craftsman LT1000 dumping fuel into cylinder

I recently puchase the above craftmsan, I replaced the battery and cleaned the terminals and dowloaded the owners maual off the internet. I filled it 1/3 ful of fuel and started right up, ran fine in all gears, raised and lowered the deck and enganed the blades and cut fine for about 2000 sg ft of grass, I checked the belts and the tensioners and lubricated everything prior to starting it.

Went out to the garage next day and it was leaking fuel from around the spark plug and had drained all the reaming fuel from the tank. I removed the spark plug and it just drained gas from the cylinder. I let it dry out for 2 days without the spark plug in, I replaced the spark plug with a new one, and put alittle fuel in the tank. It cranks over just fine but wont start, I removed the air filter and noticed when cranking it and even after turning it off is just dumping fuel into the cylinder. I again removed the spark plug and fuel came out for the cylinder.

Any ideas here, thank