Share Your Small Engine Repair Horror Stories
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midnite rider
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Was changing the oil in the wife's Mazda. Pulled the filter off, but neglected to notice the o-ring on the filter decided to stay attached to the engine, not the filter. Put on the new filter, and got it hand-tight as normal. The double o-rings left a nice 1/4" gap all around the filter (!).
Added 5 new quarts of Castrol, sat in the driver's seat with the car still up on ramps, and started the engine. Heard an "unusual" gurgle, and my eyes got real wide when I looked down and saw a ever-expanding puddle of fresh oil being pumped out of the gap and onto the garage floor. Took about 2 seconds to empty it. What mess!
Been there and done that! an expensive mess at that with the price of oil these days
:mur:
midnite rider
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I guess we could call the 1.6 liter a small engine on an Escort we had years ago. Timing belt broke cracking aluminum head and bending valves, one of the no clearance engineering masterpieces made by Ford. I had cylinder head rebuilt and crack welded by some professionals. Subsequently when I replaced the head, in my haste, I failed to remember to tighten timing belt tensioner. Guess what happened after I got it back together and tuned the ignition key. :confused3:
I was headed back to the professionals at the cylinder head shop where they were kind enough to repair the head for the second time at no charge to me. Man was I embaressed.
I was headed back to the professionals at the cylinder head shop where they were kind enough to repair the head for the second time at no charge to me. Man was I embaressed.
A friend asked me to look at his self propelled Troybilt Leaf Shredder/Vac with a 5 HP B&S side- shaft engine on it. It would crank over but not pick up fuel and run. Good spark. I took the tank off and poured this reddish brown liquid out of it that smelled like old varnish. I continued to pour and this black goop that looked like thin roofing tar, black as coal came oozing out of it. I put some old gas and some rocks back in the tank to try and dislodge it and the rocks STUCK to it!! At any rate I drained the old gas back out and heated the tank a little outside on a hotplate and got most of it to flow out. Then added some baking soda and hot water and boiled it out. Shook the rocks around and after 2 or 3 rounds of that, it cleaned right up. Worst case of goop in the tank I've ever seen and got running again! ~~Whew~~
vapor lock i have an old briggs service update with that problem in it,as soon as i find it i will reply with an answer
my churches, Kohler 321 on a cub cadet wouldnt start,new battery new headgasket, replaced helicoil in head,new batt cables etc,etc,etc..my buddy said the ACR tab on the cam was bent something he only read about,found the update on the microfische( the vinyl Lp of the small engine world.lol)put another cam in it and bazinga a running mower,sold it to a friend of mine and he said it popped the helicoil right out the top.
Norman is having problems with his 721D... that's a diesel engine.
You can never vapor lock diesel fuel, I think you could mow with it on the surface of the sun without a vapor-lock situation... (if you had enough moisture to get the grass growing)...
vapor lock happens with gasoline & heat... :smile:KennyV
Bison
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If you don't bleed the air out,you'll never get it running.
I guess you can call it "air lock" :wink: