Another Snowblower Thread: Craftsman 11.5/33 (my Free Curb Find!)

Back in November, I was driving through my old neighborhood just as a 79 year old guy was putting a "Free" sign on this thing at the end of his driveway. I'm always interested in anything that has an engine, and the price was right in my comfort zone.

He said that it stopped running at the end of last year. He called a local shop, described the problem and they told him that the engine was probably toast. That was the end of that, and he bought a new machine.

I had been thinking of getting something a little bigger than the 6/22 (6hp, 22 inches wide in Snowblower-Speak) that I've been using for the past six or seven years. This is an 11.5/30 and a little bit bigger than what I wanted, but even as a non-runner, I was immediately attracted to the snow cab, electric starter and headlight.

I offered to buy it from him, but he refused. Finally, he said that he'd take a dollar for it. I gave him a $20 and loaded it into the truck. It's really heavy. He also gave me the books for it, an extension cord for the electric starter, the original reciept ($1300!) and a bunch of service records.

Doggie is always suspicious of anything that will compete for my time and attention.

She is Not a Fan...

The engine wasn't locked up, but it wasn't spinning over easily either, so I knew it was going to need something more than just a new carb.

First order of business was to remove the snow cab and transfer it over to my little 6/22. I always thought these things were ridiculous, but after using it during the most recent nasty storm, I'm convinced: These things are awesome! Not only does ti keep the discharged snow and ice from blowing back in your face and giving you an ice cream headache, it also helps keep you warmer when the wind is at your back because it goes around you instead of right across your body. The carbon monoxide though...

The big machine had been rigged up with a wooden flower box on the front that was filled with sand and fitted with a plastic cover. This seemed unnecessary to me, but when I mounted the (very light) snow cab on the little machine, it  became really tippy. The cab has a lot of leverage cantilevered out back there and even a very slight breeze was enough to knock it over. 

An early, rushed attempt to add some ballast to the front involved some 1x1" pine and a couple of old Toyota Tacoma hubs (11 pounds each) was only moderately successful. It needed more weight and a light bump broke one of the wooden mounts almost immediately.

Finally, I added some 3/4" square steel tubing and 35 pounds of iron weights.

So now the small machine is ready to go and I can work on getting the big machine back on its feet.

That is so awesome!  I’d love to find something like that, as a similar upgrade. 

Pulling the cord would turn the engine over, but I could hear the electric starter turning too, and the machine was almost falling over. It wasn't much easier with the spark plug removed. I decided to remove the starter and found that the gear was stuck in the out position. I decided to set that aside until I could get the engine running. I'll focus on the starter later and if I can make it work, it will find its way on to one machine or the other.

Nice!  Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time.  I picked up a 6hp Ariens free because the owner corked off the crankcase vent tube; thought it was a vacuum line.

The engine is an 11.5 horse Briggs and Stratton OHV. Removing the spark plug didn't make it a whole lot easier to turn over. I was hoping that maybe it was just overfilled with oil, but the dipstick didn't really indicate that. The oil looked pretty nasty though.

Around that time, I decided to remove the valve cover and see what was going on under there. When I pulled the starter cord, I noticed that one valve was opening and closing, but not the other. Uh oh...

Well, there's your problem...

Both of the hollow aluminum pushrods were bent. One was still making contact with the rocker arm, but the other was just flopping around in there. I pulled them out and found that I could open and close the intake valve with my hands, but the exhaust valve was frozen shut. I removed the rocker arms and even though the pushrods were bent, and one valve was stuck, both valve stems seemed to be straight.

I soaked the exhaust valve with some Marvel Mystery Oil for a few days. I filled the cylinder with string through the spark plug hole so the valves wouldn't drop in and then gave the end of the valve stem a couple of soft taps with a plastic tipped mallet. The valve came loose and I kept oiling it while working it in and out of the guide until it moved smoothly.

I ordered two new pushrods for six bucks each and a gasket kit, just in case.

When the new pushrods showed up in the mail, I struggled to get the valve spring retainers in. Unfortunately, I gave away my only valve spring compressor in last year's GRM New Year's Game and couldn't hold the spring in with my fingers and get the two tiny keepers for the spring retainer in place.

Eventually, I was able to use a custom made BMW valve spring compressor.

Success!

I like where this is going. Carry on. 

An oil change seemed like a good idea.

Uh oh ...

There was a nasty looking oil and water milkshake in there. I filled it up with fresh oil and immediately drained it out again.

It was still showing signs of water.

Fortunately, I had picked up a 5 quart jug of oil from Home Depot for $9.99 and it only holds about 20 ounces, so I filled it back up again for a second time.

I had a 3 free push mower bonanza on a large pickup day a few years ago.  a little carb cleaning and swapping a handle and 2 of them worked great, third was extra parts and I ended up scrapping it for space.  Gave one to my brother (who traded it on) and the other to my mother in law which ended up being an engine donor for a deck she liked better.

If I owned a truck I would be in so much trouble.

Apexcarver said:

I had a 3 free push mower bonanza on a large pickup day a few years ago.  a little carb cleaning and swapping a handle and 2 of them worked great, third was extra parts and I ended up scrapping it for space.  Gave one to my brother (who traded it on) and the other to my mother in law which ended up being an engine donor for a deck she liked better.

 

If I owned a truck I would be in so much trouble.

 

I've been in much less trouble in the 10 years I haven't had a running pickup.  That needs to change.

So at this point, I preformed one of the world's easiest valve adjustments (only two valves, both adjusted to 0.005 and allen head adjusters).

I watched the rocker arms and valves as I made a few easy pulls of the starter cord. Everything seemed to be moving as it should, and without any parts banging into each other.

I hadn't reassembled everything yet (no gas tank or kill switch, which I figured would cancel each other out), so I hauled it outside and sprayed a few shots of starting fluid into the carb. After two or three pulls, it started right up. Even the headlight worked. It was smoky and rough at first, but it smoothed out and ran longer that I had expected it to. I never drained the carb bowl, so it was probably full of fuel. I sill had the valve cover off, and I could see that it was still pumping some nasty looking gray oil up onto the rockers. Clearly there was still some water in the system, but it was running again and I was happy. Once it stalled out, I didn't want to push my luck any further. I put it back in the barn for the night.

Woody...Your outside pictures seem to lack something that's very present here:

This is Lake Michigan at Holland, MI

Check out Mustie1 on Youtube.  He's a small engine mechanic in New England, and from watching his videos that stuck valve/bent pushrod situation is pretty common.  https://www.youtube.com/user/mustie1/videos

A day later, and with another big storm coming, I decided that I needed to get it back together so I could test it out with some decent snow. It had been apart for about a month now, so reassembly was slow as I figured out where everything went. I also added new fuel lines while it was apart.

After seeing the nasty oil the day before, I knew it needed one more oil change. I had been storing the machine in my unheated barn and we had only had two days above freezing in the past three weeks. Unfortunately, when I removed the oil drain plug it was full of ice, and oil just came trickling out slowly. I even pulled another long thin chunk of ice out of the tube. Eventually, another milkshake drained out.

So this is how it sits right now. There's no oil in it, but probably still a little bit of ice. I need to take a break from this thing and wait for a few consecutive warm days. At that point, I'll try to drain any remaining water from the engine and add more fresh oil.

Obviously, this engine ingested a fairly substantial amount of water at some point. At first, I suspected that it might have been a chunk of snow or maybe it was being operated in the rain, but I doubt that was the case. Snowblowers have no air filter, just a wire screen, but even that screen is covered up pretty well by the plastic bodywork. I suspect that the previous owner took a hose to it at some point, probably with the engine running. Maybe it was muddy or just covered in ice and he was trying to melt it away. Whatever. Somehow, water got in there and I need to figure a way to get it all out of there. It doesn't have an oil pan that I can drop, so the oil just sits in the bottom of the case. Once it warms up, I'll add another cup of oil which should float on top of any water and push it down toward the drain. Hopefully, one more drain and fill will take care of it.

In reply to Grtechguy :

Those outside photos were taken in November, pre-Bombogenesis.

Woody said:

A day later, and with another big storm coming, I decided that I needed to get it back together so I could test it out with some decent snow. It had been apart for about a month now, so reassembly was slow as I figured out where everything went. I also added new fuel lines while it was apart.

After seeing the nasty oil the day before, I knew it needed one more oil change. I had been storing the machine in my unheated barn and we had only had two days above freezing in the past three weeks. Unfortunately, when I removed the oil drain plug it was full of ice, and oil just came trickling out slowly. I even pulled another long thin chunk of ice out of the tube. Eventually, another milkshake drained out.

 

So this is how it sits right now. There's no oil in it, but probably still a little bit of ice. I need to take a break from this thing and wait for a few consecutive warm days. At that point, I'll try to drain any remaining water from the engine and add more fresh oil.

Obviously, this engine ingested a fairly substantial amount of water at some point. At first, I suspected that it might have been a chunk of snow or maybe it was being operated in the rain, but I doubt that was the case. Snowblowers have no air filter, just a wire screen, but even that screen is covered up pretty well by the plastic bodywork. I suspect that the previous owner took a hose to it at some point, probably with the engine running. Maybe it was muddy or just covered in ice and he was trying to melt it away. Whatever. Somehow, water got in there and I need to figure a way to get it all out of there. It doesn't have an oil pan that I can drop, so the oil just sits in the bottom of the case. Once it warms up, I'll add another cup of oil which should float on top of any water and push it down toward the drain. Hopefully, one more drain and fill will take care of it.

I'd stick a couple of space heaters blowing at it for awhile, or else some Halogen worklights pointing in its direction for an hour or so. Should be enough to melt any ice in there. 

In reply to mtn :

I would have done the same, since I use a halogen light to pre-warm my snow blower. 

This is pretty interesting, especially since you can get a cheap HF Predator engine for it, too. 

Alcohol would do a better job of evaporating out the water.  If you put oil in, it'll just float on top of the water.

alfadriver said:

 

This is pretty interesting, especially since you can get a cheap HF Predator engine for it, too. 

You know, I'm so used to thinking that every snowblower has a Tecumseh engine (two output shafts) that I hadn't even considered that. This is my first Briggs powered snowblower and, sure enough, it has a single shaft. I guess I should keep my eyes open for the next 25% off coupon from Harbor Freight.

The Predator engine is fast becoming the LS swap of the Lawn & Garden World.

Well, they both work really well.  I was amazed that the pretador 212 has the same bolt pattern, crank pulley location, and crank nose size as the tecumseh on my Ariens

alfadriver said:

In reply to mtn :

I would have done the same, since I use a halogen light to pre-warm my snow blower. 

 

12 degrees here this morning. I've burned myself on halogen lights before, but I don't think they will do the trick today.

Woody said:

alfadriver said:

In reply to mtn :

I would have done the same, since I use a halogen light to pre-warm my snow blower. 

 

12 degrees here this morning. I've burned myself on halogen lights before, but I don't think they will do the trick today.

LOL, wasn’t it 30 just a few days ago?  Damned winter. 

alfadriver said:

 

LOL, wasn’t it 30 just a few days ago?  Damned winter. 

It was actually close to 60, but raining. I was too busy building dams to manage the snow melt to work on the snowblower then though.