Just to finalise this thread, the replacement engine I got was fitted to my daily drive, the 20 inch Series 1 Model 45.
As mentioned earlier in this thread I also managed to second the original engine back which was seized and I thought I'd hang on to it for parts for the replacement engine should the need arise at some later stage.
Some time later I opened the box that I put away in the shed only to find that the engine hadn't every been removed from the carton and was still in there exactly the same way as I repacked it to go back to Briggs in Victoria. So from that I discovered that there was never a so-called multiple page report written and a strip down as I was told there was going to be just never happened either. Nothing but BS between the Briggs Dealer and myself it seems.
From here something inside of me said "Lets have a Play" and as such I decided as when this engine was originally cooling down I kept the crank turning by hand to stop the rod seizing permanently on the crankshaft. I'd say doing this saved the engine and as such I took the plug out and poured in about 100ml of oil and then again turned the crank slowly using the recoil starter. It freed up rapidly with every pull to the point that it felt nothing had ever happened to this engine. Surplus oil came back out of the spark plug hole and was cleaned up accordingly, then after that I replaced the plug.
Here was the moment of truth..............................................
I poured about 500mls of fuel into the tank, turned on the fuel tap, set the choke to full and pulled the recoil started briskly and the engine fired up like it was only running 5 minutes ago. I will admit it smoked like a train for about 3 minutes which was to be expected with the oil in the top end but that subsided and this engine just sat in the back of my ute unsecured and idled super smoothly for about 7 minutes. I then upped the speed to about halfway and still it just sat there totally unsecured and in the same spot for about half an hour without any strange noises or problems whatsoever. These engines are great, there's no doubt about it.
But in the end, there's one general rule of thumb when fitting a new engine and that is check the oil properly and don't take any sales crap that's attached for granted.
Cheers,
BB.
