I have a John Deere L145. The mower is just out of warranty. Today when I tried to crank the mower about a cup or two of oil came out of the exhaust pipe, the mower cranked up and ran about 15 to 20 seconds with huge amounts of smoke coming out the exhaust. Can you give me a clue.

Needs rebult
There's nothing you can do to fix it

Hi,
Did you check your oil level. Check for gas contamination of oil raising the level to overfull. Often there will be smoke when cranking a cold engine. The choke causes it; it should have a blackish/white tinge as opposed to a blueish/white tinge for oil consumption. Kind of a picky thing and way to describe it, I realize but I do not have another way to describe it.
Peace,
Clarke