If you own a John Deere lawnmower with a Briggs and Stratton engine...

[Supervisor42]

You may want to know this.
Models LA125, LA105 (there may be more) look like this:

The engine looks like this:

They have a little secret.

I was raised up in the old days when an engine started using oil, smoking, and fouling the sparkplug it meant there was a problem with the piston rings, the piston, the cylinder or a combination of the three, and the engine was toast.
We have one of the above that was doing just that (used 1/2 quart of oil every time we mowed the lawn) and I was getting ready to order an engine for it ~$1,000.
By some stroke of luck, I happened to search YouTube.
And I learned something new.
It seems the engines have a design flaw.
One third of the cylinder doesn't have headbolts to hold the head tightly to the cylinder on the side the pushrods go thru.
Add this to the fact that this side of the cylinder doesn't have cooling fins, and you get what we have here today:

The headgasket predicatively fails here pouring combustion gasses into the crankcase and blowing oil out of the PCV system into the carburetor and into the combustion chamber.

Gasket set, $15:

I fixed it's "drinking problem" and it is now a 'non-smoker' .

 

[Bacpacker]

Nice find and a great $$$$ savings

 

[Supervisor42]

Nice find and a great $$$$ savings

Actually, it's my father-in-law's mower, I just got tired of seeing the neighbors running for cover every time it came out of the garage.

What little I know about mechanics, most of them will fail because it is a composition gasket (this one only had 300 hours on it).

People don't think about where the smoke comes from, don't check the oil, and end up blowing the engine:

That's a lot of headache for a stinkin' gasket!

I think it's John Deere's way of making sure people buy a new mower every few years.

 

[backlash]

My wife would never check the oil in the riding mower. I would come home and find the mower sitting on the lawn. I asked what happened and she would say it made a loud noise, stopped running and won't start. Yep blown motor. It happened 3 times. I'm retired now so I do the mowing.

 

[The Lazy L]

My wife would never check the oil in the riding mower. I would come home and find the mower sitting on the lawn. I asked what happened and she would say it made a loud noise, stopped running and won't start. Yep blown motor. It happened 3 times. I'm retired now so I do the mowing.

My wife does things like that with our vehicles. I stop buying her cars!

 

[hiwall]

My wife used Coleman fuel in one of our lawnmowers - once.

 

[Spikedriver]

@Supervisor42 do you know what model name Briggs & Stratton sells that engine under? I know Briggs makes some good ones (brother has an expensive zero turn that's 10 years old and going strong) and they make bad ones (I had a Poulan Pro with a B&S Intek that died after 400 hours). I'd like to avoid this model of engine altogether, regardless of which brand of mower...

 

[Caribou]

My wife used Coleman fuel in one of our lawnmowers - once.

The house came with a walk behind and a riding mower. the gas walk behind was a bit of a challenge for her so I bought an electric Stihl for her. She keeps complaining that I won't let her use the riding mower. Her complaints are less of a threat than her on a riding mower.

 

[Spikedriver]

The house came with a walk behind and a riding mower. the gas walk behind was a bit of a challenge for her so I bought an electric Stihl for her. She keeps complaining that I won't let her use the riding mower. Her complaints are less of a threat than her on a riding mower.

My kid has been banned from her grandpa's lawn tractor. She was trying to mow and ran into a tree. Not so unusual except the tree was the only obstacle for 100 feet in any direction and she hit it head on. Luckily nothing was damaged. I asked her if she was waiting for the tree to move out of the way? I got "the look" in response...

 

[Supervisor42]

@Supervisor42 do you know what model name Briggs & Stratton sells that engine under? I know Briggs makes some good ones (brother has an expensive zero turn that's 10 years old and going strong) and they make bad ones (I had a Poulan Pro with a B&S Intek that died after 400 hours). I'd like to avoid this model of engine altogether, regardless of which brand of mower...

I only know the model number of the 21hp engine in the LA125 I worked on.
A little research quickly revealed the 19hp model in the LA105 also has the same problem.
The model number of ours is: 331877 full model number 3318770113B1 , build date 01-08.
I'm pretty certain these engines are used on other brands of mowers, I just don't know which ones.
As said in post #3, when the headgasket fails and if they don't check the oil, death is swift.
If we mowed just 4 times without adding oil, it would have run dry and self-destructed.

 

[Terri9630]

Where are you getting these cool emojis? I want them... @Angie? @Havasu??? Cool emojis please.

 

[Supervisor42]

Where are you getting these cool emojis? I want them... @Angie? @Havasu??? Cool emojis please.

Talk Firearms...
and other cool ones that I have 'collected' / (scarfed) thru the years.
I got a sackfull.

The problem is unless they are added to the collection, they take up their own line.

Of course, I spend most of my time

so at the risk of

I'd say it may be a

to add some to the pile, maybe?

 

[havasu]

I wish we could just import them from the other forum?

 

[Supervisor42]

I wish we could just import them from the other forum?

Probably can. But it's gonna be a lot of hard work to get them hooked back up and working again though.

Or, Angie could just PM me her email address and I could send her a ZIP file of a directory full of smileys

to have fun with

(Which would still be a lot of hard work).

 

[Swing]

Probably can. But it's gonna be a lot of hard work to get them hooked back up and working again though.View attachment 22706
Or, Angie could just PM me her email address and I could send her a ZIP file of a directory full of smileysView attachment 22705to have fun withView attachment 22707 (Which would still be a lot of hard work).View attachment 22708

Or I could make you a mod in charge of putting in more smileys!

 

[havasu]

I added some TF smilies here. If you want more, please post them here and i will import them. blow updancing chickendead horselightbulblil loserpeace drink buddy

 

[Supervisor42]

I added some TF smilies here. If you want more, please post them here and i will import them. blow updancing chickendead horselightbulblil loserpeace drink buddy

Outstanding!
One of the busiest that is already in lots of posts is :bang Head:

I can't remember the names of others like:

@Angie , I can't be a mod, I'm a miscreant!

 

[The Lazy L]

I added some TF smilies here. If you want more, please post them here and i will import them. blow updancing chickendead horselightbulblil loserpeace drink buddy

Country flags?

 

[The Lazy L]

Douple tap...sorry

 

[fiannakrog]

I can imagine how much money you will save in the long run

 

[Supervisor42]

I can imagine how much money you will save in the long run

Boy, this is an old thread (2019)! but someone summoned the beast .
I will update that the engine has not used a drop of oil since the repair, and because we love our rain down here, we are mowing about every 4 days now.
I should have added that I did not follow the usual crisscross torque sequence on the head bolts, but right-to-left instead.
And I didn't use a torque-wrench, (even though I have 3) because what the factory did, obviously didn't work.
I made multiple passes tightening 'thahell' out of them instead.

 

[Neb]

Boy, this is an old thread (2019)! but someone summoned the beast
I will update that the engine has not used a drop of oil since the repair, and because we love our rain down here, we are mowing about every 4 days now.
I should have added that I did not follow the usual crisscross torque sequence on the head bolts, but right-to-left instead.
And I didn't use a torque-wrench, (even though I have 3) because what the factory did, obviously didn't work.
I made multiple passes tighten 'thahell' out of them instead.

Another bot trying to sneak in.

Ben

 

[dademoss]

Rats, left the ban hammer in another forum, long long ago.

 

[Supervisor42]

Rats, left the ban hammer in another forum, long long ago.

You can borrow this one:

(yes, I have an emoji for everything)

 

[Biggkidd]

I've posted about this many times many places and for your general fund of information it's ALL B&S single cylinder OHV engines up until 2018 after that I can't say as I closed up shop. I've run in to it with the twins as well. Gotta remember I ran a small engine shop for quite a few years. Better yet the twins will overheat and push the valve guides out until the push rods bend. Root cause of overheating is usually a varmint's nest in the engine. On the plus side a person with some sense can use a hammer and punch to push the guides back in and stake them in place. They will stay until it happens again, another nest / overheating. A hammer and deft hand can straighten the push rods well enough to last for years. On occasion and on the cheap I can fix one of these in under an hour. Don't even have to have a valve spring retainer tool. The springs are light enough to manipulate by hand.

Unfortunately I never came up with a fix for the missing head bolt.

One more sort of tip a piece of solid 12 or 14 gauge copper wire can be shaped heated and quenched quickly to make it dead soft copper. Then used as a temporary head gasket in a pinch. Ask me how I know! lol

ETA: cut the ends of the copper wire on an angle and overlap the ends to make a complete sealing surface.

 

[Peanut]

This is the engine I put on my old riding mower. 19hp Briggs, with shipping I got it for about $500. Looks amazingly similar to yours @Supervisor42. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be expecting it.

Buy replacement gasoline engines for lawnmowers and equipment from Small Engine Warehouse is where I got my engine. There are located in Ohio or Indiana, one of those. This is copied from my bill

Briggs & Stratton 31P977-0635-E1 engine replaced by 33R877-0033
19hp Vertical 1" x 3 5/32" Shaft, Electric Start, Dual Circuit Alternator, Briggs Stratton Engine

$449.00
$ 63.99 shp
$512.99

 

[Neb]

...

Unfortunately I never came up with a fix for the missing head bolt.

One more sort of tip a piece of solid 12 or 14 gauge copper wire can be shaped heated and quenched quickly to make it dead soft copper. Then used as a temporary head gasket in a pinch. Ask me how I know! lol

ETA: cut the ends of the copper wire on an angle and overlap the ends to make a complete sealing surface.

I was about to reply asking more about the wire approach but now see you added the detail how to seal the ends.

Thank you for answering my question before I asked it.

Ben

 

[Supervisor42]

This is the engine I put on my old riding mower. 19hp Briggs, with shipping I got it for about $500. Looks amazingly similar to yours @Supervisor42. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be expecting it.

Buy replacement gasoline engines for lawnmowers and equipment from Small Engine Warehouse is where I got my engine. There are located in Ohio or Indiana, one of those. This is copied from my bill

Briggs & Stratton 31P977-0635-E1 engine replaced by 33R877-0033
19hp Vertical 1" x 3 5/32" Shaft, Electric Start, Dual Circuit Alternator, Briggs Stratton Engine

$449.00
$ 63.99 shp
$512.99


View attachment 89808View attachment 89809

Yep, I mentioned the JD LA105 that has the 19hp version in it in my first post; my next door neighbor has one. They both have a history of that problem.
Since the gasket set I got came with headgaskets for both, I gave him my leftovers.
The valve cover gasket is reusable so I would take it off and pull torque on your headbolts.
When I pulled the head off ours, the bolts had maybe 5ft-lbs on them.
Would only take minutes, but that is just me.
On the bright side, ours and the neighbor's mowers have been drag racing each other flawlessly, every week for years.

 

[Magus]

Actually, it's my father-in-law's mower, I just got tired of seeing the neighbors running for cover every time it came out of the garage.View attachment 22666
What little I know about mechanics, most of them will fail because it is a composition gasket (this one only had 300 hours on it).

People don't think about where the smoke comes from, don't check the oil, and end up blowing the engine:

That's a lot of headache for a stinkin' gasket!View attachment 22665I think it's John Deere's way of making sure people buy a new mower every few years.

I'm looking at this thing and thinking if you could make some out of rubberized teflon sheet like we used in our latex mixers in the carpet industry. might be a seller and the scraps make great guitar picks.

 

[Neb]

Well. I don't need a new lawn mower of that kind. But I've been looking at other models on a used machinery site for a while. I'm waiting for my constrictor, LOL. Maybe I'll buy one soon that I'll like. I follow the updates on this site, so it will happen soon. My wife says I'm too picky a shopper. But she doesn't realize that buying a lawn mower is a very important investment. After all, people don't buy this kind of equipment every day, you know. I'm probably going to buy it for the next five or seven years, so it has to be a quality piece, even though it's used. You take a long time to respond to people in this thread. How are you doing with your lawnmower right now?

Who are you replying too ?

Ben