They Don't Make 'Em The Way They Used To: Thank Goodness!

One of my fond memories is of a summer when my dad and I overhauled a single-cylinder Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine together. The previous summer we had resurrected a 2-stroke Maytag engine and I'd been playing with it whenever I could, but it was more of a novelty than anything useful to a 12-year-old.

I had been interested in engines, it seems since birth, and the year between my seventh and eighth grades, the old Johnson Lawn Patrol reel-type mower needed rings and a valve job -- after all, it was 13 years old and oils weren't what they are today. The wear was significant.

We took it down to the bare block, had it bored and the valve seats shaped (something I'd been reading about in Hot Rod magazine) put a new piston and rings in it, used an old hand valve lapper (Model T vintage) to clean up the valves and seats, rebuilt the magneto and carburetor, reassembled it, and used it for another five years. I learned enough in the garage with that project my buddies and I were overhauling lawn mower engines on our own the next summer.

Now, that cast-iron block engine was about as simple a design as could be built. It was rated at less than one horsepower and it was built before recoil starters were common -- you used a starter rope. So, thank goodness they "don't make 'em like they used to!"

I'm still interested in small engines and am amazed at the development of these powerplants over the past 50 years. Overhead valves, solid-state electronic ignition, compression release cam grinds, and electronic fuel injection are common place on small engines today -- all things reserved for special applications and racing back when Dad and I were wrenching on the floor of his garage.

Even the Chinese are in the game, with their own brand of Honda copies -- reverse engineered and "previously-horsepower-rated". Still, when you buy a small-engine product today, you get easy starts, highly refined tolerances, and low maintenance requirements -- unlike those cold-natured, crude engines of my childhood.

The one holdover, however, is the need for periodic maintenance. Regular oil changes, clean air and fuel filters, and a properly-gapped new spark plug every 50-100 hours can make your life much easier when it comes time to use that mower, generator, shredder, splitter, or whatever. Given that, we were interested in a new engine maintenance schedule and set of tutorials made available recently by Briggs & Stratton. They can be found at: http://www.briggsandstratton.com/maint_repair/.

Regardless of what brand small engine you have, the B&S tips can help you keep it running for years to come without lots of frustration and expense.