Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - B&S 10.5 HP Engine

Hello folks... Have here a Briggs & Stratton 10.5 HP engine on a Cycle Country Quicksilver mower (old and discontinued by todays standards).

Hasn't been running for a couple of years and not exactly stored correctly either... Pull the cylinder head off and what I found was depressing.. Rust and other gunk in front of the piston and all sorts of other gunk behind each piston..

I'm still trying to decide if I want to overhaul this thing or not. That would be cheaper than buying another mower for the 4 wheeler... Taking it somewhere would probably cost a fortune too.. Thought about doing the work myself but besides the basic tune up stuff I have never gotten this involved in engine repair.

Is such a job do-able for a non-mechanic or are there still tolerances etc. I need to know about? I can order the different parts online but not sure If there is more machine work that needs to be done or not. Not even sure what book(s) I could get to help with this... It's a great mower and despite it's looks I'd like to keep it around.

So whatever advice / thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.. I'm not afraid of small engine work as I am the Blazer that I currently own! :)

If it's an aluminum cylinder engine and the cylinder is corroded, don't bother because it will probably not ever clean up enough to use unless you get it bored out. If the valves are nasty, stuck, and rusted, then the engine is going to take more work to repair than it's worth. If it's not that bad, then take it apart and have a look. You might consider buying a used engine on ebay or at a local small engine shop.

Something else to consider is who made that mower (I've never heard of it). Where can you buy parts for it, or can you? What happens when you need blades, belts, pulleys, etc...?

If it's an aluminum cylinder engine and the cylinder is corroded, don't bother because it will probably not ever clean up enough to use unless you get it bored out. If the valves are nasty, stuck, and rusted, then the engine is going to take more work to repair than it's worth. If it's not that bad, then take it apart and have a look. You might consider buying a used engine on ebay or at a local small engine shop.

Something else to consider is who made that mower (I've never heard of it). Where can you buy parts for it, or can you? What happens when you need blades, belts, pulleys, etc...?

I can still order the parts from Cycle Country directly. They have been around for years now. Mowers, snow blades, winches to name a few. www. cyclecountry.com for more info.

I'll have to check out my local engine shop I guess. Valves aren't stuck but those passageways are nasty. I don't think this will clean up well at all. I still can't get the flywheel off the thing.. :(

Thanks for the input! Time for more research! :)