After a clean and sort, apart from engine this beast is in VERY good condition. I am told the first engine seized and blew the crank in short order.
Experience tells me it was run without oil....
Hence the smaller 12.5 installed now which has never run properly, it has blown smoke since it was installed. It may have been dodgy then.
Oh I so love used gear that was only driven by Grandma's on alternate weekends and mowed a small prizewinning lawn every other month. (& in truth it was used to slash 40 acres of dense weeds and gave up..
)
The new lump is a Briggs 12.5 which I wouldn't consider suitable but it's in there and I can get it started.
Apart from a sticky float which floods it an easy fix, when I get it to run it just streams light grey smoke but the plug is good?
I'd like to at least get the chassis running with this engine before going to an expensive re-engine and find some other issues in the drivetrain which make it an expensive white elephant.
My first thoughts are a gasket leak letting oil into the 'zorst manifold, then maybe a blocked oil breather. The lack of fouling of the plug spins my head. It's not rings and a blocked breather usually pushes oil past the rings and gives similar symptoms.
Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes. Confucius
