I got a mower of a guy who trashed it, it was only 3 months old, I discovered the fuel system was full of water, I dumped out the fuel tank, took the bowl of the carb and the entire fuel system was primed with water, So I blew out the jets with carb cleaner made sure everything was dry and got it back together. Filled up the tank with fresh 93 octane ethanol free gas, and not much a little bit of a puff occasionally but wouldn't start, checked that I had good spark. The I took the Valve cover off, it was seeping and the bolts had clearly been messed with, I was turning it and realized that the intake pushrod was wobbling not going straight so I took off the rocker arm and sure enough it was bent, I did not check how the valve lash was set, but it may have been torqued down where it was compressing the spring some constantly and that's what bent the push rod since it was bottoming out before the cam reached full lift, the valves seemed nice and free. I took the head off to make sure the inside wasn't like super corroded because of the water and checked the valves the appear to be fine and not bent. So I've ordered a push rod for it and a new head gasket since I've had the head off. The mower has a 625EX 150cc motor on it, and the mower and the models of the mower and engine are on the tags I took pictures of down below. Can anyone tell me what the torque spec is for the head bolts, and I should torque them in a criss-cross pattern, correct? Starting by snugging all the bolts down just to the point they make contact, then torque them in like 5lb increments going from top right to bottom left then top left to bottom right?
Head Bolt torque Briggs 625EX (Craftsman M220)
- Thread starter blufeb95
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As I was told, as tight as you can and two more turns. Or just before the bolt breaks. 
Does anyone know the date code format in the serial on this, I know it was made in May but not the specific date but my guess is the first 4 digits are the date code, 1 for 2021, E for May, and 27 for the date, does that sound like it could be correct, it doesn't look to follow any other MTD serial number format I can find.
If it was the 27th of May, I wonder how someone managed to trash a $300 mower in 2 months.
I know the engine was manufactured in April, I was more questioning the date that the whole mower was assembled by MTD.
Flood mower? Or he was mowing close to the bank of a pond?
i've done 20 lb/ft and it worked okay. Check the head on a piece of glass to make sure its flat. I have resurfaced them by sliding them on a glass table with 100 grit sand paper, followed by 200 then 400 grit taped down.
i've done 20 lb/ft and it worked okay. Check the head on a piece of glass to make sure its flat. I have resurfaced them by sliding them on a glass table with 100 grit sand paper, followed by 200 then 400 grit taped down.
I ended up doing 15 I think, I've used it to mow several times, it works well, I didn't check the head flatness, because the head gasket wasn't being replacement because it went bad, but rather because I removed the head to check that there wasn't any damage, and messed up the head gasket by getting oil and attempting to clean it off. I don't know how it got so much water in it, someone left it in the rain with no fuel cap on it? Left their fuel can sitting out in the rain? Angry neighbor poured it in there on purpose? I'll never know the real story.
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My apologies. I misunderstood the direction of the topic.
My guess is that he couldn’t get his old mower to start because all he had was junk fuel Due to leaving it and the fuel can sitting behind the shed all winter. Bought a new one and used the same gas. Got down to the bottom of the can poured the water into it. Tried “fixing“ it cause someone said it probably needed the valves adjusted.
He also tried "cleaning" carb by spraying what smelled like WD40 all down the throat of it and all over everything around the carb, the carb clearly had not been off of it before when I took it off and removed the water and sprayed out the jets.
Wd40 works as starting fluid as does most aerosols. The propellant is propane.
He specifically said he tried to clean the carb, and there was WD40 all over everything around the carb and the carb had never been removed, I ascertained he tried cleaning it by spraying a ton of WD40 into it, and despite claiming to be a "mechanic" he didn't even bother to dump the fuel and actually take the carb apart. Earlier this year during the winter my transmission was acting goofy when it was icy/snowy out so I didn't want to screw with dropping the pan myself and changing the fluid and filter, I had the fluid, filter, and a new pan with a drain bolt, so I was looking for a shade tree among my Facebook friends who'd do it for me for a few bucks, this guy tried the whole "I'm an ASE certified mechanic" spiel about how changing the fluid in a high mileage transmission will screw it up, at that point I new he wasn't a very good mechanic.
