Unkillable briggs

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Nick R

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I don't think we really have to worry about what oil we run in our small engines.. The other day, I did an experiment. I picked up a 20 year old mower with a rusted out deck, destroyed handle (bend, broken, wheel missing) (A briggs 3HP Classic) that had never had the oil changed for $5 and took it out to the country, far from anybody. the guy just bought a fancy new Honda and sold it to me (wasn't even worth the $5 really. Anyway, I drained the oil (Very little, blacker than sin) and filled it with bar & Chain lube. Ran it for a little bit, it ran fine. Next step, get some dirt amd dump it in the crankcase. Started it up. Ran. Knocked slightly, but still ran. Smokes a bit. Baffled, I Dump more in. It knocks loudly for a few seconds, and idles down, clacking slightly. I shake my head. removed air filter cover, I rev it up a good bit, nothing. I take some dirt, and with the throttle mostly open, I pour dirt down into the carb intake. It chugs down and starts smoking a bit more. I let it run, it keeps going.

Unbelieving, I repeat both dirt in crankcase and dirt down intake. Not even smoking very much. A good deal harder to start. On starting, it knocks very heavily for about 10 seconds, then smooths out and knocks lowly.The dirt having stiffened the throttle plate bearings, I jam it wide open and let it run for 5 minutes. Nothing spectacular. No real knocking, barely smoking. I cannot believe it. I gave for the day. I am determined to kill this thing., and will resume sometime soon. For what it's worth, the throttle has to be wide open and it is difficult to get it to start now, and I find oil being blown out the bottom of the muffler, and settling on the deck. I am assuming that the seals in the valve spring chamber are failed.

But I don't believe it. We could probably run 50 year old 80W-90 and it would chug away happily for years.


P.S. - Don't tell Al Gore...
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Well you could look at it one of two ways(or maybe become torn between them :p)

-A lawnmower engine will run for years on just about anything as long as its kept full, and it's only a couple hundred bucks to replace, so why spend money on pricey oil etc when it'll probably rust out or hit a big rock and bend the crankshaft anyways

On the other hand, it's a hot running air cooled engine with no filter, and how much oil does it take, half a quart bottle? Why not give it good oil and change it often, its only a couple bucks to do.

I guess it depends how much you like your mower :p

Personally I'll go with option 2, I like to take care of my stuff. If I hate the equipment so much I want it to break, I wont wait for it to, I'll get something better and give/sell the POS to someone who will appreciate it.
 
Oh I totally agree with you on that. I have Syntec 10W-40 in mine. It was just to prove a point. These engines are built to survive abuse, neglect, and just about anything you can think of.
 
I bought my Craftsman push mower with a Tecumseh engine in 1990, still runs great. I change the oil, replace the air filter and run a tank of gasohol every spring.
 
Yeah, mine has Mobil 1 0W20 in it because.........

OK, that is what I use in my cars, and all that was available at oil change time (once every so many years!) I change oil by the time honored method of almost rolling the lawnmover clear over when it is out of gas and dumping the oil out the fill hole - then refilling.

Now, I should go buy a bottle of 10W30 or something for it but after thirty years it still runs good so why worry.....

Incidentally, this motor started to rattle badly a couple of years ago, the rattle got worse and worse, very loud - so decided to finish the last few strips of grass before it blew.
The power got so low it barely finished the last pass, by then it was smoking so badly that......
The smoke was coming out of the head!!!!!!! A couple of head bolts had gotten so loose that the head was banging on the bolts and smoking through the "blown gasket"

I returned it to the garage, tightened the head bolts up good and it ran like new!!! And the head gasket had not blown!
Can that be done with any other kind of motor ever????
 
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I don't think my ohc Honda push mower could live like that. BUT, and these are some of the reasons I got it, it's smoother and quieter (muffler's not just a can with holes) than any flat head mower i've had...
 
Originally Posted By: rudolphna
Oh I totally agree with you on that. I have Syntec 10W-40 in mine. It was just to prove a point. These engines are built to survive abuse, neglect, and just about anything you can think of.


True,but that`s an OLD Briggs.I wonder how a 2009 B&S would hold up to that test?
 
I don't know. If someone is willing to donate a new one.... I'm not going to intentionally do that to the primary mower. But they should be essentially the same. The flathead ones anyway, I doubt the OHC/OHV ones would survive that long.
 
TBQH, I think the newer ones wouldn't do much worse if at all. It's a design that's been around since the early fifties with the 6H/6HS/6BHS. They spent 30 years improving on it, and since the 80's not much has changed.
 
Sure, but it would still last longer with bypass filtration, $8/qt fancy oil and a 5gal bucket sized air filter! There's a lot to be said in terms of oil school reliability of an old pulsa-jet carbed briggs flat-head. Just a shot glass or two of anything that is mildly lubricating in the crankcase is all that's needed to keep them running. I've witnessed it myself, but have to admit, the hand-fulls of dirt is truly over the top BITOG baby!! Keep it up!

Joel
 
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Thank you, that made me grin. I am simply amazed at the sheer unwillingness of this engine to die. I was most impressed with the fact that it runs after pouring two handfuls of fine dirt/sand down the intake while it was running. I could tell it got in there, for sure. But it just keeps on slugging. Kudos to briggs. But, I'm going to kill it, somehow.
 
Originally Posted By: cjhepburn
I run my lawnboy on dishwashing liquid. It smells nice too. :)


That must be good! Lots of detergents in that!
grin2.gif
 
Reassuring words here! I was sweating the fact I used PYB 10-30 instead of straight 30 (once a year OCI) in my 4 year old riding mower. I thought the TX heat would destroyed my engine because of the multi-visc.

Now I think the PYB 10-30 was OK after all.
 
Oh this thread is so evil. You could run it at WOT and then drop it fast on to a tree stump or large rock and see if the crank snaps. Or, also at WOT, shove a garden hose in the carburetor opening see if it will hydrolock. Running it without oil and seeing how long it lasts sounds like fun too.
 
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