Briggs engine

[Luffydog]

Couple of days ago I seen something that I have never seen before and thought I would share. It was a Briggs engine can't remember engine model but it was a twin 28hp. It came for making a weird noise the man said wasn't
Loud. It had ok power but when you powered the motor up to full throttle the power went down like it was running on one cyc. On that day the Briggs rep. So happened to be there and said I like to look at this engine with u if u don't mind. I said sure come on in the shop. He told me what he thought and I told him what I thought it was. He said cam was down I told him crank was broken into. He said there was no way the crank could be broken into and run and asked me how I could come up with such. I said here look under the mower the bottom end of crank wasn't turning. So we pull engine down and sure enough it was broken into. Anyone else ever seen this happen. Just like to know your thoughts. Thanks funny to sit back and watch the rep eat his words.

[KE4AVB]

Probably a metal formation problem (metallurgy). I have been seeing reports where Tuff Torq Hydro units are having axles to snap after use. The operators use their mowers park them and then next time go to use them they won't move. They then find out that one of the axle had broken while hydro was cooling off.

[NO0C]

Luffydog,

Any chance you mean that the crankshaft was broken in two pieces?

[Luffydog]

Yes the crankshaft was in 2pcs and was running good just had a little noise lol

[HondaG100]

I have never personally seen this but have heard stories about the Kohler KT17 series 1 engines throwing a rod from seizing on the crank and the engine would sometimes continue to run on the other side. This engine had lube issues.

[bgsengine]

Yep - I have seen this a couple times - usually on twin opposed (Kohler KT series and once on an Onan P220G)
Have also seen a single cylinder briggs that was running, but "clutch would not engage" - Guess why?

[NO0C]

A little off topic, but years ago in the Cummins distributorship where I was parts manager, we had a truck in the shop that we did an in-frame overhaul (855 in³ engine). The technician backed it out of the stall to let it warm up before test driving it.

While he was cleaning his stall, the crankshaft broke externally at the front and the vibration damper and crank pulley fell to the floor. Engine never missed a beat and kept running until the key was turned. Out she came to replace the crankshaft.

What a surprise, but evidently metal fatigue over hundreds of thousands of miles was the possible cause.

Weird to say the least. Not the first I'm sure and no doubt not the last.