My Poulan riding lawn mower has oil in carb?

You have put in too much oil or the engine has been tipped up to wash under the deck.

Your oily mess brings to mind my '67 Mustang; similar symptoms.The misfire?and cutting out seems to be all related to your end result. I had a miss while the car idled. Oil seepage from a worn valve cover gasket created a mess that ended up on that spark plug's area.Mechanic said he 'cleaned the entire opening of the spark plug insert performed a $300.00+for a brand new tuneup, 'clean' the oil mess,changed the gasket, but he was incorrect about the oil drip.I've been told by another old school mechanic,that my rings are going. Blue smoke is ususally a hint of burning oil from age/wear on the rings;oil bypasses creating the blue smoke.In my car's case, the oil cap had a oily mist(blowby) escaping which happened to be dripping down onto the valve cover which led to the spark plug's home,thus coating the spark plug and creating the miss, which BTW affected the electrical,so the dash lights flicker constantly.Car starts up fine even though it sits all the time,I just start it up once a week. In your lawn mover's case, it might be an easier bill of cleaning, probably cleaning the entire carb, then the spark plug areas inside and out.How would YOU do that?Or let a pro lawn mower repairman advise you.My homestyle method would be use cotton balls to draw out the oil first,then denatured alcohol to remove any oil residue, let everything dry for about a week. This is if you actually got ALL the oil removed&the time to wait.Clean every place the oil made contact that shouldn't have the oil,including the carb.If you find the mower works after cleaning out all the oily residue,trying out the cleaned previous spark plug.Then it is a good sign,discard that plug& replace the former spark plug with a brand new spark plug.I don't feel oil can be cleaned off like new on the former spark plug. labor intensive,and I'm only thinking like a female who attempts to do things herself, before paying someone who actually knows what to do and PAY for it.(without making more of an expensive mess:LOL)But try cleaning up the oil first, since you did relay this situation began from your accidental mixing of the fluids.Oil seems to be the culprit, & the oil issue has worsened to the point of excess damage/connection performance or just a major cleanup,certainly affecting the power connection.All worth a try first? Like to know what the final outcome was!

This is absolutely now not excellent. White smoke traditionally is really "steam" from burning the radiator fluid, which is probably the unhealthy scent. When it is going for walks, that you would be able to hold your hand up to the exhaust circulate, after which evaluate the fluid that collects in your hand after a moment, and gather extra understanding. The smell will more commonly simulate some thing you have as coolant, and you can also even realize a colour that is regular along with your radiator fluid. If that is so, you're going to additionally detect a shrink within the fluid degree of your radiator. All of those signals can be harmful in the course of operation, and factor to either a cracked head, ruptured head gasket or worse. If cash are tremendously tight, and you absolutely ought to operate it unless it offers out thoroughly (now not advised), then about the one thing you might try is a radiator discontinue-leak product that will in all probability help seal a small head gasket leak, however beyond that, you'll harm the engine to proceed walking it, and it'll eventually totally fail, in most cases inside a day or two, or on the most 2-three weeks. Sorry, however which may be the prognosis with the info you show now. Best of luck.

Needs a tune-up.