OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines Smokey Briggs

I repaired/refurbed a Greenfield Anniversary Ride on for a mate of mine about 12 months ago and it is doing the job of mowing his lawns fine, only downside is the motor is chewing through the oil. Motor runs well, no problems with power, so I'm wondering if it is worth pulling apart to see what is causing it to use this oil. Where is the most likely place this oil is getting past, rings or guides. Both of us have built countless motorcycle engines over the years but he is not that interested in pulling this motor down, he thinks replacing it with a Chinese motor is a better option. I don't want to pull it apart and find it is not worth repairing then have to race out and grab a motor, cause he will then go down the path of "why did you talk me into pulling it down when it was only smokey". The other issue is he lives in a little country town 3 hours drive from my place. Any thoughts

What oil is he using in it?
My experience is that using any multigrade in a sidevalve Briggs will always increase oil consumption, over monograde SAE30.

As far as worn parts go, as you say valve guides and rings are the obvious suspects. It wouldn't be worthwhile replacing guides, or doing a cylinder rebore, on an older Briggs. Even doing the rings might be a toss-up.

Something we used to find with older Briggs, was that lack of servicing of the foam air cleaner would make them run very rich, and that would chop out rings quite quickly. A quick fix for the alloy bore models used to be fitting of a 'chrome ring set', which would seal OK with a small amount [<0.005"] of bore wear.

Thanks Gadge, I figured as much, the oil he is using now is the old oil he pulls out of motorcycles he has serviced, figured why waste good oil in it now. I tried the Wynns stop smoke but that was totally useless. Biggest problem is he has to mow with the wind behind him otherwise he can't breathe
Gadge, this is where things can go right over the top if you are not careful. The previous owner spent over $1100 on it (he gave me the receipts $750 parts $400 labour) and I won it for $180 (about what it was worth with a smokey motor) I put another $300 worth of parts in it to get it up to a good mechanical condition,and I didn't paint it or touch the motor. Very easy to throw a lot of money at these things

norm check to see if its briggs i/c motor they wort while rebuild cast iron bore;
if it alloy bore better cheaper re engine it

Thanks Freebird, it is a cast iron bore but I doubt my mate would want it rebuilt, as you say can be a bit hit and miss and my mate would be pretty upset if it didn't work, and he is not the sort of bloke you want to upset

Engine numbers would help; otherwise, it just guess work.

Now if it is the 280000, 310000, or 330000 OHV they are bad about blowing head gaskets too. I have seen some with blow head gaskets that would not even smoke but go through near a quart of oil while a half acre though you definite could smell oil burning. Probably just some that smokeless oil we have here.

No AVB it is an old sidewacker

On the L-heads I have seen head bolts to be loose enough for oil to suck in around threads too as some though all the way into the crankcase but most times if it not the rings then the exhaust valve guide being worn out was the cause. At one time I could get after market guides but that source has dried up for me at least.

Thanks AVB, I think he will probably use it till it throws a rod or something, I think it might be an idea for him to notify the local fire brigade that he is going to mow his lawn once the weather starts to warm up a bit

Well at least he will thin out the mosquitoes for a little while. One of the things I miss about the old two stokes fuel oils. I could crank up one my string trimmers and be pest for a little while.

AVB, I worked out many years ago that starting on old English bike that has wet sumped up in my shed and taking about 5 mins for the smoke to stop has forced all the spiders that used to spin webs everywhere, they vacate the shed and don't return as long as you start one of these bikes up occasionally

Ok I'm thinking of re-visiting this motor, seems a pity that my mate has asked me to bring up more old oil to put in this motor, because it runs well, starts easily, charges the battery and still has plenty of power to mow around his house. Might get a set of rings for it and give it a hone and see how that goes. If it still smokes then I guess it will be back to feeding it with old oil