Norm, I have seen a 450e completely stuffed after the first mow - spewing oil out the breather and thick smoke when revved up - left it running for 10 minutes, no improvement.
Oil level was perfect - it went back to the shop and got exchanged
AVB, maybe Briggs send all their rejects to 'the colonies' haha
If they do then it is NOT very good business.
Now it may be just me but Quality is still a standard I go by in my repairs. I have however seen the quality of equipment on the market now that is of much less quality then in the past. I repair engines from the 1960's that are going strong where engine from the first decade of this century are either on the last leg or already dead.
I had work for a Foutune 500 company that their equipment division managers came in and told us Field Techs in the mid 2000's that if a machine was 5 years old we were to kill it off in favor of selling a new machine even if the equipment was in good condition.
