Lawnmower engine ( petrol)

[sweetheart]

Maybe a daft question. My lawn mower ( a Champion Sovereign or something like that - self propelled) has just blown up. Well, it gave out loads of white burning smoke that filled the garden and stopped working and it made this sizzling hissing noise. OH doesn't understand when I tell him it just went up in smoke.

Is it repairable or am I looking at getting another?

Any suggestions for an alternative? ( I have to have a large cut and a self propelled as the grass extends to about 1/3 of an acre on each lawn.)

Thank you.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Sounds like a piston let go. That would be the oil burning.

It is reparable probably, but the cost may not make it economically viable.

IIRC that's a stock 3.5bhp Briggs and Stratton.

May need new piston/cylinder etc.

Plus it probably lost its oil through a gasket leaking. Or simply you never bothered to fill the oil up at all.

[sweetheart]

No, I did do the oil and checked it before starting out. It just decided to stop working ( first the self propelled thing ceased) and then suddenly it blew all this white smoke around.

It was sizzling and hising and I ran away because I thought it was going to burst into flames. It didnt.

Yes, it is a Briggs and stratton.

I think it is probably too small for the garden and I put it under a lot of pressure working it.

[Tim Downie]

Sometimes these things just happen. As TNP says though, it may not be economic to repair the engine. Best contact a few local lawnmower repair shops to see what a replacement engine will cost.

Alternatively, strip it down and have a go yourself. Have a look at

[The Natural Philosopher]

ah. I THINK then you may have gotten something jammed, and the white smoke is in fact teh drive belt burning out.

Well engines don't die from over work:they stop.

It may be its somply clogged up and the drive belts has burnt out They are not expensive. - 10-20 notes.

It depends on whether the whitre smoke smelt of burnt oil, or rubber..

[Tim Streater]

I use a 53cm cutting-width Hayter with a 190cc B&S, prolly similar to yours, on our 0.5 acre plot, no triuble. It *may* be a jammed belt as is being suggested in which case a lot cheaper to fix than replace. Try a repair place first.

[Jules Richardson]

That does seem a sensible thing to check - on the self-propelled mowers that I've seen, there's a simple belt tensioner acting as the clutch mechanism for the drive mechanism; I don't think there's a way that the drive would cease to work and yet the engine was still turning the blades

- it'd be all or nothing.

I'm not familiar with the OP's mower though, but maybe those ones do have some form of centrifugal clutch so that the drive disengages at low / idle RPM? Seems like a bit of an extravagance, though! :-)

I've certainly seen slipping belts producing lots of white smoke before.

I had the starter solenoid jam on a larger B+S engine a couple of years ago - that one probably did come close to going up in flames. By the time I'd got to the nearest set of spanners and back to disconnect the solenoid wiring, there were thick clouds of acrid smoke pouring from the starter. :-)

cheers

Jules