gregboggess
Member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2022
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 17
There is 25.4 mm to an inch, so are you saying they are 1 1/2 inches shorter?
I was only meaning that if you put the step washer in to retain the valve guide, the bottom end of the washer acts as a shim for the spring. Depending on how thick you make that inadvertent-new-spring-shim part of the washer, you could be over-compressing the spring, which may shorten it's life (could yield/weaken or break).Infact from what I can tell I'm the only one that's ever heard of valve spring shims. Again engines are engines there's an odd misconception small engines are in a different category. Yes you want the spring compressed they even last longer that way. Now it is just a small engine yes it will run no it will probably not be a noticeable difference. When I cut valves seats I shim springs on my engines but not so much on customers as I fear faster damage would result in going to far and again it's a small engine cost is the issue not function. These guys getting 6 and 7 grand in RPM achieve this mainly due to (amongst others) heavier springs to reduce "valve float" without the heavy springs they fall on their face at about 4500rpm. The last thing I would do is trim the guide. Pound it in, peen it in, run a drill bit through by hand and wrap a piece of fine grit sandpaper to a stiff piece of wire and hone the guide take a scotch Brite pad to your stem and adjust your valves to spec. The smaller side of spec as you've gone past break in period your 1.5mm will not affect your overall valve lift as your taking it up on the adjuster only way to loose valve lift would be taking the cam lobes down or loose clearances
. Shim the spring if you feel the need I see no need as you haven't changed anything.
Again - I may be overthinking it. But if you make it 1/16" thick or more, perhaps that would become a spring life factor. Perhaps OK if maybe 1/32 or 3/64" thick. Anyway, with me being OCD, if I were doing it, I would grind the end(s) of the spring to remove maybe 0.01" shy of whatever that thickness is - ounce of prevention kind of thing.
I haven't completed the repair yet but got a lot done. Cleaned fins, removed/cleaned head, checked flatness, lapped valves, decarboned valves/stems, drove valve guide out, tapped a hole in side of head and dimpled an adjacent spot on the valve guide, ground a notch in the valve guide near the rocker arm facing end, put it back in with some Permatex high heat red threadlocker on it, and on a set screw and now that's curing. Also staked the head aluminum around the top of the valve guide.
I already had a generic gasket kit, bought years ago when the exhaust manifold bolts came out, and one of the gaskets was lost. Upon checking it, and having the head off to compare, I now realize that the new head gasket has a little bit (maybe 4mm, I didn't measure it) larger cylinder bore hole, but has just as much coverage of the machined areas on the cylinder and head, and bolt holes line up. Since it's larger rather than smaller, it's probably going to work, right? I mean in theory it might reduce the compression a (tiny?) amount but hopefully not a problematic amount.
It also means I will be trying to reuse the exhaust manifold gaskets since I'd already used those out of this gasket kit, and if they don't seal well enough, can come back later and replace those without having to take off many additional parts for access.
Something occurred to me, that by lapping the valves, I regained at least a fraction of a millimeter in how high the valve stem sits in the head, which places the rocker arm that amount lower on the pushrod end, making up at least a little of the difference in pushrod length which was the issue that started this topic. We'll see, and if at some point in the future the guide pushes back out, I'll be sure to update the topic with that info.
I already had a generic gasket kit, bought years ago when the exhaust manifold bolts came out, and one of the gaskets was lost. Upon checking it, and having the head off to compare, I now realize that the new head gasket has a little bit (maybe 4mm, I didn't measure it) larger cylinder bore hole, but has just as much coverage of the machined areas on the cylinder and head, and bolt holes line up. Since it's larger rather than smaller, it's probably going to work, right? I mean in theory it might reduce the compression a (tiny?) amount but hopefully not a problematic amount.
It also means I will be trying to reuse the exhaust manifold gaskets since I'd already used those out of this gasket kit, and if they don't seal well enough, can come back later and replace those without having to take off many additional parts for access.
Something occurred to me, that by lapping the valves, I regained at least a fraction of a millimeter in how high the valve stem sits in the head, which places the rocker arm that amount lower on the pushrod end, making up at least a little of the difference in pushrod length which was the issue that started this topic. We'll see, and if at some point in the future the guide pushes back out, I'll be sure to update the topic with that info.
Last edited:
outdoorpowermike
Forum Newbie
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2024
- Threads
- 0
- Messages
- 2
I'm not sure how that would work out because of the way they designed the spring. The last coil on both ends is flattened, like they had already machined off some material or pressed it that way, so there might not be enough left to remove even 1/16th more material. "Maybe", 1/32" on both ends would work, but I'd still wonder if that would weaken the spring more than extra compression from adding a washer - if it came to that.
I'm not set up to make my own washers and have no idea what the fellow in the video, or someone else would charge to make them, and forgot to get dimensional measurements needed for such a washer while I had the head apart... which I could still do but for now, I'm hoping the washer(s) won't be needed.
Last edited:
Could make your own. 4130 tube isn't that much nor is 6061 AL. You already have the ends. Can't be that hard. Give B&S a call and talk to tech about what the specs say.
Where can you get small quantities of metals at a delivered price that is cheaper than a couple of pushrods? If the ones I have don't work because there isn't enough adjustment in the rocker arm screws, I can just order the genuine B&S pushrods, or see if a local John Deere or whoever dealer might happen to have some in stock.
I don't know why this would really be a concern or it could be prevented by making sure you buy the Briggs & Stratton brand part number that comes back to that engine.
I wouldn't buy an aftermarket push rod for these.
When they come out of a sealed Briggs & Stratton package with the correct part number on them or one of the new numbers because Briggs always changes their part numbers at least once and usually twice but they're all the same part, this should be a non-issue.
It seems most of these of the same series or model use the same push rods.
You can take almost any of the 31 series engines and interchange the push rods as you can do the same with a 33 and those probably the same as the 31 but I'd have to pull a couple to look. Lol
All of the twins mostly if not all completely use the same push rods too when you're talking about the 41 series or one particular series like that.
I wouldn't buy an aftermarket push rod for these.
When they come out of a sealed Briggs & Stratton package with the correct part number on them or one of the new numbers because Briggs always changes their part numbers at least once and usually twice but they're all the same part, this should be a non-issue.
It seems most of these of the same series or model use the same push rods.
You can take almost any of the 31 series engines and interchange the push rods as you can do the same with a 33 and those probably the same as the 31 but I'd have to pull a couple to look. Lol
All of the twins mostly if not all completely use the same push rods too when you're talking about the 41 series or one particular series like that.