Craftsman 6.75HP push mower died

[bluegirl]

The last time that our Craftsman 6.75hp mower wouldn't start, after hundreds of pulls on the starter cord, I noticed a tiny section of the cylinder head gasket hanging from the bottom of the cylinder head. So it was a blown head gasket & loss of compression issue.
Ordered a new one from searspartsdirect for approx $7.
And —except for the small matter of me cracking the cyl head by over-torqueing the head bolts a wee bit of a mere 183 ft-lbs too much— that was the reason ours wasn't starting.

Did anything feel different when you were trying to start it?

 

[winmod21]

Did anything feel different when you were trying to start it?

Well, I do remember that the more I re-pulled the starter rope, the more numb I felt.
Until eventually, after what seemed like more than a hundred pulls . . . I apparently turned into a numbskull. ?

But no, everything felt and looked normal as ever. So I had no idea why it wasn't starting, as it had always typically started within a couple pulls. And I don't think I recalled that it had backfired - the last time I had shut it down, but perhaps it did. Maybe it doesn't take much of a backfire to blow a head gasket if the engines' usage hours are high, which was the case with ours; purchased it in 96' or 97', and I think the head gasket blew in 2014~15, so it was 18 or 19 yrs old.

Then after I had to replace the cylinder head, due to my—glad to say temporary—infliction of being a numbskull who torqued the head bolts to 200 ft-lbs—instead of the proper 200 in-lbs —it started right back up and ran great.

In the meantime, we purchased a Husqvarna from Lowe's that had several non-starting issues, so after several mowing's promptly returned it to Lowe's and with our refund money bought a Honda mower from HomeDepot that's been super great; it's now 6 or 7 yrs old and still starts every time on the 1st pull !=))

 

[bluegirl]

Is this cylinder head my problem?

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Could stand a good cleaning. I've seen worse than that run.

 

[slomo]

Is this cylinder head my problem?
View attachment 58245View attachment 58246

Not your issue but as others said, should be done say every 6 years depending on how much you mow. That is de-carbonizing the cylinder and valves. It's in your engine manual as a to-do thing. That carbon insulates the parts slowing heat transfer leading to over-heats. Plus those carbon chunks get between the piston and bore scoring the crap out of the bore, not a good thing.

 

[bluegirl]

Thanks all. I will get the cylinder cleaned up, but what next? Replace the carb & the primer bulb cover/assembly?

 

[slomo]

Remove the air filter cover and filter. LOOK into the carb throat. Hit the primer bulb. Should see a small squirt of fuel come from the bottom center of the carb.

What do you see?

 

[slomo]

I was able to get it to run for a second or 2 & then it would die.

Carb is dirty.

 

[bluegirl]

Remove the air filter cover and filter. LOOK into the carb throat. Hit the primer bulb. Should see a small squirt of fuel come from the bottom center of the carb.

What do you see?

I see no action whatsoever. Usually I can hear the gas moving thru the line.

 

[slomo]

One thing I forgot to mention is that when I prime the gas none comes through. Usually I can hear it squirting in.

That should tell you your primer isn't working right?