That oil certainly looks loaded with aluminium metal, takes on that certain sheen. Love your videos, and looking forward to more of your future projects!
Yes, it did have a sheen to it, it is too bad, the rest of this motor is in good shape, there is hardly any grass on the cooling fins, and it didn't leak any oil. Some of the older engines are encrusted with grass, dirt and oil.
Oh man, I worked on several of those and took one as a partial trade on a mower I sold. The one I got on trade was like 3 years old and the piston ring land broke and tore the cylinder wall all up. Everything in those engines is way skimpy compared to the old 92000 series engines. I've had horrible luck trying to get those things to run right. The pull starters also break A LOT.
Thanks for the advice, I think I will stick with running my 92000 series flatheads, they seem to hold together just fine. That is strange that a piston ring land broke, I am not sure I have ever seen that in a Briggs before! Though these new emissions engine have much more narrow rings and lands than the older say 1990s engines.
@@ChargerMiles007 Oh yeah, it broke between the two compression rings. It'd start right up cold but barely ran at all once warmed up and it ad a ton of blow by and puked oil out the breather after it warmed up like it was tipped on its side.
Oh Lordy! Plastic gears and now plastic cam lobes! Plastic piston and con rods maybe next, certainly worth while saving and restoring the earlier engines, ones made of real metal!
Yes, I still collect all of the older, say pre 200 engines I find. The older the better, if you want metal parts. My guess is that the plastic cam gear and lobes reduce engine friction a bit, allowing for the slightly higher horsepower rating. But I will still take the older motors.
Well, at least the old flatheads will go for years and years with the odd oil change, keeping the oil level full, and cleaning out the cooling fins every few years. From what I have seen from the 500 or so engines from the scrapyard, running low on oil and plugged up cooling fins are the main items that kill these small air cooled engines. With lawnmowers running in to objects and bending the crankshaft comes next, as well as leaving them outside and the rain and snow getting into the oil or gas tank, causing havoc. The starter rope breaking plays a part also, and on older engines the exhaust rotting off. These days the ethanol in the fuel seems to attract water, messing up the carb, or causing it not to start.
I have a similar one, a 575EX, took it off my mower to swap with a Honda GCV160, it ran fine, but the automatic choke kept getting stuck so I modified it to a manual choke (did a vid of that on my Rotten Shed channel a scary 7 years ago now!), but it always felt underpowered hence giving it the heave-ho in favour of Hondapower, but these engines seem to have a bit of a reputation for being pretty weak and prone to failure, not their greatest engine design, too "accountant-friendly"...
@@ChargerMiles007 Not their best idea really as the choke had to wait for the silencer to heat up before it would open up (assuming it didn't get stuck!), and of course cooling down there'd be times it would stick open so starting was harder than it ought to be, but with that mod I did, it started pretty much first time every time, the Honda one on the other hand, it's a funny one, close the choke to start it and it gradually opens back up through a spring with a resistance thingy (like a cassette deck and their slow-opening stuff), doesn't need the engine running at all and works well enough... :)
I've seen several of them motors have plenty of oil in them but for some reason break a ride I've got one in parts and pieces now with a broke ride I think they've got an issue with the rods or that design of that motor
I guess it could be a design issue, though Briggs has like 100 years of design experience to go on, so I would think they could make a decent con rod if they wanted to! However, I suspect more of a manufacturing tolerance issue. The reason I suspect this is that Tecumseh had similar problems about 30 years ago, the con rods were a loose fit from the factory. My guess it that the cranks were being turned too small. However, it could have been the rods being machined too large. Either way the engines were hammering themselves apart in a matter of 10 to 30 minutes ! I will try to get to the bottom of this as best I can, by putting a number of these motors together to make a running one, and work it hard cutting my grass. If there is w built in weakness in the con rod, hopefully I will find out. Thanks for the info, always good to hear from someone that knows more about a given subject.
@@ChargerMiles007 you know every one of them I've seen 2 it's always been the connecting rod has been just eat up and like you said I think they're very well could be a tolerance issue and not to mention that they really do not make changing the oil on these mowers a major priority they do not have drain plug a lot of them don't you're supposed to tip the motor over and drain the oil out well a lot of people don't most likely most people dump the oil in that comes with it from the factory that's supposed to be removed after so many hours cuz it's kind of like breaking oil it never gets changed they might add some more to it occasionally so then that will still has particles of aluminum that get into possibly the connecting rod area where it already may have a tolerance issue or a poor olling design issue and with the little fine particles in the breaking of aluminum it just kind of compounds things that and people never wind up changing oil and it just eats right up and hammers itself to death until finally it ceases and suddenly comes to stop snapping I have a suspicion that that is what's going on with a lot of these newer Briggs
To be truthful with you, I probably go at least 5 years between oil changes in my pushmower, and roto-tiller. Now if it turns coal black then it NEEDS to be changed! I always make sure the engine has lots of oil though. Perhaps the older motors were more dirty oil tolerant than the new ones. I also heard that most of the new engines come with synthetic oil from the factory.
@@ChargerMiles007 When the oil standard have been raised to SJ, the engine stop breaking in as of decades before This is why companies must perform the brake-in themselves and after they pour Synthetic oil and , if you open car engine from time to time, you will notice that the criss cross pattern on cylinder walls are still visible in 130,000 mile engines🙂
Yes, very true. It is the same with cars, why build one to last, when the customer will have to get another one when it breaks! We live in a world of spiraling greed these days, and things are NOT looking good. I may well take parts from this engine, and 2 more that I have to make a running engine to cut my grass, to see how good these OHV engines really are.
That oil certainly looks loaded with aluminium metal, takes on that certain sheen. Love your videos, and looking forward to more of your future projects!
Yes, it did have a sheen to it, it is too bad, the rest of this motor is in good shape, there is hardly any grass on the cooling fins, and it didn't leak any oil. Some of the older engines are encrusted with grass, dirt and oil.
Oh man, I worked on several of those and took one as a partial trade on a mower I sold. The one I got on trade was like 3 years old and the piston ring land broke and tore the cylinder wall all up. Everything in those engines is way skimpy compared to the old 92000 series engines. I've had horrible luck trying to get those things to run right. The pull starters also break A LOT.
Thanks for the advice, I think I will stick with running my 92000 series flatheads, they seem to hold together just fine. That is strange that a piston ring land broke, I am not sure I have ever seen that in a Briggs before! Though these new emissions engine have much more narrow rings and lands than the older say 1990s engines.
@@ChargerMiles007 Oh yeah, it broke between the two compression rings. It'd start right up cold but barely ran at all once warmed up and it ad a ton of blow by and puked oil out the breather after it warmed up like it was tipped on its side.
Oh Lordy! Plastic gears and now plastic cam lobes! Plastic piston and con rods maybe next, certainly worth while saving and restoring the earlier engines, ones made of real metal!
Note that the gears and cam lobes aren't what broke.
Yes, true, it was the metal con rod that caused the carnage of the plastic parts. It even broke a critical part of the governor, so it is scrap also.
Yes, I still collect all of the older, say pre 200 engines I find. The older the better, if you want metal parts. My guess is that the plastic cam gear and lobes reduce engine friction a bit, allowing for the slightly higher horsepower rating. But I will still take the older motors.
It was out of oil, then they put in 2 stroke oil when it started knocking.
LOL :) They should have tried Lucas or something!
If looked after those briggs mower engine's go for ever i had my dads old one and it still wrks fine today
Well, at least the old flatheads will go for years and years with the odd oil change, keeping the oil level full, and cleaning out the cooling fins every few years. From what I have seen from the 500 or so engines from the scrapyard, running low on oil and plugged up cooling fins are the main items that kill these small air cooled engines. With lawnmowers running in to objects and bending the crankshaft comes next, as well as leaving them outside and the rain and snow getting into the oil or gas tank, causing havoc. The starter rope breaking plays a part also, and on older engines the exhaust rotting off. These days the ethanol in the fuel seems to attract water, messing up the carb, or causing it not to start.
I have a similar one, a 575EX, took it off my mower to swap with a Honda GCV160, it ran fine, but the automatic choke kept getting stuck so I modified it to a manual choke (did a vid of that on my Rotten Shed channel a scary 7 years ago now!), but it always felt underpowered hence giving it the heave-ho in favour of Hondapower, but these engines seem to have a bit of a reputation for being pretty weak and prone to failure, not their greatest engine design, too "accountant-friendly"...
Yes, I think I watched that vid of yours, that is how I identified the automatic choke on this one!
@@ChargerMiles007 Not their best idea really as the choke had to wait for the silencer to heat up before it would open up (assuming it didn't get stuck!), and of course cooling down there'd be times it would stick open so starting was harder than it ought to be, but with that mod I did, it started pretty much first time every time, the Honda one on the other hand, it's a funny one, close the choke to start it and it gradually opens back up through a spring with a resistance thingy (like a cassette deck and their slow-opening stuff), doesn't need the engine running at all and works well enough... :)
I've seen several of them motors have plenty of oil in them but for some reason break a ride I've got one in parts and pieces now with a broke ride I think they've got an issue with the rods or that design of that motor
I guess it could be a design issue, though Briggs has like 100 years of design experience to go on, so I would think they could make a decent con rod if they wanted to! However, I suspect more of a manufacturing tolerance issue. The reason I suspect this is that Tecumseh had similar problems about 30 years ago, the con rods were a loose fit from the factory. My guess it that the cranks were being turned too small. However, it could have been the rods being machined too large. Either way the engines were hammering themselves apart in a matter of 10 to 30 minutes ! I will try to get to the bottom of this as best I can, by putting a number of these motors together to make a running one, and work it hard cutting my grass. If there is w built in weakness in the con rod, hopefully I will find out. Thanks for the info, always good to hear from someone that knows more about a given subject.
@@ChargerMiles007 you know every one of them I've seen 2 it's always been the connecting rod has been just eat up and like you said I think they're very well could be a tolerance issue and not to mention that they really do not make changing the oil on these mowers a major priority they do not have drain plug a lot of them don't you're supposed to tip the motor over and drain the oil out well a lot of people don't most likely most people dump the oil in that comes with it from the factory that's supposed to be removed after so many hours cuz it's kind of like breaking oil it never gets changed they might add some more to it occasionally so then that will still has particles of aluminum that get into possibly the connecting rod area where it already may have a tolerance issue or a poor olling design issue and with the little fine particles in the breaking of aluminum it just kind of compounds things that and people never wind up changing oil and it just eats right up and hammers itself to death until finally it ceases and suddenly comes to stop snapping I have a suspicion that that is what's going on with a lot of these newer Briggs
They really don't make them like they used to.
Nope, not really.
What do you mean changing the oil in it ? ? ? ? 🤨
To be truthful with you, I probably go at least 5 years between oil changes in my pushmower, and roto-tiller. Now if it turns coal black then it NEEDS to be changed! I always make sure the engine has lots of oil though. Perhaps the older motors were more dirty oil tolerant than the new ones. I also heard that most of the new engines come with synthetic oil from the factory.
@@ChargerMiles007 When the oil standard have been raised to SJ, the engine stop breaking in as of decades before This is why companies must perform the brake-in themselves and after they pour Synthetic oil and , if you open car engine from time to time, you will notice that the criss cross pattern on cylinder walls are still visible in 130,000 mile engines🙂
Who put 2 cycle oil in it😂
Whoops that crank rod will get nice and hot😂
Not sure, that is a possible cause. The oil was strange, but it may have been factory synthetic oil, not sure.
Your 1973 were built to last a life time. . .No longer the case. . .
Yes, very true. It is the same with cars, why build one to last, when the customer will have to get another one when it breaks! We live in a world of spiraling greed these days, and things are NOT looking good. I may well take parts from this engine, and 2 more that I have to make a running engine to cut my grass, to see how good these OHV engines really are.
Hey dad, can we make turn faster Please Please please ? ? So my gokart will go faster 😀
I suppose that could have happened, heaven only know the history of this engine! LOL