Yesterday I swung by the recycling center and there
was a complete 5hp Coleman pressure washer sitting
in the metals bin. I wrestled it out and into the
back of my car, took it home, and cancel all plans
for the rest of the day.

I filled the tank half full with gas and tried to
start it. No gas getting to plug. Pulled and dis-
assembled the carb - looked fine. I put my hand over
the intake port and cranked - pressure coming out
during compression stroke.

Pulled off the head, everything looks good, pulled
off valve spring cover - ahh haa, no clearance on
intake valve, keeper on exhaust valve is off.

First the intake valve, take it out and grind down
the stem tip until I have about 15 thou clearance,
put it back on.

Now the exhaust. I take the valve out and the stem
look terrible. It's necked down nearly 1/8" where
it rubs against the guide and the shoulder where the
keeper lives is all chewed up.

I grind the worn areas down to clean metal, fire up
the oxy-ace torch and blob braze over it. I chuck
it in the lathe and do my best to true it up. Nothing
I'd be proud to show to a real machinist, but better
than before. I grind about .015 off the tip of the
stem, like the intake valve so I have some clearance.
I put the valve back in and button up the valve spring
cover.

I make a new head gasket from gasket material, spray
both sides with copper permatex, torque it to 25 ft/lbs
and put the rest of the engine back together.

Now we have some compression. With just a little bit
of tweeking around, it starts and runs great. I hook
up the water, fiddle with the nozzle and I have a working
pressure washer. I pressure-wash the pressure washer.

What I learned:

Gas engines really want to run.

I get unbelievably compulsed to fix things, especially
free things.

What I'd like to know:

Where did the valve clearance go?

I got one from the recycling center, it was siezed up. Well I pulled the
head and pushed the piston down smooth as could be, pulled the cord it came
up to the same point then it was all stuck. I pulled the pull cord cover and
there was a small screw sticking to the flywheel magnet. it would hit the
coil and stop, it wouldn"t turn the other way because the pull cord held it.
Runs great now 5.5 HP Honda motor
"Ignoramus906" wrote in message
...
This is, indeed, wonderful. Great job and a good example where a lathe
is quite useful. Congrats. I, also, acquired a military surplus 11 HP
pressure washer that was "broken", but the damage to it was limited to
a rotten fuel line and a bad kink in the high pressure hose. Try
powerwashing your concrete areas.

i

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:53:11 -0700, Jim Stewart
wrote:


What I'd like to know:

Where did the valve clearance go?


Pretty much a standard B+S repair. Briggs uses such lousy material
for the intake valves and seats that it wears fairly quickly. As the
valve wears into the seat you eventually run out of clearance.

The exhaust valve stem wear is also classic Briggs. The exhaust
valves are made from better material and will usually still have
clearance long after the intake valve looses its clearance. But dirt
blowing into the muffler and collecting on the valve stem then gets
sucked into the aluminum bearings that the valves run on. This then
laps the exhaust valve stem down faster than you would believe
possible. The dirtier the environment the faster it wears. The worst
I've seen is engines mounted on a trailer tongue for pumping liquid
cow feed. I know of one brand new briggs that didn't last one winter
pumping the stuff.
Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

In article , Jim Stewart says...

Where did the valve clearance go?

Probably a combination of:

Seat wear

Valve margine wear

Valve stem wear.

The seats on those engines get deeper and deeper
with time. Eventually they need to be replaced.

The valve heads get thinner and thinner, eventually
they get smaller in diameter too.

A lot of this has to do with materials issues, my
dual-sport bike had intake valves that never could
hold clearance. When I took the head off, I found
the seats were immaculant, the stems were basically
unworn - but the valve head had worn so badly the
valves were about 75 percent of the diameter they
should have been. They were so loose I was able to
remove the keepers by hand! =8-O

Kawasaki had a part retrofit apparently - the new
valves I put in (I did the exhausts too, even though
the were not wearing) have gone about a year now
since that repair, and although I check them on
occasion, I've never actually had to break the adjuster
locknuts loose since installing the new valves.

I think Kaw was trying to cheap out on the intake valves
but found that they were wearing so badly, they changed
over to the same metalurgy they were using on the
exhausts.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:53:11 -0700, Jim Stewart
wrote:

Yesterday I swung by the recycling center and there
was a complete 5hp Coleman pressure washer sitting
in the metals bin. I wrestled it out and into the
back of my car, took it home, and cancel all plans
for the rest of the day.

I filled the tank half full with gas and tried to
start it. No gas getting to plug. Pulled and dis-
assembled the carb - looked fine. I put my hand over
the intake port and cranked - pressure coming out
during compression stroke.

Pulled off the head, everything looks good, pulled
off valve spring cover - ahh haa, no clearance on
intake valve, keeper on exhaust valve is off.

First the intake valve, take it out and grind down
the stem tip until I have about 15 thou clearance,
put it back on.

Now the exhaust. I take the valve out and the stem
look terrible. It's necked down nearly 1/8" where
it rubs against the guide and the shoulder where the
keeper lives is all chewed up.

I grind the worn areas down to clean metal, fire up
the oxy-ace torch and blob braze over it. I chuck
it in the lathe and do my best to true it up. Nothing
I'd be proud to show to a real machinist, but better
than before. I grind about .015 off the tip of the
stem, like the intake valve so I have some clearance.
I put the valve back in and button up the valve spring
cover.

I make a new head gasket from gasket material, spray
both sides with copper permatex, torque it to 25 ft/lbs
and put the rest of the engine back together.

Now we have some compression. With just a little bit
of tweeking around, it starts and runs great. I hook
up the water, fiddle with the nozzle and I have a working
pressure washer. I pressure-wash the pressure washer.

What I learned:

Gas engines really want to run.

I get unbelievably compulsed to fix things, especially
free things.

What I'd like to know:

Where did the valve clearance go?


What Jim said.

I got one of those deals with a generator , only thing that was wrong
was that the U shaped part that holds on to the exhaust spring broke.
$15-$35 for a kit with disks instead of U shaped and it runs great.

Some engineers should be slapped hard . Maybe they where trying to
prove trickle down economics...? Maybe they were trying to exclude
one hard proven way of a disk and two keepers , yeah lets put in a U
shaped thingy that just slips in with one motion and doesn't need
keepers. Stupid ! Got a nice generator for practically nothing
though.

Only problem is that the power won't shut down so that I can use it.

Jim Stewart wrote:

snipped

What I learned:

Gas engines really want to run.

I get unbelievably compulsed to fix things, especially
free things.


Yes, ours is probably the only house in town sporting three functioning
vacuum cleaners and four "electric brooms", all snatched by me from the
curbsides of other towns on trash collection days. And, our home has a
central vac system too. G

Our town has a "trash collection center". It's not a "dump" but a place
where townsfolk haul stuff to and from which it is taken to a real dump.

It has a "goodie table" where all the non-tech folks put appliances,
power tools and similar stuff when it's cheaper for them to buy new
replacements than pay for a repair.

SWMBO won't let me go there anymore......

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

Do you know about Freecycle? Is there a Freecycle group in your area? This
is a Yahoo group where you post offers of things you don't need anymore and
people come over and take them off your hands. A great way to redistribute
those resurrected appliances...


Yes, ours is probably the only house in town sporting three functioning
vacuum cleaners and four "electric brooms", all snatched by me from the
curbsides of other towns on trash collection days. And, our home has a
central vac system too. G

Our town has a "trash collection center". It's not a "dump" but a place
where townsfolk haul stuff to and from which it is taken to a real dump.

It has a "goodie table" where all the non-tech folks put appliances, power
tools and similar stuff when it's cheaper for them to buy new replacements
than pay for a repair.

SWMBO won't let me go there anymore......

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I swung

What I'd like to know:

Where did the valve clearance go?

I bought a car last year for just about a give away price. It had a miss in
it and wasn't running smooth. I got it for about 1/3 of what it should have
went for. Turns out someone ground the valves, but didn't shorten the valve
stems. Which is critical on an overhead cam engine. The book gave a specific
stem height not to exceed or the valves would never close. Got the purchase
price of the car back in gas savings in less than a year.

Richard W.

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:53:11 -0700, the inscrutable Jim Stewart
spake:

--snip of nice gloatable find 'n fix--

Now we have some compression. With just a little bit
of tweeking around, it starts and runs great. I hook
up the water, fiddle with the nozzle and I have a working
pressure washer. I pressure-wash the pressure washer.

What I learned:

Gas engines really want to run.

I get unbelievably compulsed to fix things, especially
free things.

....even when the cost to fix them exceeds initial price
of a new item. What is it with us?


What I'd like to know:

Where did the valve clearance go?

In some engines, valves and seats wear from grinding
on the combustion particulates, additives, the caustic
action of the fuel itself, and dirt in the fuel and
air. That closes the gaps.


----------------------------------
VIRTUE...is its own punishment
http://www.diversify.com Website Applications
==================================================