Well, what have you got to lose by taking it apart and trying to free the
piston? If you can't free it up, you go for a newer engine or tractor. If
you do free it up, you'll probably need to work on the cylinder and piston,
and replace at least the rings and cylinder head gasket.

I think at this point you should remove the engine, drain the fluids, remove
the head, and stand it up so the piston is facing upwards. Add several
tablespoons of oil all around the piston and wait a few days to see if that
frees it up. If not, take a block of wood, place it on the piston, and
gently tap it to see if it'll move at all. Also put a little bit of tension
on the flywheel or crank shaft, so if the piston does move, the crank and
connecting rod will all be part of the event. You may have to pull a lot
apart to get the piston out from inside the engine, as opposed to outside
past the head gasket. I don't know if there's enough room to pull it down,
but as the cylinder might just get a little wider as you go down, it may be
easier to remove the piston in that direction.

If you don't already have a book that describes these procedures for that
engine, I'd suggest you buy one directly from B&S. They're only $12-$15 but
have a wealth of information in them.

If nothing else, maybe you can find out what really got jammed up, and how
bad it was, and the rest of us can learn something from the failure.

Bob M.
======
"Scott" wrote in message
m...
If your old engine just slowed down and stopped, chances are that the
crankshaft etc are all still good, once you manage to unweld the piston
from
the cylinder! But after all that, you're still looking at a 21 year old
Murray/MTD product, and if you haven't taken real good care of it,
something
else will break in a couple of weeks anyway. If, on the other hand, the
engine took a hit and the crank is bent or the flywheel sheared the pin,
then I'd go with a new engine assuming all other conditions are met.

A co-worker accidentally ran over his old Sears tractor with his dad's
3/4 ton pickup. He offered to sell me the engine (11hp Briggs I/C
vertical) that's about 5 years old for $100. He said the intake
manifold is cracked but I could just take the carb off of my dead
engine and put it on this one, couldn't I.

Since it's an I/C I assume it has a cast iron sleave.


Well I wasn't using it when it happened. I saw my wife pushing it up
the driveway and asked what happened. She said it sounded like it ran
out of gas. I looked and the tank was full. I then tried to turn the
fan by hand and couldn't budge it.

It was my dad's unit and he was a major stickler for changing the oil,
keep the air cleaner clean and never ever leaving it out in the
weather. It was either stored in the garage or in an aluminum
building. I naturally followed what he did with and frankly I took
good care of it.

Recently I put a new jackshaft assembly on the mowerdeck and bought a
new belt for the deck. It was working so good.

Anyway if it sounded like it ran out of gas then maybe it didn't kill
the crankshaft.

What are the chances of me getting the piston out and it still being
useable? I already figure the compression would be low but maybe not
to low to run.

thnx