I've got a Murray lawn tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine in it.
Being a dumbass, I managed to run it out of oil (I think what happened
was I filled it with high viscosity oil by accident and that burned up
much faster than the other stuff in this hot weather).

Anyway the engine seized and I managed to get it loosened by turning
the blades so that the flywheel now spins freely. However the dang
thing still won't start up. First, it started to spin on the start and
hit something (clang) and stopped. I fooled around with it a little
and now the flywheel spins with nothing blocking it. Only problem is
it still isn't catching. Should I try some starter fluid in the air
filter?

wrote in message
ups.com...
I've got a Murray lawn tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine in it.
Being a dumbass, I managed to run it out of oil (I think what happened
was I filled it with high viscosity oil by accident and that burned up
much faster than the other stuff in this hot weather).

Anyway the engine seized and I managed to get it loosened by turning
the blades so that the flywheel now spins freely. However the dang
thing still won't start up. First, it started to spin on the start and
hit something (clang) and stopped. I fooled around with it a little
and now the flywheel spins with nothing blocking it. Only problem is
it still isn't catching. Should I try some starter fluid in the air
filter?


Okay, I'll bite...

Don't try the starter fluid. Try a new engine.
John

You might have sheared the soft wooddruff key on the crankshaft under the
flywheel.
That is supposed to happen if you hit sometime with the blade.....so you
don't snap the
the crank. If that is the problem,replacxe the key with the same type! If
the key is
seared, it throws the timing off,that is why it won't start.


wrote in message
ups.com...
I've got a Murray lawn tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine in it.
Being a dumbass, I managed to run it out of oil (I think what happened
was I filled it with high viscosity oil by accident and that burned up
much faster than the other stuff in this hot weather).

Anyway the engine seized and I managed to get it loosened by turning
the blades so that the flywheel now spins freely. However the dang
thing still won't start up. First, it started to spin on the start and
hit something (clang) and stopped. I fooled around with it a little
and now the flywheel spins with nothing blocking it. Only problem is
it still isn't catching. Should I try some starter fluid in the air
filter?

wrote:

I've got a Murray lawn tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine in it.
Being a dumbass, I managed to run it out of oil (I think what happened
was I filled it with high viscosity oil by accident and that burned up
much faster than the other stuff in this hot weather).

That would be symptomatic of lower viscosity, not higher, but anyway...

Anyway the engine seized ... it started to spin on the start and
hit something (clang) and stopped. I fooled around with it a little
and now the flywheel spins with nothing blocking it. Only problem is
it still isn't catching. Should I try some starter fluid in the air
filter?

That's a pretty big "only"...

The "clang" was probably the connecting rod end being broken
off...you've hosed that baby, almost certainly...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:20:42 GMT, "Andy & Carol"
wrote:

If
the key is
seared,

Must've really got hot, to sear the key!


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=XF7m
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--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info

I had a chance to work on a siezed up engine, last year. Please share my
experience.

Remove the spark plug, and squirt a bunch (couple squirts) of two cycle "gas
mix" oil into the cylinder. Then leave the spark plug out, and spin the
starter for a second or two. This should re-oil the walls of the cylinder.

I didn't do this. The motor (10 HP Tecumseh on a generator) started right u
p, then it threw a piston rod. I turned a $500 generator into a $75 ebay
item in less than a second. I also said some bad words.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


wrote in message
ups.com...
I've got a Murray lawn tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine in it.
Being a dumbass, I managed to run it out of oil (I think what happened
was I filled it with high viscosity oil by accident and that burned up
much faster than the other stuff in this hot weather).

Anyway the engine seized and I managed to get it loosened by turning
the blades so that the flywheel now spins freely. However the dang
thing still won't start up. First, it started to spin on the start and
hit something (clang) and stopped. I fooled around with it a little
and now the flywheel spins with nothing blocking it. Only problem is
it still isn't catching. Should I try some starter fluid in the air
filter?

Stormin Mormon wrote:

I had a chance to work on a siezed up engine, last year. Please share my
experience.

Remove the spark plug, and squirt a bunch (couple squirts) of two cycle "gas
mix" oil into the cylinder. Then leave the spark plug out, and spin the
starter for a second or two. This should re-oil the walls of the cylinder.

I didn't do this. The motor (10 HP Tecumseh on a generator) started right u
p, then it threw a piston rod. I turned a $500 generator into a $75 ebay
item in less than a second. I also said some bad words.

It probably wouldn't have mattered a whit if you had...the seizure more
than likely overstressed the connecting rod anyway and it was
inevitable.

As noted before, I'm wagering it was the end falling off after the
"clang" that freed it up for OP...

Then, too, OP should have noticed if engine spins _too_ freely_- not
compressing and expanding gases. Which would make sense if rod big-end
got tossed.

1 each, replacement engine.

HTH,
J

Ah, I do feel better. I'd spent most of a year berating myself for not
oiling the cylinder. But, if there was a different problem, maybe I couldn't
have saved it, in any case. Thank you.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
...
Stormin Mormon wrote:

I had a chance to work on a siezed up engine, last year. Please share my
experience.

It probably wouldn't have mattered a whit if you had...the seizure more
than likely overstressed the connecting rod anyway and it was
inevitable.