OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers My First Mower

I hope you can tell the sentimental tone so far, because that is how I feel about this mower. In no way is this mower worth much, or even worth keeping. But what it represents is worth more to me than its monetary or practical value. I say this because the following project didn't make financial sense, rather its something I wanted to do.

Having worked this mower so hard for so long, as you can imagine, the engine had become quite smokey, both on start-up and whilst running. Considering the regular maintenance the engine always got, this smoking was not from a lack of oil or neglected oil changes. I simply wore it out! So with that in mind, I made sure to keep it topped up with fresh oil. The plan at some stage was to rebuild the engine, time permitting.



So, I had been planning this project for nearly a year, and I'd had the parts sitting in the cabinet for months. With me taking some long-service-leave, I finally had the time to get stuck into this job. Even though I had done this before with my father, that was something like 25-years ago. I'm not going to lie, I was quite apprehensive about getting stuck into this job. Actually, buying the parts was kinda a "no excuses now" type of deal.



First up, I disconnected the throttle cable. On this era of Victa, the Briggs & Stratton engines had an alloy adaptor ring that sits between the deck and sump. This helps space the crankshaft to the correct height and accounts for the different mounting points between Briggs and the Victa engine. Removing the blade carrier first, you then remove the three bolts that secure the engine and adaptor ring to the chassis.



I then drained the oil and fuel from the engine.

The next step was to remove the blade boss from the crankshaft. There are two ways to remove these, by hammer or puller. However, I don't have a vice or anvil to support the crankshaft to "shock" it off via hammer. So, I needed a puller. I had actually planned on buying a puller, but for some reason didn't bother. So, off I went to Total Tools to buy a puller. After consulting Youtube, the blade boss slid off the crankshaft with ease. I have said this before, but Youtube is such a brilliant resource for learning.

At this point, I apologize for the lack of images, I was "in the zone".

From here, things went relatively smooth. After cleaning off the 24 years' worth of crud from the underside of the engine, I then cracked the sump bolts loose. I then lightly tapped on the sump, which slid easily down and stopped. So, I tapped the sump back in place and lightly scuffed the crankshaft where the blade boss had been, the sump then slid off with ease. I then removed the cylinder head, making sure to keep track of the bolt locations. Next, I removed the oil slinger, cracked the conrod bolts, tapped off the cap, then pushed the piston out of the cylinder.

It was then clean, clean, clean. Starting with the piston, I removed the old rings, then started removing the buildup of carbon on the crown. Because of the oil consumption, there was also significant carbon deposits on the cylinder head and valves, the crankcase and sump were surprisingly clean, a testament to frequent oil changes. I then removed the old gasket material off the head and sump mating surfaces, followed by cleaning everything with kerosene and set aside ready for reassembly.

The piston has some very mild scoring, but they were smooth and didn't catch a fingernail, the cylinder likewise. There was plenty of blowby on the piston though. To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything more than that, the engine always had plenty of fresh oil in it, so the wear on the piston and cylinder is from use, not abuse.

NOTE - I didn't fully disassemble this engine, the exercise was simply to replace the rings and see what that got me. Apart from burning oil, the engine started easily and was strong running. Despite working it to near death, it was always well maintained with fresh oil and clean air filters. If you can imagine a teenage DFB, well I looked after that engine like one of my cars today! Also, after much reading and viewing, I was getting conflicting information as to if you can hone the bore on these aluminum cylinders. In the end, considering the condition of the bore, I decided to skip the honing step and just install new piston rings. Therefore, I didn't feel the need to completely strip the engine to do this.



To be continued.......................