B&S Ran on low oil. Now runs poorly

L

Lebacajun

Member
B&S 126T02-0675-B2 purchased 2011. So, I went from mowing my lawn a few times a month to mowing mine and 3 properties for my mom a few times a month. I wasn’t paying attention to the oil, and it was all but completely burned off. The last lawn that day was poorly cut from the engine struggling. I gave it a rest for a few days, changed the oil (what was left of it at least), and started it up, and it’s running louder and not quite as strong. It’s doing a good job of cutting, it just sounds like it’s injured. I’m imagining I need to check out the cylinder and piston rings. Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
 
maybe a compression check might be something you can do to figure out the health of the cylinders. If there is a knock, that would be a connecting rod, and if so, don't let it grenade the engine.
 
New engine time. Same as any car, truck, boat, mower, trimmer, blower, airplane or motorcycle. Run them out of oil, you get to buy a new engine.

Wise to check the oil level prior to every mow. Keep the oil on the full mark, not over, nor under.
 
Hello L.,

Ran out of oil is never good for anything inside of a small engine.

The connecting rod a crank journal is no longer any good. The parts costs are astronomical because B&S just wants to sell new engines and mowers, not repair them.

I would consider a new engine or a new mower; they cost about the same these days.

You might get lucky and find a good used engine on eBay, but people often think they own "gold", and shipping would be costly.
 
Well, I do have another B&S engine from a Toro. I switched this engine onto its deck, because it ran better but had a rusted out deck. Maybe I need to ask about making that one healthy again.
 
Hello L.,

A connecting rod is not "fixable" (economically speaking), and the crankshaft journal likely has some aluminum transfer on it at this point.

As I stated earlier, an engine run very low on oil will basically grind everything internal to death due to lack of lubrication to all of the internal parts.
 
Lebacajun said:
Well, I do have another B&S engine from a Toro. I switched this engine onto its deck, because it ran better but had a rusted out deck. Maybe I need to ask about making that one healthy again.
Click to expand...
If the crankshaft PTO end is the same, it may be worth trying to swap the Toro chassis B&S engine over.
 
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