My two year old Toro push mower with Briggs wouldn't start yesterday. The first pull has zero compression and the second pull has rope resistance and pops from the muffler. Over and over.
this is the second Briggs and stratton engine to die on me with the EXACT SAME failure mode.
The first one last two years as well took it appart and the head was cracked around the intake valve. The head costed more than the mower. I junked it.
this one, the body and drive are in excellent condition and I may just rerepower it with a 180 KAI kawasaki.

Anyone had failure like this?

 

briggs was long known for plastic camshafts the lobes where pressed on and would spin off cracked heads and dropping valve seats


that KW 180 you will love

 

This is what I found. Interesting. Pushrod is straight. Stuck valve?

 

seeing that valve stuck down it's highly possible, more likely it dropped the valve seat ,as they were good for that also. been a few years since we closed the OPE shop but we did see many a valve seized into the guide,many a dropped seat. , which in many cases was caused by grass clippings covering the fins and rodents nesting under the covers causing over heating
check out the website i pm'd you

 

Wow, Briggs used to be a great engine maker! I have a few older ones that have zillions of hours on them and work fine. Has their durability and quality gone down that much?

 

your not alone and unfortunately YES. check out a few of the power equipment web sites,
if your not up kohler has rebranded as Rehlko.

 

OP

should you pull that head, please post a shot of what you find. seized valve stem or a dropped valve seat. love to know what's holding that valve down

 

It dropped a valve seat.
I have looked high and low and can't find a GXV160 or Kawasaki 180KAI Locally. People want $150 just to ship them. That is making this repower cost prohibitive at $750 just for a motor.
I briefly looked at a Dewalt 21" mower with a 196cc what looks to be Chinese powered. I might get that for $625 all in. The motor does not resemble a Briggs. Thats what counts.
The so called "dealers" around" here for Honda and Kawasaki wont order what im after or they give me a time frame thats nuts like 2 months.
What about the Dewalt with the 196cc Chinese motor?
Any mower recommdations NOT Briggs junk?

 

how about the harbor tools engine i pm'd you with the link on? https://www.harborfreight.com/55-hp-...epa-71413.html they happen to be pretty darn good honda clones of which we repowered a log splitter that had a brigs 4 years ago, must have 300 hours on it now,

 

I got TIRED of B&S engine failures - our latest mower is a Honda. Didn't Cub Cadet buy Tecumseh, and now using those in a lot of their equipment? I've had good luck with Tecumseh.

 

Yeah, I have a Tecumseh in my snow blower. It's a great engine, albeit noisy!

 

dont go looking for parts for that Tecumseh, they stopped making engines18 years ago, and parts are getting VERY HARD to find.
i have a 16 hp single cylinder in my miller welder. the ignition module died, and i had to cobble together a new setup using a 1/4 20 bolt, a stack of washers, an 80's chrysler ignition module, and a car coil.
while it works great, it looks like crap.

 

Ahhh, I didn't know that. Good info! Thanks!

 

I've got a Honda. I use it for light trimmering.
I ended up buying the Dewalt branded push mower with 196cc of Chinese power. Its got to last longer than a Briggs. The thing has more power than any push mower ive ever used.

 

no they got purchased by platinum equity llc, who also now owns kohler engines MTD uses engines made by Liquid Combustion Technology (LCT)