wood splitter engine blew today Briggs problems?

My splitter engine is a 2005 quantum 6.5 HP briggs vertical shaft. Anyone heard of these things having problems? Since this was the first new machine I ever bought I took extra special care of it. not letting it get rained on, changing oil religiously etc etc. I usually only use it to split the wood I will use and only last year used it to split 10 ricks for sale. so it really hasn"t ran that many hours. What happened is I changed the oil this morning as it was looking a little dirty and I mean just slighty tinted, not black. ran it for a couple hours and it sounded a bit noisy so I checked the oil and it looked like metal was in the oil but the level was ok so I drained it and refilled it and it ran for less than a min and locked up. I usually only run the engine at 3/4 throttle not wide open. I am kind of bummed about this. Any ideas before I just run out and get a new replacement??

I have heard its best to run small engines full throttle, at there governed speed.

Replace it with a Honda.

when you say that the oil had been tinted, not dark, could that have been from gasoline getting into the crankcase while sitting, possibly due to a sticking float needle.

I just replaced a 3 year old $500 plus dollar front load washer, Me and the old lady only, very little use, new stuff is plain junk.

It's a Briggs & ScrapIron. That's really all that needs to be said. If you want a cheap engine, buy one of the chinese Nonda's. If you want something to last, buy a genuine Honda. It will cost you as much money as you originally spent on the splitter but it will be the last engine you ever buy.
I'd sooner a poorly put together Nonda based on a good design that they stole from Honda over a poorly designed and poorly put together Briggs.

Rod

Nope, no gas in the old oil. It was changed last fall until I did it yesterday. Then the oil ended up with fine gray metal in it. No blowby was noticed either.

Bob,

I'd start by looking carefully at the oil you are using. The newest automobile oils do not have the necessary ZDDP (zinc) additives needed to protect a flat tappet engine, whick I suspect the Briggs is. The oil companys have reduced the zinc to nearly Zero to meet the latest pollution standards.

If you check the certification label on the oil bottled with the Briggs label (and Kohler also) you will find it is certified for "SL" not the newest "SM" you find on the one labeled for car use. (I am going by memory here as to SL and SM, so may have not got it quite right, but I do know the small engine oil is manufactured to an earlier spec).

You can also get the necessary zinc by using an off road diesel rated oil, such as the Case IH #1, and maybe other brands too. I keep a barrel of the Case IH oil for use in my tractors and small engines.

If the B/S engine sat for many months with gasoline (or gasohol) in the tank, it may have turned very sticky. I have seen where it sticks the valves (and maybe even affects the piston rings & cylinder bore). Today's gas is made to be used within the next week or 2, and can become real evil when it sits for months.

I really doubt the Briggs "badmouthing" people. The Briggs may not be the very best engine in the market, but it doesn't suddenly go to he-l without some kind of reason. Your most recent oil changes seem to be the likely reasons. (And I have seen the Honda engines gummed up just like I described, the same with Kohler, and Techumseh. The seasonal use equipment like snowblowers, wood splitters, and rototillers seem to take the worst beating from the stale gas problem. The 2 cycle engines with gas/oil mix seem to be much better off because of the stabilizing additives in the oil.

Best of luck in getting the problem solved.

Paul in MN

I think you'll find that most small engines, even today call for a straight weight oil like 30 or so.
Multi vis is generally too light.

Beyond that... Briggs is the main problem. They have a lifespan that is finite... and short.
It seems to me that there's a lot of people out there yet that will buy a Briggs engine based on it's reputation of 40 years ago, not what they're building today.
Honda is really the only one building a high quality, long lasting, reliable engine anymore. Tecumse is OK. Briggs is poor to OK... Kohler is OK... The chinese nonda's are OK... but nothing compares to a real Honda.

Rod

A repair place told me not to run the 87 gas in small engines as it's to dry with the alcohol in it, 89 still has the lube stuff in it...

Don c

I've had good luck with Honda copies but if I wanted a real good long life engine for hard work Robin/Subaru are every bit as good as Honda. In Japan they are the number 1 engine and call for 10-30 oil. I have a Robin generator and a pump that work great. Dave

Mrs. Mouse decided to build a dandy fine fluffy nest under the cooling shroud and it over heated the cylinder and gauled the piston and cyl wall badly. That explains the metal in the oil just a couple hours after the oil change. The piston may have already started gauling before the oil change. The engine was clean as a pin inside. I always used 30wt non detergent oil in it as stated by the manual. I also used 87 octane gas as it is the 89 octane gas around here that has the alcohol in it. I don't think that oil with zinc would affect this engine as it has a nylon cam in it. The zinc additive is more for high RPM engines with heavy valve springs riding metal to metal at the lifter to cam point. It may be possible that the zinc in the oil would have helped stop the cylinder gauling, but with an aluminum block I somewhat doubt it. This engine was a 2005 so I would think if the older ones would require it, they would have made changes to the design since the EPA is now watching small engines. I know for sure in the future I will check for mouse nests before I start splitting in the future! Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. I started looking for a replacement today, hopefully one with a cast iron sleeve.

I put the same Brigg's engine on my splitter except it's a horizontal shaft. I drained oil out of it one evening. I went inside to eat supper and came back out and started it. I wanted to let the hydraulic oil warm up so I went back into the garage to do a couple things. Came back out and you guessed it. I had forgot to put oil in it.

It was locked up tight. I let it cool down and it freed up. Put oil in it and have been split many many cords of wood with it without any problems.

Friend left his JD mower here while he went to the hospital.A JD tech stopped in to do a recall on the mower and found a mouse nest in the flywheel housing.Briggs could build an engine that is mouse proof but they wont do it.The nest was visable under the flywheel screen when the hood was lifted.