OT B&S tractor mower problem..

This is a Briggs and Stratton 14HP 28N777 engine issue. Single cylinder OHV 4 stroke, with horizontal piston.

The nearer I top the sump up with oil to the full mark, the more likely the issue is to occur. Problem is it blows lots of oil out via its engine breather system, which then vents into the centre of the air filter to be ingested into the intake via the carb.

Yesterday I pulled the carb off and the breather system, to investigate. Cast into the upper side of the engine is a rectangular socket for the breather unit, fixed with two bolts and sealed against the socket. It has a larger hole at the top, a smaller one at the bottom (drain?)

Breather unit is a rectangular metal box mounted vertically in the above socket. It has a large hole to match the above at one side, which contains a one way valve, then a second hole on the outside, to match a rubber pipe, between and inside the box, there appears to be a baffle plate. Rubber pipe runs along and up to the intake side of the air filter.

Yesterday the box was filled with oil, as was the socket it fitted in plus some in the rubber pipe. Once drained and all cleaned out of oil, the engine started and ran fine for 30 minutes. I poked some wire down what I had assumed was the drain hole in the casting, but is seemed to be clear. Today I topped it up to the full mark, resulting in rough running and lots of smoke from the burning oil drawn into the intake from the breather.

Compression seems good. Not a lot of pressure if the dipstick is removed with engine running, but lots of oil thrown up via the long dipstick tube.

My initial thought was that the dipstick might be the wrong one, too short, hence setting the oil level too high, but no it is the correct length.

I am wondering if the breather unit, ought to have a small hole at the bottom, on the engine side, to allow that to drain?

Any ideas welcome please?

I have tried posting to the B&S problems forum, but B&S simply deleted my post without explanation.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield
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Harry Bloomfield was thinking very hard :

Just to elaborate on that...

The main hole in the engine/ the socket is around 12mm, the hole in the box around 25mm with a flap valve inside the hole and a 4mm hole at the bottom of the socket, presumed to work as an oil drainage hole.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Not being an expert it sounds to me as if you either have bad piston rings or some sort of splash plate has come loose and is making too much of a splash. A smaller B&S engine I worked on had a splash plate fastened to the bottom of the piston somehow but it was years ago and I can't remember much about it. Either way it's going to need opening up.

Reply to
rp

The engine runs quiet enough, but I think you may be right about having to delve in deeper.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

After cleaning the breather unit out, of it fill of oil, they engine ran absolutely fine until the breather had filled up again with oil, then much smoke and rough running just a matter of minutes.

Suspecting it was bore wear and pressure in the crankcase resulting from that, I priced up a rebore from a local engineer at £40, if I could source the oversized parts needed. I'm still waiting for B&S to reply on that.

In the meantime I priced up a replacement used tractor mower. Wrong time for buying at the start of the season, so I also looked at some sort of botch to enable it to see out the season...

An oil catch tank, was what I decided might work! A jam jar with lid, filled with a metal scourer pad. Long pipe in via the lid, from the breather unit, then a shorter pipe out leading to the intake side of the air filter. Two holes drilled in lid, then pipes sealed in with hot melt glue.

To my surprise it worked perfectly and no sign of any oil collected so far in the jar after an hours run.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

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