Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - briggs wont start

I have a 3 HP briggs and it gets spark but wont fire at all not even with starting fluid. I had the engine on a go cart and replaced it with a more powerful one so its been sitting for 8 years or so. Id really like to get it going it used to run great. Can someone please help???, thanks for your time if you can.

michaeljp86,

Welcome! Check for spark. If so, check for fuel. Let us know what you find.

Dave237

It has spark but no fuel, it wont fire even with ether. All other engines I had with spark and no fuel would fire on the ether. Any one know how to fix it?

you probably flooded it. make sure plug is firing and open your choke. if engine has good compression and flywheel key is not broken it should run for a few seconds with choke open and starting fluid squirted in. when you get to this point your down to carb. i have had them sheer flywheel key by continued hard pulling because flywheel bolt was not tight. even with this you will still get some popping thru intake and/or exhaust. also did you store with oil left in crankcase? if you tilt them wrong way oil gets in compression chamber and makes them very difficult to start. you have get to oil out of combustion chamber. it is very hard to compress. you do this by removing plug and pulling recoil. about 10-15 pulls should clear it. you will see oil blow out of sparkplug hole.

I'm thinking you may have a stuck valve. This is common on those engines when they're stored for a while. Does it seem to have good compression? If not, remove the head and check to see if the valves are moving like they should. If one is stuck, use some penetrating oil and without bending the valve, twist it and work it until it frees up.