Cold start issues 1981 Briggs 11hp model 25

[350Rocket]

EPA has mandated that no fuel shall be leaked to the outside world
Thus the bowl vent is on the engine side of the carb, usually in the flange
So the fuel that you would see & smell leaking and fix right away completely drains the tank into the sump
You pull the starter, & hydro lock the piston breaking the rings, bending the rod or blowing the gasket
So now you have 3 quarts of fuel contaminated oil in the engine add another 4 cups for 2 oil changes to remove the fuel all waste.
SO the fuel comtaminated oil sits in a pan & the fuel evaporates into the atmosphere
Never really understood what it was supposed to achieve apart from wasting a lot of fuel , oil & mower parts .

Did they make this change before 1981? The previous owner had a gravel floor in his shed and the gas would be completely empty when I came back several weeks later to mow his lawn..oil always looked perfect (but it was always being topped up as it leaks like a sieve). No smell of gas. In my concrete garage or wooden shed if I notice I forgot to shut the valve, 24 hours later I'd have a large pool of gas under it.
I guess whatever is left in the bowl would be enough to flood it slightly so I should shut the valve and let it run out? I guess with gravity feed in the morning it should fill up quickly enough for fuel to be present for a quick startup to confirm it was flooding?

 

[350Rocket]

150 psi??? I've had cars that blew 120 or less and ran fine, minus a little oil. I had a Briggs 3.5 that was blowing 35 psi when I retired it because the deck was rusted out.

I've searched online for typical compression results and it's tough since most of the newer engines have ACR which lowers cranking compression. I don't know if the model 25 Briggs has it (it does not say "easy spin" on it like our old 74 8hp did). Either way I haven't seen anyone with 150 psi on a small engine like this.

 

[350Rocket]

EPA has mandated that no fuel shall be leaked to the outside world
Thus the bowl vent is on the engine side of the carb, usually in the flange
So the fuel that you would see & smell leaking and fix right away completely drains the tank into the sump
You pull the starter, & hydro lock the piston breaking the rings, bending the rod or blowing the gasket
So now you have 3 quarts of fuel contaminated oil in the engine add another 4 cups for 2 oil changes to remove the fuel all waste.
SO the fuel comtaminated oil sits in a pan & the fuel evaporates into the atmosphere
Never really understood what it was supposed to achieve apart from wasting a lot of fuel , oil & mower parts .

So I just did another cold start...took about 15 tries to keep it running again. Then I shut off the fuel again and let it run out and die for tomorrows cold start.
Then I pulled the plug cause I figured maybe it's fouling the plug slightly with whatever way left in the bowl. I'll attach a picture of the plug. It looks pretty dry to me at the electrode. A bit of black around the edge but it still had cleaner/oil in the combustion chamber when started and smoked like uncle bucks car for the first several minutes. Only has about an hour run time on the plug.

 

[Richard Milhous]

EPA has mandated that no fuel shall be leaked to the outside world
Thus the bowl vent is on the engine side of the carb, usually in the flange
So the fuel that you would see & smell leaking and fix right away completely drains the tank into the sump
You pull the starter, & hydro lock the piston breaking the rings, bending the rod or blowing the gasket
So now you have 3 quarts of fuel contaminated oil in the engine add another 4 cups for 2 oil changes to remove the fuel all waste.
SO the fuel comtaminated oil sits in a pan & the fuel evaporates into the atmosphere
Never really understood what it was supposed to achieve apart from wasting a lot of fuel , oil & mower parts .

Like those stupid gas can spouts that make it difficult or impossible to refuel. Sooner or later they cause a massive fuel spill, but we're spared the tiny amount of vapor that would have escaped from normal spouts!

 

[350Rocket]

Like those stupid gas can spouts that make it difficult or impossible to refuel. Sooner or later they cause a massive fuel spill, but we're spared the tiny amount of vapor that would have escaped from normal spouts!

I'm not a big EPA fan, my daily driver 3 of the 4 seasons is an 84 Oldsmobile with a 350 V8 from a 75-76 Cutlass. My work truck and winter beater is a 2005 Silverado. The less technology the less things to mess up imo.

 

[Richard Milhous]

I'm not a big EPA fan, my daily driver 3 of the 4 seasons is an 84 Oldsmobile with a 350 V8 from a 75-76 Cutlass. My work truck and winter beater is a 2005 Silverado. The less technology the less things to mess up imo.

Once upon a time there was a need for the EPA. Garbage, raw sewage, and all sorts of industrial waste were dumped into rivers. Coal power plants spewed millions of tons of fly ash and sulfuric acid. Cars added huge amounts of carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, and hydrocarbons.

Now that things have been cleaned up, we have the same problem with EPA as we do with a thousand other agencies and programs: They are immortal. It's almost impossible to cut the funding of a government program, let alone shut it down. EPA has to do *something* to stay funded, so they chase after any fantasized problem, like a germophobe that scrubs their hands until they rake the skin off.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes & No Richard .
It is needed now more than ever to clean up the environmnt
However it has to front up against companies like Monsanto & McDonalds with a bigger petty cash account than the EPA's entire operational budget.
Thus they concentrate on the easy targets like lawn mowers & chain saws rather than agrcultural chemicals , avaition & marine .
Congress takes numbers as proof so 1,000,000 meaningless prosecutions carrys more weight than a single industral one that actually makes a difference.

 

[350Rocket]

So, after running thrcfurk

Yes & No Richard .
It is needed now more than ever to clean up the environmnt
However it has to front up against companies like Monsanto & McDonalds with a bigger petty cash account than the EPA's entire operational budget.
Thus they concentrate on the easy targets like lawn mowers & chain saws rather than agrcultural chemicals , avaition & marine .
Congress takes numbers as proof so 1,000,000 meaningless prosecutions carrys more weight than a single industral one that actually makes a difference.

Yes. They could do a lot of good but they just waste money.

 

[Richard Milhous]

Yes & No Richard .
It is needed now more than ever to clean up the environmnt
However it has to front up against companies like Monsanto & McDonalds with a bigger petty cash account than the EPA's entire operational budget.
Thus they concentrate on the easy targets like lawn mowers & chain saws rather than agrcultural chemicals , avaition & marine .
Congress takes numbers as proof so 1,000,000 meaningless prosecutions carrys more weight than a single industral one that actually makes a difference.

I know all too well, I've worked for government 15 years. But there's no denying things are a lot damn cleaner than they were sixty years ago. Even though they still let ships burn bunker oil.

Congress don't know numbers from a hole in their *ss unless those are written on a check.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I know all too well, I've worked for government 15 years. But there's no denying things are a lot damn cleaner than they were sixty years ago. Even though they still let ships burn bunker oil.

Congress don't know numbers from a hole in their *ss unless those are written on a check.

And consider jet air travel to be essential regardless of the volume of unburned fuel that pours out the exhaust during take off
One jet would put more Jet 1 into the atmosphere on a single heavy take off than every 2 stroke in the country .
And then there is water , both in lakes & streams as well as artesian water polluted by fracking etc etc etc