Small engine repair (sort of at least)

So last fall I was getting ready to mow the lawn for the last time before winter. I fired up the old Sears Craftsman riding lawn mower. It was running for a few minutes as I was doing something else, and then died. It wouldn't turn over real easy after that and I tried using a set of jumper cables but no dice. It seemed as though it was maybe seized,and then with a check of the oil I found it had none!!!! I was pissed at myself for not checking that before running it.

I sort of forgot about it all winter, but had a look at it today. With a fresh oil and a new battery it still didn't want to turn over. I then removed the spark plug and sprayed some marvel oil in the cylinder, and turned it over by hand using a socket on the main pulley. It was a little stiff at first but eased up the longer I turned it over. With the plug back in I turned it over with the starter again and it fired up. I ran it for a few minutes ,and turned it off and on several times with no issues. I even went out a few hours later and it fired right back up again. Any chance I saved it or have I just prolonged the inevitable? Any help would be much appreciated.

Chris

Run it. One of two things will happen. It will never give you trouble again, or it will explode spectacularly on the hottest day of the summer.

I would probably cut the grass once and change the oil. It sounds like it slagged the piston into the cylinder wall. If so, it's going to be wearing back together. That is unless it locks up completely.

I just repaired the engine my golf cart with a vice, a chunk of flat bar and a 4# hammer. One of the bolts holding the low oil sensor in the crankcase came loose. It ended up between the crankshaft and the cam, bending the cam. No parts are available for the Chinese engine I used, so I figured there was no money lost trying to fix it. It's got about two hours on it so far. We'll see how long it lasts.

Yep, just run it till it gives up, which could be next time you run it or 10 years or more. Definitely change the oil.

RUN IT, add what ever snake oil the store has on the counter and change oil offten the 1st year.

Similar thing happened to me last year with my self-propelled. I'm just gonna use it and not let it happen again. In my own defense, the 'dip stick' is a truely terrible design on my Lawn boy; I can't get an accurate reading to save the life of that engine.

This is why I'm still a fan of my 20 year old 2 cycle Lawn Boy. No oil to check or change and it still runs like a top after all these years.

Truth be told the mower is at least ten years old if not more. I bought it about 3-4 years ago for $200. It doesn't owe me a thing but I would like it to last a while longer. I have a new push mower for edging and such as well as old Toro 2-stroke push mower that I can't seem to get to start (therefore the purchase of the new push mower last year). The Toro two-stroke uses a kawasaki engine and it was a great mower for many years, but it won't start now. Maybe with some time and some of your help I can resurrect it in a go-cart or something else. What sort of snake oil am I looking for?

Slick50, Tufoil, The stuff in the test tubes (hot pink triangle bottle) that sort of stuff.

Tufoil does work I've witnessed 150 increase in idle RPM on a motor known for eating camshafts with just adding it and cam lasted twice as many miles after adding it. Still wore out but that's due to Engineering errors.