HOW MUCH TO OVERHAUL

Hello everyone! I have a small engine (Briggs & Stratton, off of a John Deere JS46) #12S975-0144-B1, That just stopped while my wife was mowing. She took it to a shop, that told her it would cost more to fix it than a new one would cost. She got the engine back, torn down and in a box. I don't know about engines, but I looked it over to see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. The piston was still in the cylinder, all in one piece, with nothing broke, I don't know about the rings or cylinder wall, (some small scratches)and the valves were still in the head, nothing broke there either. Push rods look good (straight). Like I said, I don't know how the inside of an engine should look. The only thing I can find wrong with it was the two little ears was broke off on the oil pump, so I bought a new oil pump. Now while messing with it, I broke the top cam gear loose from the cam shaft, so now I will need a new cam shaft if I decide to mess with it any more. ($50.00) I don't know if I should get the new cam shaft, and go from there, (put it back together, and see what happens). What else could keep it from starting? But if it is rebuildable, (I don't know enough about it to do it myself) I would already have that part. A new engine, I found for $217.00. Would it cost more than that for someone to rebuild this engine. Seems like none of the mower shops want to do it. Thanks for any and all replies.

You're questioning repairing an engine that the shop says not to? If they have opened it up and found scratches in cylinder, they knew that any repair would not be worth it. They were being honest and didn't want you gouge you. Why question them, I would be thanking them. If you found the proper replacement engine for $217, I would be jumping all over it, and then go back to the shop and mend that fence with a big THANK YOU.

For a shop to go through the engine and do an overhaul you are looking at 3-4 hours labor at $70-125/hr plus parts. you decide what the cheaper alternative is. I don't even consider doing an overhaul on an engine if the replacement engine retails for less than $1500.