I have been turned off by that horrible filter since the first time I saw one. Yours is a good question. I doubt they make a foam pre-cleaner which is what it needs. Actually what it needs is a bigger filter that's less exposed to the elements. Tecumseh has built engines with great air cleaners. My 2 cycle Tecumseh has a great filter. You can thank bean counters for that goofy little filter. Save a few cents here and there and the profits go up short term. Yippee... Actually you can thank the mentality of the average American lawn mower purchaser who cares more about width of cut, horsepower printed on the engine, and most of all....price. So much for my rant. You may need to make yourself a better air filter. In the past several mower manufacturers offered remote air filters mounted on the upper part of the mower handle and out of the dust for the most part. They adapted a flexible tube to mount on the carb and the filter on the other end up near where you push the mower. See the link to Victa Australia. This makes too much sense for us. Wouldn't sell as many replacement air filter elements. Here is a link that might be useful: Remote filter set up on Victa mower.

Sorry if my last post sounded abrubt (not intended), re-read and I should have worded it differently. I do appriciate the help. About the possibly overfilling it. That would seem to be good news considering the alternative. I've changed the oil before and it never did this...but maybe. I'll go back out and add some oil well below full and see what happens and just keep adding little by little. If in fact I overfilled it is there a mess inside the enginge that could harm the motor when I finally get around to starting it? You understand that when the oil started leaking I hadn't ran the engine at all yet, right? In other words would it be leaking w/out ever starting up if overfilled? Going now to re-read oil filling instructions.

I checked the number of the filter (695396)that came with your mower. This is not listed on the Briggs power portal. Maybe this is a Husqvarna number. The filters listed on the parts breakdown for your engine are: 798576 premium orange 696854 premium yellow The 492932 is also a briggs filter. From the older update books, this filter has less sq footage of filtering material than the premium filters. I have observed the yellow briggs filter in some home improvement stores and the ranch stores with inflated prices. Briggs indicates the list price of this is about $10. Interchange at Napa and other auto stores may be less expensive.

As beerman has stated, while a H/W fan and limit can cycle forever, a camstat brand or many snap disc limits will wear out quickly when subjected to opening as they should as a limit. Unlike a boiler where a limit is the operating control, a furnace limit is a safety as the temp shouldn't get that high.