B & S Australia are pathetic and only interested in wholesaling to Bunnings & Mitre 10
I no longer fit B &S engines unless specifically asked to do so
B & S Australia will tell you things are NLA when they are readily available either from the USA directly or from John Deere Australia because they are just too lazy to import them .
Genuine Gator blades being the prime example .
John Deere will supply B & S engines cheaper than B & S will and also they are cheaper for parts but of course you need to know the JD part number .
Better still is the JD engines have much better air filter covers that do not rust the fasteners like std B & S covers do .
Now you have to pull the engine out in any case so pull it out and slip the sump off and see what sort of damage there is inside .
You have nothing to loose but a couple of hours .
3 usual reasons for dropping a rod, in order , over heating , low oil , over reving
Small Engine Warehouse in Australia is affiliated wth Small Engine Warehouse USA who sell superceded engines cheaply
I buy a lot of Kohlers form them as my Australian aftermarket wholesalers only sell Kawasaki or Loncin .
Do not worry about the size of the engine, it makes almost no difference as they all spin at the same speed and the extra power means next to nothing unless you are mowing pasture .
I have fitted a lot of engines that are as much as 5 Hp lower than the original and all the customers ever say is the mower is quieter and uses less fuel.
And this includes 3 commercial customers who mow up to 6 hours a day.
It is TORQUE that does the work and Torque is a function of piston area , stoke & compression.
All B & S engines with the same capacity prefix 44 for instance have the same bore stroke & compression the only difference apart from the stickers is a restrictor gasket between the manifold & the head to reduce the maximum air flow on the lower power engines & some times the governor spring .
Unless you are north of the Qld border the grass should be slowing down by now
Here there is nothing growing here other than Tussock grass, clovers , fire weed & sticky night shade right now
Yes, the old horsepower wars and all the lies..
People worry about getting a 19 or 20.5 horsepower single engine for their repower when we have been using the exact same mowers with a 12 to 15 power for decades to cut the same lawns..
It's very odd that in Australia you have that type of problem. I understand the availability but in the us, any Briggs & Stratton part is always cheaper from them or anyone else then it is to buy it from John Deere.
John Deere takes the exact same part and puts in one of their yellow and green bags and marks with the price 30 or 40%.
As far as snapping the rods, I was slightly disagree on your order that overheating is the first cause and lack of all being the second.
In reality, the two kind of go together or which came first, the Chicken and the egg but the ones I see, lack of oil / lack of lubrication, the oil level being too low is what snaps the rod and they will do it in a heartbeat.
I tell all my customers to never let the oil get below the full mark and even slightly above the full mark is my preference.
Anything below that bottom dot where it says add is really risky.
I've seen a number of them and Kohlers too overheat from grass filled up or nesting over the cooling fins and cause other problems, most commonly slipped valve guides and sometimes popped valve seats and occasionally piston rings losing their tension etc and that cylinder getting low compression because of rings but they very rarely snap a rod as long as they have enough oil enough.
I really don't like the Briggs twins though and if you can get by with a mower like a 42 that has their single engine you'll likely have fewer problems in the future than if you get a Briggs twin.
They all have their issues but parts are just so much more available and cheap for the singles I just rather have one of those if I have to have a Briggs
