Recent content by Humbug

No need to apologise, I appreciate anyone taking the time to offer help 😊. I tried grinding about 7 thou off the end of both valves and when I checked again I couldn't see any light around the valve seat. I reassembled the engine and did a compression test - it had risen from 20psi to over...

Thanks for that. Is this for an OHV engine? Mine has side valves. 🙂 I’ve been having a closer look at it this morning and when the piston is at TDC I can see an even gap right around both valves. When the exhaust valve opens the intake valve actually appears to close fully and vice versa. Would...

Thanks for the great advice. I did as you said and applied low pressure air in through the spark plug hole with the piston at TDC. I had the exhaust removed and could feel that air was leaking through the exhaust valve. I pulled the head off again and shone a bright light in through the exhaust...

I had the engine back in one piece and fitted back in the mower but I just couldn’t get the thing to fire 🤬. I’m kicking myself for not checking it before I re-fitted the engine but I can only get about 20PSI of compression out of her. I replaced the head gasket and cleaned the valves (I didn’t...

Perfect, many thanks 😁. I couldn’t see it so I pulled off the air filter housing base and it was much easier to see. I’m much obliged to you sir.

Thanks to the great help from you guys I’m almost done rebuilding this engine. I just have one last question though. It’s been a couple weeks since I took this apart and I can’t remember where one of the springs hooks onto. 😳 The spring that has me baffled is the super-thin wire spring that’s...

That makes sense. I’ll go and dig out my dial indicator. A quick search seems to suggest that anywhere between 2 and 30 thou is acceptable but I’ll have a look for the specs on my engine to be sure. 😎

They all appear to be identical but I'll have a closer look at them and see if there are any small differences between them, could they be different thicknesses?. If they are all the same is there any preference about which type to use?

I’m making some progress with rebuilding my engine. I have ordered a gasket set and a new con rod. In the new gasket set there are 5 crankcase gaskets, 3 black, 1 brown and one light grey. Do I need to use them all? And if so, in what order should I stack them?

There is a little damage to the inside of the case but it isn't punched through. The valves appear to be OK. When I rotate the camshaft the valves appear to open and close smoothly. I cleaned the head up and it looks to be completely intact. Just some scoring to the crankshaft. :(

I think that the oil level was OK as I had only renewed it 3-4 months ago. I was mowing grass that was probably too long and wet . The mower bogged down a couple of times and I should have known to leave it but I thought I would just take about a third of a stripe at a time and all would be ok...

Thanks for the ideas guys. I tried putting a rod in the spark plug hole and turning the flywheel, there was no piston movement at all so I figured it was probably the con rod that had broke. I decided to pull the engine out of the mower to take a look, thankfully it was pretty easy to remove. I...

Hi All, I was using my Etesia Bahia Mower today when there was a loud bang from the engine (I think, I had my ear defenders on) and it quit running. I tried the starter but it sounded like there was no ignition and the engine was turning over much more easily than normal. I pulled the spark...