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Briggs Stratton Experts???????

Goose

Goose

Well-known Member
Have a garden tractor with a 24 hp B&S OHV engine.

Went to use it this morning, and it ran on only one cylinder and made a "popping" sound in the air cleaner. Did some trouble shooting and found a bent push rod.

This engine has about 300 hours on it, and has never been opened up, so why would a push rod decide to bend? I can operate the rocker arm and valve by hand, and it feels like it should. I straightened the push rod and put it back in. It bent again when I turned the engine over by hand.

I can't see any reason for the rod to bend unless it's a defective rod. Even if the key sheared in the flywheel, all that would do would be throw the engine out of time, it wouldn't cause a piston to hit a valve.

I'll admit, I've never had one of these OHV's apart and I'm not sure what drives the cam.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
 
Follow-up. I just checked parts online, and it appears the camshaft is gear driven off the crankshaft on this engine, so it's unlikely the camshaft would get out of time without something catastrophic happening inside the engine.
 
This problem has been around for a while.Some blame alky gas.Was it an intake valve?I would talk with a Briggs dealer.
 
If the engine isn't allowed to idle for 3-4 minutes after use to cool down the valve(s) can stick to the seat. When you start it they will bend a push rod. There is no lead in the gas anymore to "lubricate" the valve seats, and the alcohol blend has made the problem worse.
 

SouNdguy wrote a lot here and for the Nnewsletter about his bent pushrod problems about a year ago.
 
When you reinstalled the push rod, did you reset the valves? And did you do it by the book? You could have a valve seat turning loose. An aluminum push rod will not take straighening. They only cost $8 and some change.
 
Had the same thing happen guide had moved caused rocker to bottom out . New head was how i fixed mine. You may have a different problem.
 
Old gas. I was a B&S tech for a while when the Inteks hit the market. The common denominator every time was stale gas in them. A new push rod fixed them all.
 
Valve guide moving in head. Happened to my friend last year. First off, the guides are not very tight in head. Second, the valve stem may be sticking but on his the stems were clean as a whistle. It is not a no lead gas problem. Might be an engine oil with too much ash problem if stem is sticky.
 
Old gas. I was a B&S tech for a while when the Inteks hit the
market. The common denominator every time was stale gas in
them. A new push rod fixed them all.
Hahahaha,,,,scrapping the engine is the best fix I found for
them. Nothing but a piece of junk right out of the box!
 
When you get it fixed and start it up again, put about two to three ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil in the gas tank when you fill it each time. It seems to the carburetor clean and keeps lubrication to the top end.
 
COMMON problem with the Briggs OHV"s.

Valve that happens to be "open" at shutdown sticks in guide gummed with overheated dino oil.

When engine is cranked, pushrod falls out of place "cuz rocker arm isn"t "following" it due to valve being stuck.

Upon cranking the engine, the out-of-place pushrod gets mangled.

Using a good synthetic oil (Mobil 1) will all but totally eliminate the chance of that happening again.
 
Yeah well explain to me why my 3 hot dog Kohlers all leak around the head, bubba? On and my BS 22 is just as old and no problems.

Mark
 
I was under the impression that they were a superior product so I stayed with the brand when I could. So I start looking for some mowers and find out that BS is like Murray. They will build you whatever sophistication in your engine you wish to pay for.

I don't know if they have hydraulic lifters and my last Kohler did.

Mark
 
(quoted from post at 02:37:03 05/19/13)

Valve guide moving in head. Happened to my friend last year. First off, the guides are not very tight in head.
Click to expand...

BINGO! Had this problem, replaced several rods before reading about this on a small engine forum. Once fixed no further problems.
 
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