Hey fellow motor heads,

I have embarked on a tiller restoration project that involves a total teardown and rebuild of the 5 HP B&S horizontal engine. The model is 103292. The serial indicates a build year of 1977. Anyway, I can post pics and such later, but for now my questions are:

(1) I am replacing the valves. Do I need to replace the valve seats if the bevel meets spec.? (.0469" - .0625"). In other words, can I use the new valves with old seats, given that I will seat (lap) them with valve compound?

(2) Can I simply use STP oil treatment in place of the valve lubricant grease the manual calls for. The STP stuff is very thick and sticky. I'm assuming that this application is only for the initial run in as normal engine oil will take over soon there after.

Thanks for any helpful hints.

BTW: I have installed new rings, seals, carb, gaskets, etc.

Thanks,
Charlie
From the Hills of Tennessee

If the seats are good, yeah.....
And I have heard people actually pondering the same thing with stp oil treatment, Its very sticky and is basically full of the antiwear additive zinc, not the moly found in assembly lubes, but it should work great. Also this engine should have points, a conversion kit would help out greatly and there would be no more points to deal with.

thanks bugman for the reply. I have indeed got a conversion kit for the points. I'll install it during the rebuild. Back to the valve seats, can you give me some idea how hard I need to work lapping the valves into the existing seats. I plan on using some of that valve seating paste from Advanced, with the suction cup handle. How much is enough and how much is too much?

Thanks again.
Charlie

here is an intial pic. Since this pic, I have totally disassembled the tiller parts and engine and have actually cleaned and painted most tiller parts and the engine is ready for the "re" assembly.

Just thought you folks would get a kick out of how this thing looked before I tore into it. I'll fire off an after pic in a couple of weeks when I get it finished.

Charlie

4 drops around the face would do.... briggs had a little page on valves on they're website. Clearances and all. http://faqs.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/faqs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3441&p_created=1101860144#lapping

Latest,

mounted engine to test bench and it ran great.

I'm a bit puzzled though that sometimes it took several pulls to get it started. Once it fired off, it was off to the races. Very nice rpm and seems very normal. Any ideas why it might take 10 pulls or so to get it running. Sometimes it started on the first pull. I let it cool down in between runs. Each time, I would pull the choke slide.

BTW: it has a new carb.

Later,
Charlie

here is a pic from today

oops. here is the pic.

You know these thing weren't best for starting right off the bat.... you could check compression, spark plug gap, and fiddle with the carb settings, but it would take me a few pulls to start my old 5 horse when it was cold. Great job on the engine, looks great!

Amazing What A Little T.L.C can Do!!

Nice looking engine,valves may continue to seat solving the start problem,if it continues, check the valve tolerances between lifters or tappets I SHOULD SAY and valves.005-007 on intake and 009-011 on exhaust.

yea, I hated to put the old muffler on it, but the new one hasn't arrived yet. I'm not patient enough to wait on the brown truck !

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. The tiller is almost finished (paint, lube, and such) and i'll get the engine mounted on soon. I'll fire off one more post with the final picture and we can call this one quits.

Later,
Charlie

Charlie
Great looking engine!
You have to be careful about restoring an old Briggs engine. Next thing you know you'll be looking for an older one. Then you end up with a garage full, and a wife asking silly questions. Like "Why?" If you are interested in getting into the hobby your welcome to check out my personal web page at
http://users.adelphia.net/~rake60
There's skinny bald guy kicking over the 1940 Briggs WMB in the video on that site. I've heard he goes by the screen name rake60
Rick

you guys who like the older stuff be sure to check us out at www.lawnmowercentral.net
more than just mowers lol

nice engine looks good

I finished with my 1977 Gilson tiller restoration. The engine runs great and the tiller is in excellent condition and just in time for this year's garden. Thanks for reviewing my work and I enjoyed reading your comments and suggestions. If you have, or know of anyone who has a Gilson tiller, I would love to see some pics. Please send them to cncjenkins3@comcast.net.



Best Regards,
Charles Jenkins
From the Hills of Tennessee

Nice!