JD l108 white smoke

[Yellowfever440]

I have a friend that was mowing for the first time of the year on his l108 and got everything mowed then all the sudden the mower started pouring white smoke out of the exhaust and out of the grill of the tractor. L108s have Briggs 18.5 hp single cylinder engine and are over head valve. By turning over by hand it has good compression and with the valve cover off you can hear it hissing while turning over and smoke comes out around the push tubes. I can't tell where the smoke is coming out of, if it's the head gasket or the crank case. He just changed the oil but not the filter. Any thoughts or ideas let me know. I am hopefully going to check compression in the next few days. If it's a high price fix he is going to junk it and if it's a head gasket I can do that pretty cheap and quick. The rocker arms and valves move as they should. I couldn't tell if there was gas in the oil. He put some oil in it because he knew he lost some. But it was overfull by about a quarter inch and clean.

 

[Walt 2002]

The symptoms are typical of a blown head gasket between the cylinder and push rod gallery.

Walt Conner

 

[RandyT]

From somebody that changes several head gaskets a year do to the above problems I second Walts assessment.

 

[Yellowfever440]

Does any one know the valve lash setting for this Briggs motor and possibly the head bolt torque? Thanks for any responses.