POS Briggs and Stratton engine!
 

My wife was cutting the grass this evening (just another example of what a great wife she is) when the engine shut off on our Cub Cadet Zero-turn mower. I checked out a few things then ran a compression check and had zero pressure. Turns out that the piston is stationary inside the cylinder while the engine spins, so it appears that either the con-rod snapped or the cap on the con-rod broke.

Regardless, I'm screwed because the engine (22hp V-Twin) is 1.5 years out of warranty.............I'm so f'ing made because the engine only had 250 hours on it!!!

Where'd ya buy it?

I have a Toro with a "guaranteed to start" B&S motor. Sometimes it doesn't start. Define irony.

Am I correct in thinking I heard some time back that the Cub Cadets we have today -- and about 2-years ago when you bought yours -- are in no way, shape or form our Dad's Cub Cadets which I still see some of operating today? Old, reliable with a zillion hours on them. Built like tanks, not like Tonka Toys....
Just curious as to where they're made now.

Cudos on the wife, too!

Sounds like it's time for an engine swap......what would it take to swap in something else?

Like many people, I bought mine at Lowes and after trying to replace the blades, belts, and filters, I have learned my lesson……Lowes is a great hardware store, but they need to make a SIGNIFICANT commitment in supporting the mowers they sell, or they should get out of the business. A few years ago the CEO from Snapper walked away from Walley World because Snapper was trying to sell a quality mower through mass retailers and figured out that it was a bad idea, so I guess I should have paid more attention to his story.

I’ve had some time to cool-off and this morning I took another look at the mower. I’m ashamed to say that the oil is low but I don’t think it should have thrown a rod because of low oil. If I say anything to the wife about not checking the oil, then I will have witnessed the last time that she will ever cut the grass……so the bottom line is that I dinked-up on this one (if the low oil caused the damage).

I talked with the local Cadet dealer and he told me that he’s seen a few with broken rods and of those, only a small percentage of the engines have catastrophic damage (i.e. rod through the crankcase). He told me that I could repair it for a few hundred $$$ but I won’t have time to fool with it for several weeks……….I’m having surgery on a torn-rotator cuff in the morning.

I guess things could always be worse!

Briggs and Scrapiron

Low oil can definitely be a cause.

I have rebuilt many B&S engines with broken con-rods, and most were due to to low oil (and it's always black and smelly because it was never changed). The worst case would also require replacement of the crankshaft due to bearing failure. If you got lucky, it was just the con-rod that broke, which is a simple repair (assuming it didn't do other internal damage or punch a hole in the case).

The upside is that if it can be repaired (cost effectively), it should be fine.

I used to race a kart series that used B&S 5 hp lawnmower engines as a base.

The engines had been cammend had a modified carb and ran on methanol making around 10 hp.

We ran these engines 6 hours straight against 20 other teams with the same spec engine.

A few of them would fail, but not many. I did see a few blocks that had been "windowed" by a failing conrod! and I saw a few that had been patched with JB weld!

I bought a Yard Machine from Wal Mart with a B&S engine when I first bought my house. The mower cost around $100. Within the first year the carb needed to be replaced because the geniuses at Yard Machine had decided to paint the INSIDE of the metal gas tank with a paint that gasoline will slowly dissolve.

Now, I change the oil, spark plug, and air filter EVERY YEAR on my mowers, so lack of maintenance is not a concern...

A month after paying $90 for a new carb (installed), the conrod broke. It was going to be another $70 for just the part. I tossed the mower and bought a Craftsman with a Honda engine. It's been trouble-free for 5 years.

I expect that the paint was fine with gasoline, but ethanol is attacking it. Honda mowers are known to have carb problems with the enthanol in gasoline. I need to rebuild/replace the carb on my Honda because of this. My father has a Honda power washer with the same problem.

My power washer with the Briggs and Stratton Engine, runs and runs and runs. It is kept outside and abused. It was hard to start, so I changed the oil and put in a new plug. Runs great again.

The problem I always had with mowers, were the decks would crack and fall apart. In highschool, my parents bought a used "Good-All" mower with a cast alumnium deck. I inherited after college. I lost compression in the B&S engine, but the garbage transfer-station always had plenty of extra engines lying around, for free. I think I stripped a plug one time, and I just swapped out the head. It is hard to kill those things.

Cub Cadets of today are not even close to the same quality as the old Cubs - they are now owned / made by MTD. They own the Yard Man, Cub Cadet, Bolens and Troy Bilt brands among others. I have an old Cub - 1965 Model 102 - still runs great, can get some parts at the local NAPA, can have the electrical accessories rebuilt locally and the cast mower deck alone weighs about 90lbs. After having this one I would never go and buy another mower at Lowes or Home Depot.

swap it out for a harley v-twin
oh wait, you said you wanted something reliable :)

If you buy your lawn mower at lowes, WM, HD, they all suck. Go buy a Cub ZTR from and independent dealer. The Tank is still built like a tank and is all but bullet proof. Honda motor that fires every time. Don't go buy you equipment at a Hardware store. Buy it from a lawn equip store.

Oil is the lifeblood in these engines. Every winter evrything gets an oil change, even if it does not need it. Is an easy process once you get started.

Power washer (Honda), log splitter (Honda), 10K Generator (Kohler V-twin), mower (B&S), 2 small generators (EUi2000 Honda and 1kw Honda suitcase).

3 motorcycles, two vehicles, and an RV. All in a single day. The vehicles are mileage driven, and so are done more frequently, and if the gens are used, they get done every 100 hours.

Even so, you'd think in your case, a replacement motor is a good investment.

17 summers ago I "invested" in a Lawn Boy M series mower. It has a magnesium frame and like a motorcycle it has a separate tank for the oil. It is a two stroke that starts real easy. I had to replace the wheels this summer because the old ones were worn down and bald. I paid more for that mower than I paid for my first car. It may be a two stroke engine but it uses way less oil than my old four stroke engine

i had rotator done a few years ago. start moving as soon as posible, dont use, just move it around. i thought i tore it again right after i did the surgery. we had an aligator in our lake, that night i dreamed the gator came out of the lake to get me so in my sleep i reached back, withe the bad arm, and tried to get away. hurt like a mother. i layed there in pain for about a half hour. i still cant sleep on that side, it gets stiff, but it is much better.

here is something that people dont realize. take the john dear dealer, they sell they same mower lowes sells and for the same price, but were do you think you will get the best service if it breaks? another thing about lowes, and the others, they sell a product but when it is time to start fixing things they dont support it.

True Dat. Six years ago I bought a LT160 (sold only at the dealers). With less than 5 hours on the engine, I engaged the blade and the v-belt broke. The V-belt was obviously threaded wrong as it was burned on the outside edge and stretched out over a foot before it broke. I called the dealer and explained what happened. Next morning they had a pickup with a small trailer out to the house (dealer over 30 miles away), picked up the mower, returned it 2 days later with a new belt.... at no charge whatsoever.
Don't think you will get that at Lowes or HD.

A few years ago we bought a diesel Cub mower/tractor with a Kubota engine from a Cub dealer. It was one of the worst pieces of crap I ever bought. It overheated almost from the get go among other problems. The Cub dealer didn't have access to the Kubota parts or manuals - had to get them from the Kubota dealer who didn't really care about a Cub mower. One cylinder got low compression and blow by after about 3 years - parts were really expensive - so we sold it for about a tenth of what we paid for it - rather than fix it.

I will never buy a Cub again. Should have been the last mower we ever bought instead it lasted a couple of years. I chaulk it all up to poor design. We bought a Toro Commercial Z-turn. It is a nice machine and has run trouble free.

Jeb

Hello,
I bought a Kubota 21" self propelled mower in 1981, mow the weeds every week on our 1/3 acre plot, change the oil yearly, same spark plug from new(go figger, I keep gapping it closer), run some carb cleaner when I think about it. I finally had to replace the blade clutch, mowed a few too many rocks(2nd blade). Get this, the Sears parts house had the clutch and it was $100.00 cheaper than the Kubota dealer!
Hola
eric