Think I killed my Briggs 190CC Free Mower

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Free lawnmower I got two years ago. When I got it , both the crankcase and the gas tank were full of water. Through a lot of frustration, I got the carb working correctly. Sharpened the blade and it was back in business.The last two springs, it started on the first pull with ZERO winterization -- but I do use ethanol free gas in it.

I was playing brushhog with it a few weeks ago mulching some weeds and stuff I pulled out of an old, overgrown flowerbed. I ran it a bit too hard. I noticed it started burning oil and the exhaust smelled of dead engine. I kept the oil full and kept going. The next time I mowed the lawn it was a darn good mosquito fogger. I have a really small lawn and it managed to run through all of it's oil doing just my back yard.

Was mowing yesterday and it would occasionally start popping out of the intake (or I thought). And it seemed to have less and less power as I kept going. Then it started stalling every 30-40 seconds -- every time I'd pull the rope to start it, I seemed to have less and less compression.

It did go out with a bang, though. Then there was no compression - I don't even get a reading when checking the compression. So I took the head off hoping to find a stuck valve or a lose valve seat. Nothing with the valves but the bottom of the cylinder is really scored. Put it back together and tried to fire it up without the air filter and found out that it was popping out of the breather. Guess the rings had enough.

The best brushhog is a free mower! Until it kills the mower.

On to the next free mower!
 
you got you money's worth, and then some.

I had a free mower, didn't do nothing except change the oil once every season and put E10 fuel (the only kind available by me) in it when needed. Fuel tank leaks some, but ran for five years until I gave it away for free to someone else, who as far as I know is still using it.
 
What killed the mower? Using it to mulch some brush shouldn't have killed it, something else went wrong.
 
Got my money out of it for sure!

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
No compression ? Cam bad ? Hole in piston ?


I think the rings are gone. the bottom of the cylinder wall is really scored

Originally Posted by CharlieJ
What killed the mower? Using it to mulch some brush shouldn't have killed it, something else went wrong.


I think sitting for a year or two with rainwater in both the gas tank and crankcase is what did it in
 
Is the deck worth holding on to? Frankenswap time with another curb pick up mower.
 
Originally Posted by Propflux01
Broken rings maybe, hence the sudden fog. Then continue to run Until they just disintegrated ?

I think that's what happened. It seemed to burn a decent amount of oil over the three summers I had it.

Originally Posted by ZebRuaj
Is the deck worth holding on to? Frankenswap time with another curb pick up mower.


That's the plan! Friend of mine has a few curb picked lawnmowers with rotted decks. The deck on this one is in good shape for as old as it is. I'm assuming most B&S lawnmower engines should mount to the deck in a similar fashion?
 
The motor mount pattern should be. Just hold on to the corresponding bolts. And blade adapter + bolt.


I put a B&S from a Craftsman onto a Toro. Carry over the motor bolts as they were different thread pitch. Same for the blade adapter bolt in my situation.
 
Originally Posted by Propflux01
Broken rings maybe, hence the sudden fog. Then continue to run Until they just disintegrated ?


You pretty much nailed it.

if it was "running fine" - - - - - then got pretty bad pretty fast - - that's about right
 
If the crank's good, save it. Lots of mowers with bent shafts from hitting rocks. Build a frankenmower!

The carb may be worth retaining as well.
 
Well that worked out great! Friend of mine had a craftsman he picked from the curb. No front wheels because the deck was cracked. Same exact engine as mine. Swap took about 15 minutes. The cable is also exactly the same so not even a problem!

I'll save the carb off of the dead one and plan to swap it since the "new" one stumbles a bit when I start it. I rebuilt the carb on the dead one a few years back when I got it. I'll take the piston out and use that as some sort of wall art or something.

Just needs the blade sharpened and it should be cutting on our next scheduled sunny day ... which may not be until August.
 
whatever you find next, you can drill the deck to accommodate.
I've got B&S and Tecumseh patterns drilled on mine, zero issues. Swap away.
 
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
No compression ? Cam bad ? Hole in piston ?

hole in piston? Never seen that before.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Lubener
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
No compression ? Cam bad ? Hole in piston ?

hole in piston? Never seen that before.


I wasn't going to say anything, but I ran a shot of nitrous through it and blew a hole in the piston
lol.gif


If I get some time this weekend I'll pull it apart and make sure that the rings failing is what caused this engine to die. Cam / valves / seats are good. Both valves open and close at the right time. Spark is strong at the right time.
 
Originally Posted by Miller88


I wasn't going to say anything, but I ran a shot of nitrous through it and blew a hole in the piston
lol.gif




I would love to hear the thought process leading up to this event lol
 
No pictures of the carnage, too busy working on the house.

There wasn't any nitrous haha. WIsh there was, though.

Also the replacement engine has decided to blow the head gasket. Luckily they're cheap on amazon.
 
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