Pretty much as the title says.
I thought I'd treat myself this Christmas and buy a brand new sloper style Briggs and Stratton 3.5 Hp engine to fit on my daily 20 inch Scotty as they are much smoother than the older L style Head engines.
Anyway fitted it and they come complete with engine oil installed from the factory and even has a tag on the pull starter with an oil symbol and a big tick implying that it's full of oil. I checked anyway and it got oil. So I ran it and then took it for a test drive and did my front lawns and it performed flawlessly. Much smoother than my previous Briggs did that's for sure. I was about to shut it down when it suddenly started to lose it's idle spped and then it stalled. I first checked the reel but that was fine and spinning as it should. I then disengaged the primary clutch and attempted to turn the clutch body only to find that the crank was locked tight and wouldn't turn until I applied a fair larger amount of force with my hands. I then opened up the oil filler cap and it smoked like a train, confirming to me that it's run hot and cooked itself.
Not quite sure what's happened but I do know that with these mass produced engines that every now and again you'll get a dud and I've just scored the booby prize for Christmas I guess.
So what would all you guys do now ? I have my own ideas and that is throw it straight back to Briggs and demand another as a replacement also this time drain their crap oil out put my own Penrite Full Synthetic in prior to starting it.
What do you all think ?
Cheers,
BB.
