Oil leak

Oil seal or breather or breather cover if the oil is on the top side of the deck. Might possible be the oil fill hole or dip stick. Roger

It looks like it is coming from under the breather cover. Will cleaning the breather likely fix the problem?

I just took the breather cover off and quite a bit of oil ran out from under it when I loosened the nut. Is that normal? I have not run for at least 8 hours.

Did you check to make sure reed moves freely and how is the steel wool? My guess is it is saturated. You can clean it all up.. Hard to tell if it is normal. Depends on your definition of quite a bit is. Some will come out.

The breather did not look bad the reed seemed free and the steel wool was oily but you could see light through it. Hard to gauge the oil that ran out, maybe a 1/4 cup.

check the oil drain hole for the valves.
it can be plugged or partially plugged.
if the hole is plugged the oil does not drain back into the crankcase.
that is why you have oil filling on the valve area

I cleaned up the breather assembly and put it back together. Started it up and within a short time oil was running out the breather cover hole where the steel wool is. That would mean that the oil level is at or above the mounting bolt hole. I can see the shiny side of the piston through the drain hole. What is causing the oil to collect there? Is that the only return oil hole?

Robert, have you checked the oil level? If over full, does it smell like gasoline? Does it have the correct dipstick? Does it have the rubber seal in the breather that looks like a piece of rubber hose?
Just questions that might give you a clue. If you have run the tractor for a long time and just now have the problem, it would seem like too much oil in the crankcase. If it is new to you, and you just changed the oil, maybe something like a wrong dipstick.
Interesting problem. Keep us posted to how you solve it.

tommyhawk

make should that the hole for the breather is above the bolt
if it is under the bolt it will leak oil out the breather hole

This all started when it looked like there was no oil on the dip stick. So I added some but it seemed to take a lot to get it up. I checked it this evening and it was way over full and thin. I drained the case and put fresh oil in and left it a little on the low side. I have mown two lawns tonight and it does not seem to be leaking. I'm not sure if the float stuck and flooded the oil or
not.

Robert what Tom was indicating is you may have a carburetor problem and it is leaking gas into the crankcase and over filling it. This could happen again. Check the oil level often right now. Maybe before you start to use it each time. I truly suspect you have bad needle/seat or float in you carburetor. Roger

Well put, Roger. Exactly what I was thinking.
Glad you did what you did, Robert. It may or may not happen again, but you know what to look for now, and hopefully prevent engine damage.

tommyhawk