Thank you for coming here. My dad recently picked up a Craftsman gcv 160 mower. When I unloaded it, I ran it for a while, then drained the oil. Remember, it worked when I got it. The oil was very grey in color. I put in New oil, which was a mixture of sae-30 and hd-30. I used it to cut some grass for about 20 minutes, using a sock as an air filter as it had no filter. It seems to only run when choked, but it still ran good overall. The next day, I sprayed carbeurator cleaner into it and tried to start it. This was when it locked up. These are the things I tried:
- I tried forcefully turning it, which did not work.
- I removed the spark plug, fearing it may be hydro-locked.
- I drained the oil again, it was very grey also.
- I sprayed pb-blaster in the spark plug hole, with it tipped back at almost a right angle. The cylinder was about half-filled with it.
I perdiodically checked it as I let it sit overnight, adding more penetrating fluid as it evaporated. After this didn't work, I gave up and decided to go here after a couple of days of giving up and working on other mowers. Please ask me anything that could help any of us solve this. Thank you.
