Thread: Overfilled mower engine oil

I have my mower in the shop having all belts replaced. I borrowed my Father-in-laws ZTR mower. It has a 24 HP Kawasaki engine. I noticed a oil message on the digital display so I checked the oil level. The dipstick was very hard to read and I thought it was about 1/2 quart low according to what I saw. After adding 1/2 qt of oil and gassing it up, I started it up and began to continue mowing. All of a sudden my yard disappeared in a cloud of smoke. I headed back to my garage and it would run fine then start smoking again. I rechecked the oil level and it was overfilled. Since the engine was too hot to work with, I let it set overnight and will drain some oil back out later today. Other than having to burn the residue out of the muffler, do you think running it for less than a minute with too much oil will cause problems? It started right back up when I shut it off so I don't think oil got up into the carb.

Thanks guys. I got the level down to 2/3 on the dipstick, didn't have Seafoam but put some Stabil in it, started it up to a little smoke till it burned out of the muffler, then mowed for 30 minutes with absolutely no issues. I think I dodged a bullet. I hate to borrow any piece of equipment from anybody. My Dad always said to return a borrowed item in better shape than you found it. I made sure there were no oil leaks or strange noises, gave it a good wipe-down then bath before I returned it.

BTW, after all this, the check oil display is still blinking.