briggs engine oil seeping past piston

[courierdude]

hi all, first post here and as lots of 1st time posters do, i come here with a problem. sorry : (

i have fuel and a spark gettting to my etesia briggs quantum powered mower though it will not start. i thought maybe i had sheared the woodruff key so ive taken the fly wheel off and its fine. what i have noticed is that oil is seeping past the piston rings though i am thinking surely this would just make it run rough and not stop it from starting completely...?

any ideas appreciated.

will definitely be back to talk plants later when i have resolved this oily problem!

[Ralph Mowery]

My son had a problem similar to this. I looked at it and the air filter had saturated with oil and no air could get to the engine. Leave the filter element out and see if the engine will start. I don' t think the oil was getting past the piston as the engine only had about 5 hours of run time. I think it was sucked in from the ventilation tube from the crank case to the air inlet but could be wrong on this.

[songbird]

Ralph Mowery wrote: ...

[not related to the OP's post, but it might be helpful to know for the future]

some mowers will leak oil if tipped too far. ours will saturate the air filter with oil if tipped to one side (but not the other).

it just may be that the mower was tipped during transport and will be ok otherwise.

songbird

[courierdude]

i wished it was a problem with the filter!!

i have it in bits already, engine out and split on the bench. i'll get back to it this evening to see if ive snapped a piston ring or something.

this mower has had a hard life. 4 years old but used for 5/6 hours 3-4 days a weeks during the growing season.

up until 4am last night googling briggs piston rings!

thanks for your suggestions already : )

[Ralph Mowery]

You have almost 2000 hours on that engine. It probably has outlived its life. Time for new rings, maybe the cylinder is egg shaped.