Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - metal in cylinder

I have a Cub Cadet series 1000 model LT1024 w/24 h.p. briggs engine. I have metal shaving in one cylinder, would like to know if anyone has an estimated cost to repair this and if you know where i can purchase a repair manual to do it myself, thanks, Dan

You'd have to take it apart first and see where the metal is coming from. As a rule it's not good. Metal shavings, a lot of times, comes from the cylinder = reconditioning if not too bad +piston and rings, gaskets. If the one cylinder is repairable, the other will have to be done as well to match it.

The dollar amount would all depend on the damage - amount and type.

How did you determine you have metal shavings in the cylinder? I've never seen an engine wear so hard that is actually left shavings in the cylinder. If it is, there is something severely wrong.

Thanks for your replies, i removed the 2 heads and had the metal shavings in only one cylinder

What do the shavings look like and how many are there? There's a slim chance they were left from the original machining of the parts, and don't mean anything is wrong.

If the engine is running OK, you might be better off just putting it back together after removing the shavings.

The engine had locked up and that was the reason i took the heads off to see what the problem was

Ohhh...now I see.

I think you're looking at only a small part of the actual problem you're facing. To determine the extent of the repairs needed, you will need to inspect the rest of the internal engine components. I am guessing it was run out of oil, so the crank, cam, rods, crank bearing surfaces, etc... may be damaged. Then you need to determine if the metal came from the cylinder walls, and then if the cylinder walls can be honed, or if they are too badly worn and need boring. Then you'll need oversized pistons and rings to fit, gaskets, seals, etc...

That's bad. It could have been an oil pump failure, but more likely it just ran out of oil, like cheese said.

cheese, is something like that really worth fixing? By the time you buy all the parts and have the machining done, it's going to be several hundred dollars, isn't it?

Yeah, that's kind of the point i was working towards...but you never know how bad it is 'till you open it up and check.

I rarely build engines anymore. Once in a while I might re-ring one to patch it along a little further, but most of the time I just sell them a used engine, new one, or the customer just junks the mower. The price of parts plus labor gets up there pretty quick nowadays and with cheapo mowers out there selling for $999.00, engine rebuilds are not as common.