply a pressure test on each damaged cylinder to fix the ring damage.
- You may also replace the piston ring.
- It is essential to maintain the engine properly and regularly to avoid damaging piston rings.
- Try to replace air and fuel filter to ensure engine cleaning and to prevent piston ring or cylinder damage.
- Perform oil change according to the schedule mentioned in the user manual, because old oil can clog the piston and harms the other components.
- Dirty oil is full of metal particles and can cause piston or cylinder wear.
Final Thoughts
This article is targeting the people specifically experiencing the white smoke exhaust from their lawnmowers. We have tried to provide you with a detailed discussion covering the issues, symptoms, consequences, and fixes for the white smoke exhaust.
Thus, you may able to maintain the lawnmower and handle the problems by fixing them with your hands and make your mower more efficient and durable for healthy mowing sessions by saving the repairing money.