The briggs ACR failure rate is a lot lower than people realize. I would bet in the range of 1 in 100,000 and same with the head gasket failures. Look at the stink people raised over the plastic cam gear in a couple of the Kawasaki engines a few years back were people were calling those engines junk, but you never heard anybody mention that the failure occurred around 800-1200 hours. How many people even keep their mowers and put that many hours on them before replacing the mower.Again ?????????????????????
The Briggs 21, 28, 31, and 33(0000) series camshaft is nearly all metal except for one tiny plastic bushing.
Yes the camshaft ACR are prone to failure just like the head gaskets are prone to early failures. Considering the total number of these out there these failures are way over blown but are a known issue.