Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Tecumseh Motor

I have a White GT2550 lawn tractor (mower) with a Tecumseh four-cycle twin cylinder engine. it has always run fine....until now of course!
i was mowing with it 3 days ago and it worked great. went out tonight to start it up...it started rough, then was smoking and sputtering...kinda like the choke was on...checked that, it was not....lots of smoke...engine not happy. shut it down and pulled off the air filter. it was soaked to the bone with fuel. the cover had standing fuel in it. the fuel was dripping down and you could see spatter on the garage floor where it was either blowing out of the mufler or it was dripping into the exhaust air and blowing.
what the heck happened???
what do i need to do to fix it??
thanks!

The fuel inlet/seat isn't working as it should.It's staying open.Ether a piece of trash has got under the intlt needle,preventing it from seating good or the float isn't letting it seat for some reason.
Take the carb.off and apart (be sure to remove all rubber & plastic parts) and soak in carb.cleaner,clean and put back together/on.

Check the motor oil for gas in the crankcase.I would drain and refill the fuel tank and replace the inline fuel filter too.

Furthermore, being a Tecumseh and possibly having a brass float in the carburetor, there may be fuel in the float which would require you to replace it, if so. Chances are you do have gasoline in the oil, so be sure to check (smell) closely for such and drain and refill before running the engine again. If you post back with the engine ID numbers we can tell you the likely parts you will need.

is this a common problem?

gasoling getting the oil when the inlet needle doesn't seat to cut off the fuel flow is a real common problem.

And too,be sure to replace that air filter.It might look clean "BUT" the film that gas leaves behind acts like dirt and starves an engine of air.

what is the difficulty level on this?

For someone that has never picked up a wrench in his life or is not mechanically incline, I’d say 3 or a 4

You can do it. If you run into a problem just reply back. A whole world of info is here to help you get this done.

cool i have it apart and i see it has 2 carbs and i also see the one that is floaded (fluid dripping out of it and whatnot)....i am going to take that one off...looks like i might need a special tool of some sort as there are no heads on the bolts...just a star looking tip...

ok i got the new air filter, fuel filter, and oil filter.
i do not see a "carb kit" listed anywhere....any ideas??
Tecumseh
Model# VTX691
Spec# 600901A

trying to find a torx socket so i can get the carb off....
any thoughts??

You can get the carb. kit at any small engine repair shop and a torx driver set or torx headed sockets from Walmart.Their cheap & they last.

i went to the dealer and they said that tecumseh did not make a kit..they sold all the parts individually...is that the case?