Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): white smok coming from exhaust, blown head gasket, briggs and stratton

Question
Hi my sears chipper shreddermodel # 247.775880 8.5 hp briggs and stratton engine  is about 10 yeasr old it started to blow lots of white smoke after the engine gets hot I replaced the air cleaner filter & breather and the beather for the crankcase cleand out every thing as it was full of oil.Started it back up and the same thing is happening could it be a blown head gasket.Thanks

Answer
Kris

If the mower was tipped or left out in the weather, the air filter may be clogged, causing it to pull oil from the crankcase into the cylinder and then into the muffler, according to small engine repairman Chuck Kichline. An air filter should be cleaned frequently by soaking it in a bowl full of warm, soapy water, rinsing it out and replacing it. The mower will often work much better after the filter has been cleaned.
Diagnosis is done by looking for two things, oil in the air cleaner/carburetor and black oil soaked or heavily carboned spark plugs. Since oil is being fed directly into the cylinder, the plug will foul very quickly and probably also affect engine performance. Breathers can fail at any time, often they will fail over the winter as the oil that's built up on and around them solidifies and just generally plugs things up.

Repair is a pretty simple matter on many engines, just replace the breather. You can try turning the reed around on the reed type breathers, but personally I just replace them. Sometimes all they need is a cleaning though, so give that a try. Most breathers will run from just a couple dollars for reeds to maybe twenty dollars although a few that are incorporated into the valve cover may be upwards of thirty dollars.