Hi, everyone. It's been awhile since I've posted on here but since it's spring time, I've been debating on whether I should try to take my Briggs & stratton 300 148cc 4.5 apart to do a good cleaning of the internals but thought I'd better ask you guys about it before getting too deep into it. I'm afraid of doing anything really crazy, like practically rebuilding the entire engine or something (which I couldn't do even if I wanted to), but would you all have any ideas about things I could take apart to clean and or replace? I'm just not sure how far I should go with this... I'm thinking the age and uses of my mower would surely mean that there's some built-up carbon somewhere that I could probably clean out. Thing is, I'm not entirely sure what the throttle body is on this thing. I'd think there should be a throttle body somewhere that could use some cleaner (like my truck sometimes needs) but I'm not entirely sure where it is. Is it even necessary?
So far, I'm taken the entire gas tank assembly off (linkages and all) and I'm planning on cleaning everything up like it's been spit-shined. I spent the evening trying to clean up the bottom of the deck (tons of matted grass on it from last year). I found some small cracks while doing this that I plan on trying to weld back sometime this week using my Hobart 190... I also have the blade off that I'm planning to sharpen. I lost tons of oil doing all that as I had the mower upside down while I was cleaning, which I'm completely okay with because I'm planning on changing the oil anyway, but can you guys think of anything I should clean / check / replace while I have all this stuff disconnected / dismantled?
I was seriously considering detaching the cylinder head to clean everything out in the block if possible as I'm sure there has to be some buildup in there...but I don't have a gasket for it, so I haven't done that yet. Should I? Maybe that's overkill? My initial thought would be to treat it like a throttle body and spray / clean with some throttle body cleaner if I did... Besides this, I'm not sure what else I can do to get it ready for another year besides replace some minor things, like the cracked-up rubber hose nozzle that connects to the gas tank. (I think I bought this thing back in 2008, so I've managed to get some serious use out of it but this will be the first time I've seriously cleaned this puppy, so it's well overdue!)
Any insights or ideas about this would be appreciated. This will be the first time I've gone to any serious depth in cleaning this thing... Once I have it all cleaned up, etc., I plan on adding some rust converter and new paint, too. Maybe throw in one of those WW2 fighter plane mouth-and-teeth insignias that the Warhawks had. Ha! My neighbor would love that...
So far, I'm taken the entire gas tank assembly off (linkages and all) and I'm planning on cleaning everything up like it's been spit-shined. I spent the evening trying to clean up the bottom of the deck (tons of matted grass on it from last year). I found some small cracks while doing this that I plan on trying to weld back sometime this week using my Hobart 190... I also have the blade off that I'm planning to sharpen. I lost tons of oil doing all that as I had the mower upside down while I was cleaning, which I'm completely okay with because I'm planning on changing the oil anyway, but can you guys think of anything I should clean / check / replace while I have all this stuff disconnected / dismantled?
I was seriously considering detaching the cylinder head to clean everything out in the block if possible as I'm sure there has to be some buildup in there...but I don't have a gasket for it, so I haven't done that yet. Should I? Maybe that's overkill? My initial thought would be to treat it like a throttle body and spray / clean with some throttle body cleaner if I did... Besides this, I'm not sure what else I can do to get it ready for another year besides replace some minor things, like the cracked-up rubber hose nozzle that connects to the gas tank. (I think I bought this thing back in 2008, so I've managed to get some serious use out of it but this will be the first time I've seriously cleaned this puppy, so it's well overdue!)
Any insights or ideas about this would be appreciated. This will be the first time I've gone to any serious depth in cleaning this thing... Once I have it all cleaned up, etc., I plan on adding some rust converter and new paint, too. Maybe throw in one of those WW2 fighter plane mouth-and-teeth insignias that the Warhawks had. Ha! My neighbor would love that...