Export thread

I have a craftsman riding mower 2012 LT 2000. I’ve re-powered it less than 2 years ago with a John Deere/ Briggs & Stratton 19 hp single cylinder.
On the first mow of the season, I hit some very tall grass in the engine bog down for about a second, then started spitting massive amounts of smoke. When I disengaged the mower deck, the smoke was reduced, but every time I reengage the mower deck smoke is very, very heavy. Mower starts easily without too much smoke, but when I run down the idle, then idle up quickly, it again spew massive amounts of smoke.
I’ve never been very happy with the mower in the first place and don’t want to put another $800 into an engine. Any guesses on what repair is needed?
Thanks in advance!

Your head gasket is blown

bertsmobile1 said:

Your head gasket is blown

Click to expand...

Thank you! I had no idea where to start. Looks pretty easy. I appreciate you.

bertsmobile1 said:

Your head gasket is blown

Click to expand...

I ride with Bert.

These single cylinder Intek engines are known for a couple problems. One is the camshaft ACR failure and the other is for blowing the head gasket between the cylinder and the push rod galley.

When dealing a blown head on these you do need make the head gasket area of the head is dead flat. Also Briggs did change the head bolt torque to 250 in/lbs (20.83 fl/lbs) , I just use 21 ft/lbs as most torque can be off +-3%. These heads are to be torque at 7, 14, and finally at 21 ft lbs using the recommend bolt torque sequence.


And if are using an uncalibrated torque wrench like the HF one they can be off even more. Here I use a digital torque adapter (spec'd at +-1%) to check the accuracy of my torque wrenches.

Thank you! I had the ACR failure on the previous model.