battling a briggs engine-18.5 hp

[tmschuller]

my fight with a 18.5 hp briggs on a cub cadet mower.. bought this mower and it didnt run well,hard to start and would not take throttle, did a valve adjustment and it took off and ran ok, slowly ran out of power and would not restart, intake valve was way out of adjustment again, followed adjustment procedure and adjusted again. Started up and ran, did it again, found the nut on the valve stem was loose, adjusted and ran fine for about 50 ft and started smoking badly. Ran it back to the garage and it started puking oil out of the fuel pump. Looked up on the innerweb and looks like a head gasket... anyone else had a experience like this?? Its in very good condition frame and body wise , 245 hours on the meter. Thanks in advance for your input, advice and experience. TIM

 

[jrainw]

Is this one of the newer twin cylinder motors? if so I had one that the camshaft journals were so shot I couldn't do a valve adjustment. it had 300 hours on it. "Puking oil out the fuel pump", is this the vacume operated fuel pump most have? If so it's a torn diaphragm.

 

[tmschuller]

single cylinder, yes vacuum operated smaller fuel pump- 3 lines, one from the crankcase,one from the tank and one to the carb..

 

[tmschuller]

pulled the head off and sure enough the head gasket had a small burnt thru spot on it. Ran to the local lawn mower shop got one , 10.00 and that fixed it. Mowing with it today, hope I don't need pontoon's on it to mow....

 

[tmschuller]

Used the mower and still smoked some but found out its from excessive oil in the muffler. Working great now.. Finally.

 

[Cpt Caveman]

Congratulations. Nothing like fixin a troublesome problem like that.

 

[Bennettjh]

Good!

I hate having mower trouble. Grass doesn't quit growing when the mower is down.

 

[indyjohn]

Good!

Grass doesn't quit growing when the mower is down.

Amen to that, brother. Amen to that.