20hp Briggs Loses power under load.

[bertsmobile1]

I put the new coil on and its running on both cylinders now. The right cylinder smoked like crazy burning off a bunch of oil build up so it looks like the previous owner had been running it like that for a while. It has plenty of power to mow now.

Bert, I noticed after cranking it for a while it actually dripped gas from the bottom of the left cylinder head which has the lower compression. I'm new to small engine repair but I don't think its supposed to do that I think you're right, I need to pull and inspect that head.

While I am a big fan of the
IF it Ain't broke don't fix it school of engineering.
The head gaskets are a PIA to do and everything you pull off to do one head also has to come off to do the other so I tend to do them both.
You get both gaskets in the rebuild kit and that is the cheapest way to get the gaskets.
Do the intake valve seal while you are there and a little warning the head gaskets are actually different from one side to the other.