notjustair
Well-known Member
I'm looking for opinions here. I was mowing the ditch with the old Snapper rear engine rider and started to daydream. I replaced the engine on it with an 11.5 horse Briggs flat head years ago. When I put that engine on it I had purchased it used and it always needed a bit of oil every once in a while. I am sure it was more "used" than I was lead to believe. I couldn't begin to imagine how many hours are on that engine, but it is lots just from me.
It's starting to pick up on oil use a little. I've always understood (or was taught) that the death of a small engine is contaminated oil scoring the cylinder walls.
In a perfect world with spotless air and clean oil, how many hours would an old L head Briggs rack up before it was using measurable oil from just the cylinder friction wear? Anyone have one on something with an hour meter that has gone a good ways? I know the bigger ones on the standing mowers can run thousands of hours, but those are usually the well built Kawasaki engines with higher horsepower. I'm talking about the mower engines from years back - when 12 horses was a lot.
It's starting to pick up on oil use a little. I've always understood (or was taught) that the death of a small engine is contaminated oil scoring the cylinder walls.
In a perfect world with spotless air and clean oil, how many hours would an old L head Briggs rack up before it was using measurable oil from just the cylinder friction wear? Anyone have one on something with an hour meter that has gone a good ways? I know the bigger ones on the standing mowers can run thousands of hours, but those are usually the well built Kawasaki engines with higher horsepower. I'm talking about the mower engines from years back - when 12 horses was a lot.