Hello from Quebec Canada.....with my Briggs and it's failing health......

Hello to all,
I am a new member with an old mastercraft push lawn mower that has a Briggs & Stratton 3.5 classic motor without the primer on the side....In the past I used an electric machine but having really taken to this old gas mower, I assume it dates back to the early 90's maybe mid 80's. Unfortunately, this spring, I had drained the oil, cleaned the filter, filled with gas anticipating to use it the following weekend.....My dear old father in law decided to pop in on a friday and surprise me with a mowed lawn...he ran the machine for 15 min without oil, and he swears it did not stall on him, luckily he just mowed the front yard......anyhow, now, it starts up when engine is cold but not when warmed up, I need to wait 15 min to start her up again.........the motor did seize up, I could not budge the pull chord but with some lubricant in the plug hole and some exercising of the blade, it spins freely now....I wonder if the motor is beyond reasonable repair.....I have my eye on an identical motor that is being sold in my area, and just do a swap.......any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated......thanks..................Roman.

:welcome:
Welcome to the forum.

I'm going to move this thread over to our Briggs & Stratton engine section to see if we can find you an answer.

I would suspect that you have damage at the crankshaft rod bearing which is causing the seizing. Possibly some cylinder wall damage. May be too expensive to repair. I also make sure to add oil prior to adding fuel just because of that fact.

The new OHV briggs engines will start by just barely turning the flywheel. The old briggs engines required 600 rpm to fire the spark plug. The new engines is like 250 rpm it is possible to do an no oil start on a new engine just by slowly pulling the starter rope to engage it in the handle loop on the upper handle of the pushmower.