Sparks coming outta lawn mower muffler (1 Viewer)

[Ken Garrison]

Over an hour ago, I went to the Chevron to gets some gas for the lawnmower. Came back, filled it up. Started it and worked on the lawn for about 15-20 minutes. It was starting to get dark outside too. Still enough light to see, but enough darkness to see a couple sparks spit outta the muffler. Concerned about a fire hazard, I immediatly slid the lever to the OFF position and the engine took a while to shut off. (probably dieseling) I did put Chevron with Techron in it. Could it be that the Techron was cleaning some of the shit outta there and spitting the burning debris outta the muffer? This lawn mower is pretty old. It's gotta be at least 15-20 years old. It does seem to run very good. But what could the sparks coming outta the muffler mean? Maybe it's time for me to take the head off and clean the valves and shit.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Well, did some more on the lawn tonight. No sparks coming outta the muffler, but after I got the engine good and hot from mowing the lawn, especially tall grass, I shut it off and it sputtered like it wanted to kick back on again. Probably dieseling again. Then I saw a blue flame pop outta the muffler. It is a little low on oil. Maybe I'll get a couple quarts of oil and flush it out and replace it with new oil. Could be getting too hot from friction, causing it to diesel when I turn it off after running it for a long time.