Replacement Briggs and Stratton engine

Generally its the valves needing regrinding.

IIRC new pistons and liners can also be obtained.

A whole new engine is usually when you have bent the crank and split the crankase.

Any B & S stockist can get you parts,or a new engine.

Ebay

As NP said its normally only the valves that need attention New engines, but ridiculously expensive

I have one on a good mower whose plastic body is broken beyond repair. Where are you? email me for more info if you are anywhere near Cambridge. Douglas de Lacey

Probably cheaper to go to one of the sheds and buy a whole new mower than getting a new engine from your local B&S dealer. If you existing body etc is good buy a really cheapy mower just for the engine and dump all the new body bits. Though if your careful with choice many parts could be used as spares...

Thanks for all your replies and the ideas, guys; can't be sure but sure but someone somewhere talked about some sort of dump near him where old mowers etc ended up and I wondered what sort of dump - no doubt if I did find such a place locally I wouldn't be allowed to do the logical thing of recycling, but it's probably worth some beer tokens to get the guy to switch his eyes somewhere else for 5 minutes.

I'll try searching the archives of the NG's I use.

Cheers

Rob

It's fairly easy to find out why the compression is low especially if you've already had a look and found nothing obviously wrong like a hole in the piston. ;-)

Add a couple of teaspoons of engine oil via the sparkplug hole. If the compression returns, it's likely ring wear or even broken ones. If no difference, likely the valves. With the head removed, fill the ports with paraffin. A faulty valve will allow this to run past it. Most likely valve to fail is the exhaust one. Remove them both and examine valves and seats. No obvious damage means they can be lapped in by hand. If the seat is damaged a decent car etc engineering workshop will re-cut it for you. The valve may also be refaced or simply replaced if damaged.

The local council dump, I think they call them "household waste amenity centres" or something with recycling in the name these days.

Are these engines air cooled, side valve ones? What kind of cylinder head gasket (if any) do they have?

Sylvain.

. With the head removed, fill the ports with

Quite probably, if the OP has the model number a Manual/Illustrated Parts list in PDF is available from