White smoke
 

Hi everyone, I'm new to this group... I searched around, but couldn't find my exact issue, maybe i missed it?

I have a cub cadet 1650 with a kohler 341. It was my grandfathers tractor, and it means the world to me! I was cutting the grass, rpms dropped and i took it instantly to the garage. Pulled my panels off and such, and noticed white smoke coming from the carb. I'm thinking it's a head gasket? I know enough about small engines to be dangerous, but not enough to feel comfortable diagnosing some issues, like this. Any advice or input would be great!

Thanks,
Jed

White smoke from the carb..... you sure it wasn't coming out of the engine breather just below the carb?

Like how many RPM drop are we talking? Like to and idle? Were you able to rev it back up?

It very well could have come from the breather and I just didn't notice. I noticed it when i took the airfilter off. It's not pouring out smoke like an oil issue, just small puffs. My yard is very hilly, could oil get in the carb from that?

Yeah, with the throttle all the way up it dropped to idle, but after 30(ish) seconds it was completely normal. In the year i've had it, never had an issue besides a bad starter and cracked muffler.

No, it can't get oil in the carb or the intake no matter how hilly. Nothing connects the two.

Now.... you could oil starve the rod if it's really hilly.

Sounds like you may have a valve sticking a bit. But that is just a good guess from the description and the small info you gave.

If it's running fine now, I'd try it again and see what happens. If you did oil starve it and it tried to seize, the damage is already done, so if it gets worse you aren't out anything.