re: Did I just ruin my new lawnmower (overfilled oil?)?

I also have it on the absolute lowest setting and the grass was 3” or so tall of soft, thick OR spring grass

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Oregon grass

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Thanks so kick it up a couple levels and maybe let it run on the driveway for a few tomorrow?

Sweet baby jesus....

This guy is fuct if he gets a flat.

Yeah. If it was late (low light), the exhaust will glow. For it to kill abruptly like that, and THEN to see the smoke, chances are it died from you trying to cut at like a 1” setting with grass that was 3-4”, after a shite ton of rain, and the smoke was getting burned off mostly while it was running. Once it died, the smoke just became visible. I’d be willing to bet it’ll crank right back up and run perfectly fine on the concrete. Raise the cutting height a bit and take it easy until you figure out the setting on the new mower.

I have ditches in front of my house and in my side yard. If I cut with the oil filler on the high side, it seems oil somehow gets into the gas and it blows thick white smoke which covers the yard. As long as I get back to the level part of the yard (out of the side of the ditch), the mower will sputter a bit and in a few minutes the smoke clears and the engine runs smooth. I was concerned the first time it happened but when the grass is high and the mower is tilted to one side, it will smoke then clear up every time. Should be nothing to worry about.

FWIW I had this same problem last weekend on what was probably the same Toro mower but I had it on the highest setting and on concrete. I'm taking it back this saturday because this is bullshite.

Just google the problem....
White Smoke? It Will Probably Go Away

It can be disturbing to see a cloud of white smoke coming from your lawn mower. But if you let it run, the lawn mower smoke will usually stop. It's a sign that the engine is burning oil, but the oil probably got in there for an innocuous reason. You may have spilled some on the housing when you serviced the mower, or you may have overfilled the crankcase. It's also possible that oil got into the combustion chamber when you turned the mower over to clean the blades. Even mowing on a hill can cause oil to spill into the combustion chamber.


Sometimes a new mower will emit white smoke when you start it for the first time. That's usually the result of oil residues left by the manufacturer. You don't need a lawn mower repair – just let the mower run. The engine will burn off the residue and the smoke should stop.

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because

1 - they assume you arent stupid enough to add it to an engine that already has oil in it. its meant as instructions to refill an engine you already drained all of the oil out of.

2 - they assume you are smart enough to check the oil level after adding oil

there is also a slight chance your carb is flooding and that white smoke was gas filling the cylinder. if the oil smells like gas when you drain it then thats what happened

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If the mower was still in the box it had no oil in the crankcase, push mowers are shipped sans oil. If it was assembled the oil may have been in the crankcase but there would have been no oil included.

If the carb was flooded it would have been running rich before it cut off and it would not be white smoke but black or dark grey. Excessive oil burn is white or bluish but he most likely saw assembly protectants burning off.


The most likely thing here is the engine died due to excessive feed rate. Normally you can just restart the mower after pulling it back into already cut grass. If it is hard to pull the starter rope it could be a big chunk of cut grass is caught between the blade and the housing and sometimes it just takes a harder pull, sometimes you have to lift the mower and remove the blockage. Cutting tall wet grass low will almost guarantee you will have to start the mower multiple times to cut an entire yard unless you go at a snail's pace.

Frog?