Loaner Comes Home

[pfrederi 21,000]

Loaned a Charger 12 to my nephew a year and half ago.  Came home yesterday piston does not go up and down any more.  He didn't hear anything.  Guess I have a new project.  Got the engine off the tractor draining, it no glittery stuff in the oil.  Will be interesting to see inside.

 

 

[squonk 47,784]

Rod broke about an inch under the wrist pin. 

Edited Tuesday at 07:07 PM by squonk

[ebinmaine 80,094]

1 hour ago, pfrederi said:

piston does not go up and down any more. 

 

Can you push it by hand or hammer? 

[ri702bill 12,699]

So it did not "ventilate" the block? No sudden "oil everywhere" bath? You may have gotten lucky.... Maybe...

[Retired Wrencher 6,903]

Looks like a good winter project Paul!

[rmaynard 17,495]

Piston does not move, but does the crankshaft turn at all?

[pfrederi 21,000]

Piston was TDC when I opened it and engine spun freely.  I pushed it down now things don't move.   No vents in the block tonight should be able to flip it over take the oil pan off and look at the damage  

 

Valves are working

[pfrederi 21,000]

Good news  no holes in the block 

 

Small chunk chipped out of cylinder end

 

Obviously oil related failure.  Now do I blame nephew?? How long would an engine have to run to get this bad.  I got her in 2016 and she was on snow plow duty then went to my brother also some snow pow duty (2019).  Came home to me after 4 years when my brother went to long term care.  He didn't use it much and I used to make sure there was oil in it when I visited...But don't think it was changed very often. Nephew got it in spring 2025 mowed half acre that year and this year up until late June.  He say he didn't hear anything.  

 

Sorry but I don't like it when a machine breaks because of an oil issue...

 

 

[Handy Don 17,208]

I’ve seen two B&S engines with oil pumps fail from low oil. Years apart, but both were mowing sideways on sloped lawns so probably the oil intakes lost contact with the low oil in the sump. My guess in both cases is that from the point where the oil level stopped providing adequate lubrication until part seizure was a minute or so. In both cases I saw, the engines had been running around 10 minutes from startup but had transitioned from level to slope only a minute or so before seizing. 

[squonk 47,784]

My "Shelf of Shame." 

 

[adsm08 4,904]

8 hours ago, pfrederi said:

Good news  no holes in the block 

 

Small chunk chipped out of cylinder end

 

Obviously oil related failure.  Now do I blame nephew?? How long would an engine have to run to get this bad.  I got her in 2016 and she was on snow plow duty then went to my brother also some snow pow duty (2019).  Came home to me after 4 years when my brother went to long term care.  He didn't use it much and I used to make sure there was oil in it when I visited...But don't think it was changed very often. Nephew got it in spring 2025 mowed half acre that year and this year up until late June.  He say he didn't hear anything.  

 

Sorry but I don't like it when a machine breaks because of an oil issue...

 

 

 

My first k181 did this. I knew it used oil, but it had been about 1/4 qt across the whole of the summer. It apparently got much worse very quickly. 

 

I had it running to warm the oil before a change and had to go deal with some kid thing. It sounded 100% normal when I walked away. The guy across the street said he heard a loud pop, and then it shut off.

[tunahead72 2,640]

9 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

 

My first k181 did this. I knew it used oil, but it had been about 1/4 qt across the whole of the summer. It apparently got much worse very quickly. 

 

I had it running to warm the oil before a change and had to go deal with some kid thing. It sounded 100% normal when I walked away. The guy across the street said he heard a loud pop, and then it shut off.

 

This hit really close to home...  My C-105 just did something very similar a couple weeks ago, and I'm still not at all sure exactly what happened.  All I know is the top of the piston blew apart, rings mangled, valves bent, that sort of thing.  I'll know more later, and may post about it separately.

 

My wife and daughter both question my decision to try to get this engine rebuilt if it's possible.  I just chuckle to myself and try really hard to answer their questions, knowing full well they'll never truly accept it.  Whatever.

 

Carry on.

 

[Rick3478 459]

How much oil was actually in it?

 

There are other things that can happen besides low oil.  For example: Not running long enough to evaporate all the moisture in the crankcase, a little stays in the rod bearing and rusts the crank, just a little at first.  Next time it runs, the rust smears off a little bit of rod alloy.  Now you have a little groove, which will hold more moisture the next time you don't run it long enough.  You get more rust, which smears more aluminum and makes more grooves, etc.  Keep doing it, at some point enough aluminum builds up that it seizes, breaks off the big end of the rod and throws the piston to top of bore where it stays.

 

In any case, as they say, you are here.

And you know what needs to be done.

[953 nut 68,190]

The crankshaft should clean up OK with a bit of muriatic acid. A non-running parts tractor I bought twenty some odd years back had a crank looked just like that and a small chip out of the bottom of the cylinder. Honed the cylinder, put a piston and rod kit in it and it ran well. Sold the tractor a few years later and the new owner loved it.