Briggs & Straton valve seats

Excuse me - did you say that Sears will replace the motor for $100? If so, that is the bargain of the year.

You'll find a forum here:

Do you get a new motor for 100 $ ,,, take the deal if so. I dought you will ever fix the seal problem as=A0i suspect it was a design abandoned from failures .

... and I take it the $100 is just the service call fee? If they're going to R/R the motor for $100 all told, well, there's no decision to be made. Obviously...

the books i have that show installing valve seats show that you heat up the head in an oven and put the valve seats in a freezer and then they fit in pretty tight.... dont thing you would need any glue or loctite to do this.... matter of fact if you do need loctite then you ahve a problem as the seats are too small.. before you give sears $100.00 take the mower to a lawnmower shop and see what they can do.. probably alot cheaper and surer than sears....

If you can put in a new valve seat by hand, then I assure you the seat is too small. Normally this can only be done by packing the new seat in dry ice and leaving it there for perhaps an hour. Meantime, clean the seat area (the hole you will put the seat in) very very clean - not one speck of anything. Then heat the block with a torch (not a little propane torch). When the block is hot, using forceps, remove the new seat from the ice and insert it into the block. It should drop in reasonably since it has shrunk from being cold. Make sure it is in correctly, and then leave it alone. As the temperatures stabilize, the seat will expand and the only way to get it out is to use a chisel and break it.

No need to use any adhesive of any kind. Hope this helps. Bob

I think you are missing the point. He said he valve seats are loose. The only fix is an oversize seat. Any good machine shop can install an oversized seat for you, it's a very easy job. Even though Sears doen't offer one they are available aftermarkrt.

Sorry for the confusion, but its $100 for the service call, and I am pretty sure the fix is a new engine. I wont spend $100 for someone to tell me I need a new engine I won't buy, since my next one wont be a B&S

The original valve seats, once loosened reamed out the holes and now won't seat since the holes are waaaaay to big. I put new ones in with adhesive, but they did not stay. I will try that forum mentioned earlier.

Thanks for all the replys!

The problem you had with Loctite is that the exhaust valves do some incredible major temperatures.

Beyond that, I'm not all that sure what the answer is -- peening sounds possible. Or shim with something (aluminum foil?) and bang them in. Just thinking out loud. Two part epoxy not likely to work.

You can stake the valve seat in place with a small punch. you do this with a punch with a round flat surface called a pin punch. do this around the valve seat to move the metal toward the valve seat. Might be a good idea to do a little valve laping so seat and valve match. clean off lapping compound off extremely well.