I bought a brand new garden tractor from Sears a couple of years ago that now has about 100 hours on it but started smoking and using oil real bad about 20 hours ago and I am not sure what it is that is causing it.
It has a Kohler - CV730-0018 engine and if I take the spark plugs out, one of them is covered with oil. I don't know if a ring didn't seat or if I have a bad valve or what ever else it could be. Is there a way to check it out without taking it into a shop as I was told it would cost a lot of money and I can't afford this at this time. I know I can squirt oil into the cylinder and take a compression reading(wet & dry) to determine if it is the valves or the rings but what if something else is causing it? I also don't know where to get the specs that I will need. Can you help me?

Check to see if fuel is entering the crankcase by checking level and smelling oil. This would cause the level to rise and smoke considerably. The other possibility is that the ignition coil is dead in that side and not firing that cylinder

Don