Poor maintenance by previous owner

Joined
Nov 29, 2020
Messages
44
Location
Haughton, Louisiana
So recently my mother gave me a roughly 8 year old riding mower with a briggs 17.5 hp powerbuilt motor. My passed step-dad was not a person to change oil or anything like that, and my mother says she doesn't ever recall him doing it either. So last week I decided to change the oil and do a little maintenance on it and at the end of the oil draining was about 1/4 of a quart of silver metallic oil. The oil was replaced with ST synthetic 5w30 and I've ran it for about an hour since. The mower runs as it should with no weird vibrations or knocks. Checked the oil tonight and found a couple of flakes on the dipstick of metal. Question is should I run some type of flush through it or do 4-5 back to back changes with some delo 15/40 I got for free?
 
Does this particular engine have an oil filter? My dad’s John Deere 100 had a 17.5 hp B&S and it didn’t have a filter. Run the 5W30 for 5 hours and then go to the 15W40. Change the 15W40 out at the end of the season. No need to run a flush.
 
No, no oil filter on this one. Do yall think the 15/40 delo Dino would be more beneficial than the cheap synthetic supertech? I have 2 gallons of the delo and a gallon of napa 15/40. Won't bother me to spend some money on it being its a free mower. I just want it to last me 10-12 years in my 1/4 acre yard. Thanks for the input guys, also whats a oil quality that's beneficial to a small motor?
 
No, no oil filter on this one. Do yall think the 15/40 delo Dino would be more beneficial than the cheap synthetic supertech? I have 2 gallons of the delo and a gallon of napa 15/40. Won't bother me to spend some money on it being its a free mower. I just want it to last me 10-12 years in my 1/4 acre yard. Thanks for the input guys, also whats a oil quality that's beneficial to a small motor?
Absolutely! You live in Louisiana so, any SAE 30 HD or 15W40 will work fine. B&S specified SAE 30 HD in that era of engines. Synthetic oil isn’t needed. Just keep the level up and change once per season or 100 hours of use.
 
Very durable engine. Might want to replace the head gasket as PM.
Known to be problematic. Adjust valves before 500 hours. Mine shoved
a push rod through the head at 500 hours. When I opened it up
the head gasket was compromised and probably explained the
excessive smoke at startup.
The new Deere has a filter and the oil stays clean for the 20-30 hours a year it runs.
It has leaked from the valve cover since new. No gasket just some sort of RTV.
I'll get around to making a gasket when the weather breaks.
 
So recently my mother gave me a roughly 8 year old riding mower with a briggs 17.5 hp powerbuilt motor. My passed step-dad was not a person to change oil or anything like that, and my mother says she doesn't ever recall him doing it either. So last week I decided to change the oil and do a little maintenance on it and at the end of the oil draining was about 1/4 of a quart of silver metallic oil. The oil was replaced with ST synthetic 5w30 and I've ran it for about an hour since. The mower runs as it should with no weird vibrations or knocks. Checked the oil tonight and found a couple of flakes on the dipstick of metal. Question is should I run some type of flush through it or do 4-5 back to back changes with some delo 15/40 I got for free?
Drain and fill is probably the way to go. Can you magnetize the drain plug or put a magnetic drain plug in? That would probably help during this process.

Just my $0.02
 
Drain and fill a couple of times. If it's smoking or burning oil try a piston soak with sea foam and look into the head gasket issue. I've brought a few very neglected engines back to life with a couple oil changes and a few rounds of piston soaking to free up the gummed up rings.
 
No offense but it is an (almost) 10 year old riding mower. What I am trying to say is don't over think or over maintain it. Just change it once more with your free Delo 15-40 and watch it from that point on. If it runs OK, just change oil again at end of season, then once per year after that. It needs nothing more!
 
I bought a8 hp Kohler tiller. I did the first oil change and had the exact same issue as you.

Did the back to back 4 or 5 oil changes while letting it run full throttle for 15ish mins in between. At the final change, the oil came out clean with no metallic flakes. Running a 15w40 now.
 
No offense but it is an (almost) 10 year old riding mower. What I am trying to say is don't over think or over maintain it. Just change it once more with your free Delo 15-40 and watch it from that point on. If it runs OK, just change oil again at end of season, then once per year after that. It needs nothing more!
This. Any damage that was done to the engine has already been done. If it runs decent just change out what's in there, keep the oil full, and change it once per year with whatever you have on hand. If it has wear, flushing or being hyper-preventative on maintenance won't reverse that.

That motor probably has more aluminum then iron in it, so a magnetised drain plug won't catch much.,,,
This, the PowerBuilt line of engines don't usually have a cast iron sleeve, so most of the engine is aluminum, a magnetic drain plug won't really do much and isn't worth the cost in my opinion. I've taken them off very old engines with cast iron blocks/heads and there still wasn't really any material on the plug that I felt made it worth having.
 
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