New Find!


  #1  
Old 10-20-03, 10:55 AM
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New Find!

Got a question for you cheese. Out of pure coincidence, I found another L - Head 8HP Engine just like mine. I think it could be fouling sparkplugs. If it is, can you tell me how and engine would do that to sparkplugs. I am still learning more about these things. I adjusted and cleaned the carb to the best of my ability, Once its does start it does not start as easy as mine, and whener you bring the throttle to fast really quickly, the engine does not want to get there right away it takes a second and then its up to fast. Because of the fact this engine looked just exactly like mine, I decided to call briggs and ask them how old this engine was and he said it was 12 years old. Mine is not much older than this modle. Mine is 15 years old. And I am not totaly sure its fouling sparkplug either its only a guess cause I really don't know what to look for.
 
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Old 10-20-03, 11:27 AM
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I just took sparplug off and it is extremly dark looking! ?Rubbed my finger across it and I could get carbon on my finger! I used fin sandpaper to remove in open areas and then blew it out wit compressor. It seems to start better an run a little better to. Whats your take on this?
 
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Old 10-20-03, 10:57 PM
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Lots of things can foul a plug. Most common causes are running rich due to carb problems or dirty air filter, or it could be burning oil. Other possibilities could be mis-adjusted valves, low compression, partially sheared flywheel key, and bad gas.
 
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Old 10-21-03, 01:51 PM
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I do know for sure it is burning oil because you can smell it however you can not smell it. Mabie if you got next to muffler you would see blue smoke. Because the Fly Wheel Key is another thing on a engine that I have not messed with before, can you tell me where the Fly Wheel Key would be located and what is looks like? Does it look like a household key?
 
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Old 10-21-03, 07:41 PM
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The flywheel key is about half an inch long and either rectangular or half moon shaped. They are about 3/16" thick and are designed to break if the engine happens to stop very quickly(ex. hitting a pipe with a pushmower, don't ask!!!! ) It is located on the crankshaft right where the flywheel sits around it. The key costs about $1 or less so it is a cheap way to protect an engine. If you remove the shroud(the cover on top the engine, also known as a cowling or blower housing) off of the engine you will see the flywheel sitting there. You should be able to see the flywheel key down in a notch in the flywheel where it fits around the crankshaft. Also, on one side of the flywheel is a magnet. You can use a metal object to find it. This magnet will pass the coil on every round however the spark plug is only required to fire every other round. If you understand the four strokes of an engine then you will know that this magnet has to pass the coil when the engine is at top dead center (tdc) after the compression stroke going onto the power stroke. The easy way to find this is to remove the spark plug and turn the engine by hand while holding your finger over the spark plug hole. When your finger gets pushed off of the hole and starts to get sucked onto the hole then the magnet should have just passed the coil. If the magnet is way off and past the coil, then the flywheel key is sheared. Sometimes you will go to start an engine by hand and the cord will be ripped out of your hand, this is a very obvious symptom of a loose blade of sheared flywheel key. On pushmowers, the blade acts as a spinning object and helps the flywheel do it's job. Well, I didn't mean to beat a dead horse so I will just shut up for now. Cheese can explain this stuff a lot better and get to the point a lot faster!!!!!!!
 

Last edited by mower17; 10-22-03 at 01:35 AM.
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Old 10-21-03, 08:50 PM
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Lol...sounds like you pretty well covered it!
 
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Old 11-03-03, 04:42 PM
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I used to grease the flywheel so I could more easily remove it from the crank shaft. A good sounding idea that turned out badly. I could always get the flywheel off without a puller, and I would always have to. The flywheel key would break every other day until I finally wised up and cleaned the grease off the flywheel and crankshaft. You need the added friction to keep the key from shearing everytime the engine backfires. It would usually break just after I started it.
 
 

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