Sounds promising Mike. I see it is an I/C (industrial/commercial model, with cast iron bores) as I'd hoped it would be, and the muffler arrangement is rather neat. The inlet manifold, on the other hand, is horrible and isn't likely to be well-suited to cold starts in very cold climates. The oil drain looks a bit cobbled, as if the mower manufacturer did a very crude adaptation of Briggs' design, but I can't see it very well. If it really does extend the drain plug by screwing a long pipe into the aluminium crankcase, let's hope it fits better on your chassis and you don't have to do anything so obnoxious.
As you said, your starting/running problem sounds like a fuel blockage in the tank, line or carburetor and will probably be easy to fix. It doesn't have a fuel shut-off solenoid in the float bowl does it? If so you might not be activating it with your temporary set-up.
Please keep us posted on this. Hopefully you'll end up with a better mower than when it was new.
Last edited by grumpy; 11/04/11 04:23 AM. Reason: Fuel solenoid?
