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Hello, I would appreciate any help on this issue.

This engine is on a generator Mod # 030345

To eliminate a fuel issue, the gas is off and the carburetor is empty for sure. I took it off and emptied it. My wish is to run it on LP. I want make sure it will fire up starting spray.

I sprayed engine starter in, and barely get an ignition pop here and there, but mostly none.

I pulled the spark plug and grounded it and got blue sparks.

With the limited knowledge I have, if I have spray starter and have a sparking plug, I should get several sputters to burn up the spray. But that is NOT the case here.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You have eliminated 1 part from the triangle
Fuel-compression-spark
So there is 1 & 1/5 left to go.
You have a spark. remove the plug, put a bolt on the end of the lead and check it will jump 1/2" in air.
Half an inch in air at atomospheric pressure is roughly equivalent to .070" at 120 PSI inside the engine.
Spark has 2 parts, strength & timing
Remove the flywheel retainer and check the flywheel key .

As for compression , you can do a leakdown test, raw compression numbers are fairly meaningless due to the decompression.
But having said that, less than 60 psi and it ant going to start.

Any further suggestions require that I check your engine but you have not furnished enough information.
We need the 6 digit model number and the 4 digit code number plus the 2 digit trim
ie;- 216122 -4321-B4 and because Briggs make so many engines, the serial number would also help as a part variation will be listed as "from 010101z4"

BudDavis said:

Hello, I would appreciate any help on this issue.

This engine is on a generator Mod # 030345

To eliminate a fuel issue, the gas is off and the carburetor is empty for sure. I took it off and emptied it. My wish is to run it on LP. I want make sure it will fire up starting spray.

I sprayed engine starter in, and barely get an ignition pop here and there, but mostly none.

I pulled the spark plug and grounded it and got blue sparks.

With the limited knowledge I have, if I have spray starter and have a sparking plug, I should get several sputters to burn up the spray. But that is NOT the case here.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

For your engine to run it needs an air to fuel ratio that is correct and spray starting fluid is a poor way to achieve that correct ratio. It's way too easy to introduce a mixture way too rich with fuel. I prefer gasoline dribbled into the carb while cranking and in your instance propane gas may be better but can easily be too rich.

Thank you for the replies and help.
I check and found a TYPE 0110E1 under the Model 126 112 and under the TYPE there was a CODE 07030? I could no see the last diget without removing some parts.

Here is some history in case it helps.
I bought the generator. After it sat dry in the box for two years, I took it out and gases it and added stable. It cranked with one pull. I ran it for a twenty minute project, then it sat for a few years untouched. I then took it out and could not crank it until I sprayed starter. With that it cranked and I ran it for five minutes and put it away for a few more years.
The next time, I could not get it started until I sprayed it and it would not keep running. It just sputtered some even after replacing old gas with new.
I removed the carb, took it appart and cleaned with gas. It was very dirty inside. After reasimbly it would not crank.
I took it to a small engine shop and the said they soaked the carb in the wrong stuff and destroyed the seal and did not have a replacement.
I was not interested in running it on gasoline, so I set it aside for another year. I have now replaced the elaborate shaped multi o-ring type seal and installed a LP kit I bought.
That brings us to now. An engine with less than a half hour of run time.
Does any of that change what I should do in diagnosing the problem?
Thank you in advance.

No.

Spark is determined by the coil & magnets.
Spark timing is determined by the flywheel key.
The first one is OK, the second one needs to be verified.

Compression is determined by the state of the piston rings, their fit in the bore and the state of the valves and the valve timing ( cam )
Sitting for long periods can cause valve springs to set partially closed so the valve does not close tight enough to maintain an airtight seal
Sitting for long times can allow rust to form on the valve stem, usually the inlet preventing it closing fully, same outcome.

Does not really matter where you start.
However you need to be methodical and not jump around.
So as you have already checked you have a spark, the next thing to do is check it is happening at the right time.

Then knowing that is right go and check the valves .

If you are going to run LPG on a geneator you only use very occasionally fit a "Valve saver" or similar that injects a little lube into the LPG/air stream.
It goes a long way to keeping the bore & valve stems on the engine side of the seals in good nick.
I used to have problems with our LPG fleet of delivery vans till we got one with one of these systems fitted.
This van gave no engine problems so we fitted another van out with the Flash Lube system.
Worked a treat so we did the whole fleet, trebbled the head life on most of them and added 200,000 km to ring life.

Wow, what a wealth of great knowledge. I am not enjoying the fustration of the engine not running, but I am enjoying learning.

I will need more time to check some of those things. If you have the patients with me to ask another thing; with again an empty carb and LP turned off, I pulled plug, put in a half teaspoon of gas, replaced plug and pulled. It ran for several seconds. I did it a second time with LP on. This time it ran for maybe a second longer.
Pulling many times, I was only able to get it to fire once on LP only.

So, with it running each time I put gas directly in the cylinder, should I still check the key?
Do I still need to check compresion and if yes, is there a way without a gauge that screws into the plug hole?

Thank you again.

Rule No 1 n small engine repair.
Assume nothing. Check & verify everything.
A tiny crack in the timing key which has the flywheel 1 deg out of time can be enough to stop an engine running.

A very lazy and some times responsible for false readings s to spray very small amounts of starter fluid into the carb venturi.
If as the engine starte to slow another SMALL shot of starter fluid causes it to spin up again and this sequence is repeatiable then the key MIGHT be OK.
Too much starter fluid can cause detonation and put a hole in your piston in less than a minute so it is some thing you do with caution.
A light spray from an inch or two back from the carb.
And if you get a flash back through the carb you can end up with singed hand hair or worse so stand to one side.

Putting on big pointy hat with stars & moons on it I would go with rusty valves not seating properly.
However by virtue of the fact I am here typing out replies to you and not swishing down the Swiss slopes or crusing the Carribeen on my yacht would indicate that my predictive powers are not as good as they could be.
Which is why I don't buy Lotto tickets and work by Rule No 1

I could not count the number of times a customer convinced me to follow a particular path which was totally wrong and ended up taking 3 times as long to fix as it would have if I had followed my usual methodical methods.

Thank you so much for your time and willingness to help me.
The key looked good.
I pulled the valve cover and the adjuster bolt was off of the push rod and was down in the compartment.
I will try to reasemble tomorrow try to crank.
Thank you again.
Seems that if it came off after such a short time of running, it might not had been tight from factory. What do you think?

BudDavis said:

Thank you so much for your time and willingness to help me.
The key looked good.
I pulled the valve cover and the adjuster bolt was off of the push rod and was down in the compartment.
I will try to reasemble tomorrow try to crank.
Thank you again.
Seems that if it came off after such a short time of running, it might not had been tight from factory. What do you think?

Click to expand...

Check the mounting stud.
If the head gets too hot they tend to loosen off.
The Torqx grubscrew in the middle is the locking device , not the adjusting bolt, sort of backwards to the norm.

Also make sure the lash cap is on the end of the valve.

Bert, You-the-man!
Thank you again.
The bolt threads on the valve cover had some sort of brown stuff on them. Is it anti seize? Do I need to reaply anything before replacing?
Thank you.

Bert, You-the-man!
Thank you again.
The bolt threads on the valve cover had some sort of brown stuff on them. Is it anti seize? Do I need to reaply anything before replacing?
Thank you.

It is running!
Thank you so so much.
I did not have feeler gauges that thin. I think my set is for plugs. So, I got my calipers and went around measuring things tuff enough to set the valves. I ended up with a pillow tag. It was exactly .005 and was just stiff enough to use.
I thank those that replyed and the person that set up this website.
By the way, who did set it up?
Thank all again.
Bud