Help, I have a Briggs 8HP engine (192437-1125-E1) that was used while low on oil yesterday. The engine was shut off, oil was added, and the engine would turn by pulling on the pull rope (but not easily), but the starter could not turn it over. It was not started after the addition of the oil.

It was allowed to sit over night, and now the engine will not turn at all (seized).

Any thoughts, am I screwed? The engine only has maybe 10 hours of total use on it. What should I do next?

Thanks for the advice,
Kevin

take the sparkplug out and the engine shroud off. spark oil lub in sparkplug hole and turn engine over with a socket on the flywheel you might be ok and you may need a rebuilt. if you get it to turn keep turnning slowly till it turns free no stickin.

Thanks - I've added some cleaner to the sparkplug hole, and am now able to turn the crankshaft. Not easily though - should I just let the cleaner sit, or should I rotate the crankshaft (I did this for awhile, but didn't seem to be getting easier.

Thanks,
Kevin

use an oil based spray for lube not an either base you want to lube as u turn
if it has an electric starter after freed up a little you can crank engine with plug out and spray lube then replace pug and start if starts it will smoke with the lube spary.
the rings need to warm up to reseat.
if your lucky you dont need a rebuild

Any warranty? Where was it bought from? could sneak it by warranty....

Unfortunately, the warranty is long expired. It's on a Troy-Bilt chipper/vac from around '95. I bought it used it one season and then we moved to a house that we didn't need it. So, I didn't use it much. We've now moved again into a house that we definetely need it.

This morning I sprayed WD-40 into the spark plug hole. Letting it soak now.

Try to see if you can bring the piston to the bottom of the combustion chamber. Might help in getting WD-40 soaked over the entire combustion chamber.

Thanks for the help and advice. It is now running again. It still was feeling tight, too tight for the electric starter, but loose enough that a firm pull on the rope would get it to turn. So, I put the plug back in, choked it, pulled the rope and it fired right up - amazing. I shut it right off, drained the oil, put in new. Started it again with the rope, fired right up again, let it idle for a little while. Shut it off, and then it was loose enough that the starter would work.

I slowly let it warm up and slowly increased the rpms - sounds and runs perfectly.

Thanks,
Kevin

Ahhhj, that feeling of "Oh wow, now I don't have to invest lots of money and it WORKS!" :)

Good jorb.

Its kind of like the time that i ran my electric 3hp air compressor without oil. The air pump cylinder froze up. I ended up adding oil and then putting some wd40 into the pump chamber. Cranked it over using the big pulley by hand. Evenutally it freed up and works great again.

yes.... its great you got it going again.... but do remember..... it seized... so keep a watchful eye on it, may run for years, or run for a week.

I also discovered the culprit for the low oil. There is a quick release type extension tube instead of a drain plug. You turn it about an eighth of a turn to drain the oil - it's required for draining given the way the engine is mounted. After putting the new oil in, I noticed that it was leaking.

glad to hear its running again just check oil level before every start do to ring seize you might be burnin a bit of oil

How does the engine feel when trying to start it? Does it feel as free as it did before the seizure?

It does feel pretty much the same - maybe a little "tighter" still. It fires right up and sounds perfect while running. No smoking once it burned off all of the cleaner and wd40 that was in the exhaust.

I think that I'm going to get some oil treatment and then change the oil again after a few hours.

Why do you ask?

I was just curious to see if changing the oil and getting it running again made the engine feel loose like it should feel.

Just kind of wondering if the running of the engine with fresh oil got it all freed up to pretty much back to normal.

If it doesn't use any oil, just stick with the 30 weights..... (10w-30, straight 30) If it uses some, move up to 15w-40, then if it still uses, 20w-50. Oil treatments just thicken the oil (may add some anti-wear additives, but just mainly thicken the oil up)