i have a friend that asked me a question that i could not give him an answer to. he was told that the 5.5 hp briggs on his splitter has a cast iron flywheel on it to help balance the engine, as opposed an aluminum flywheel onthe same engine in a walkbehind application. he was also told that if he ordered a new engine that the flywheel would have to be swapped for the cast iron one. should he not be able to order an engine for his application with the cast flwheel already in place?

Jaybird, we often had to swap over flywheels on replacement engines on roof cutters 20 years ago, per B&S replacement offerings and instructions. The cast-iron flywheel provides rotating mass (splitters have no mower blade, i.e. mass) which is needed to smooth out the engine pulses. It all depends on how many engines the OEM ordered - if not many, then Briggs won't bother making a direct replacement. It comes down to them making spares only if they feel there's a market for it. Any number of engines made have no available replacement, in which case you're lucky if there's a short-block available! This is very true of the older flat-heads.

Usually you can find a replacement that will work, but not all the time. If you can get the Model, Type and Code of his engine we all can check and see what might be available.