Blade Won't turn all the way around

[bertsmobile1]

Tecumseh engine and no oil showing on the dip stick.

Buy a new engine at minimum or buy a new mower.

OK went back to the start.
No oil on the dip stick so we will assume it ended the season with no oil and now has a broken piston, I will have to agree with the diagnosis of Dr S Citizen.
Patient is terminal and a cemetary plot is in order.

 

[fairbs]

Usually a "sliver off the top" will be chunk from the ring grove to the crown.
This means the top ring will not be able to seal properly and the engine will be some where between a little smokey to a moving smoke screen.
If the bore is OK , which is why you were adviced to not to force it you will get away with a new piston or piston & rod which are not very expensive.
Again we will need the pickies.

Look closely at the piston top as something caused that lump to break off.
Very early you do get a piston cracked from new but mostly it is because something got into the cylinder that should not have been there, screws from the carb are a prime example.

I wasn't able to get the pictures last night, but I will tonight including the cylinder wall and I'll investigate closely as well. Thanks for the advice.

 

[fairbs]

Usually a "sliver off the top" will be chunk from the ring grove to the crown.
This means the top ring will not be able to seal properly and the engine will be some where between a little smokey to a moving smoke screen.
If the bore is OK , which is why you were adviced to not to force it you will get away with a new piston or piston & rod which are not very expensive.
Again we will need the pickies.

Look closely at the piston top as something caused that lump to break off.
Very early you do get a piston cracked from new but mostly it is because something got into the cylinder that should not have been there, screws from the carb are a prime example.

Not sure how these will look...





The sliver is about 2.5cm long. On the picture with the rule, there is a little, lets call it a burr, that sticks out (by the 6 on the ruler) from the sliver itself. That's scratched the cylinder wall some mostly near the top which you can kind of see in the other picture. I didn't find any screws or loose metal in the cylinder other than a couple of other very small chips which I believe came from where the sliver once lived.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The engine is scrap metal.
not repairable.
If the mower is good then look for a replacement engine

 

[shiftsuper175607]

I would have said that the piston was full of oil from the mower being tilted...ran past intake valve into cylinder.
Did you try and pull the cord with the spark plug out and no compression?

Turn the blade with the spark plug out?

 

[fairbs]

I would have said that the piston was full of oil from the mower being tilted...ran past intake valve into cylinder.
Did you try and pull the cord with the spark plug out and no compression?

Turn the blade with the spark plug out?

I did try to turn it and it would make a wheezing noise, but stop at a certain point. I'm guessing at somewhere during my futzing, the sliver found its way to a point where the piston couldn't make a full revolution because when I first pulled the mower out, I was able to pull the cord fine, but it just wouldn't start.

Thanks everyone for the help. I've learned a lot. It looks like I need to decide on whether to buy a new engine or new mower. The old mower got at least a decade of use so it had a decent life. Unfortunately, every year something would go wrong where it wouldn't start up on the first outing and that usually meant digging into the carb either a little or a lot. So in some ways, it won't be all that missed as long as the new one isn't worse.