Ariens Tractor Burning Smell

[lefty]

Are there any spindle guards missing? I have an mtd and belt will not stop if those guards are missing.

Do you mean the brakes on the pulley that retract when the belt is disengaged? Or the plastic covers that go over the pulley. Both of those spring-loaded brakes are intact. There was only one plastic cover on the left side pulley. The side with the discharge didn't have one when it came here. According to the schematic, I think that's normal.

[38racing]

Yes i did mean the covers. Sometimes there may not be one if pulley is under the frame.

[bgsengine]

check plastic covers carefully - some may have originally come with metal belt guides fastened to the insides of the covers.

[lefty]

I'll check in the morning. It's so weird. It runs for about a minute fine before the blade just engages. Almost lost my foot today sitting next to it fiddling with the carb after starting it.

[lefty]

In case anyone was getting bored with this one, I'm going to add another problem...liven it up a bit.

First, I'd like to thank KE4 for the belt recommendation. It arrived today and wouldn't you know it...it's 95.5 inches! So I was super thrilled with that. Threw it on and went to start it up to test and warm up the oil for a change. But it wouldn't start, which is the reason it came here in the first place.

As you may remember, it came here not starting. I removed an enormous mouse nest from on to of the cylinder, if you remember, it had a lot of really burnt oil on the top of the engine. I cleaned that off with a putty knife and a bit of brake clean and a rag. After that, I started it and it ran perfectly. Then I ran into the issue with the belt. Started it several times and ran it for about 1 minute while I troubleshot that belt issue. Never had any problems.

But this time, it would just sputter a bit and stall. So I figured I would go after the carb. But before I did that, I wanted to do a leak down. The reason being, when spinning the flywheel by hand, it seemed to be too easy. And I have worked on this in the past. About 5 years ago it came to me with a hard crank problem, emulating a dead battery or bad starter. Turns out, the stud on one of the valves had backed out. So I torqued that to spec with a bit of thread sealer and sent it back to the owner.

So this time, I thought maybe one of those studs backed out and got something hung up. But the leak down showed a bunch of air escaping through the dipstick. So I opened the valve cover and everything looks fine. I can hear air coming up by the valves from the crankcase and air coming out of the dipstick. My leak down results were abysmal. 90lbs in and only about 10 or 20 holding.

The new owner (original owner's daughter) ran this machine for several weeks with that mouse nest as a hitchhiker. With all the crusted burnt up oil on the engine, I'm guessing that there was some overheating and piston/ring damage.

What puzzles me is that it came here not starting, but then started and ran fine several times, albeit for a very short time, and now I have pretty much no compression. Any thoughts?

I'm thinking that my next step is to pull the head and take a look at the cylinder. Is that the move?

One other thing, and don't be afraid of hurting my feelings, but I often post here with a long story. My thought being, since I'm so green, that I don't want to miss anything that would be important. But if anyone feels I'm too long-winded, just let me know. I'll take more time drilling it down to just the facts. It's just that I type extremely fast (took typing in high school) so this is basically a stream of consciousness. Takes less time for me to lay it out like this and makes me feel as if I've reported all of my observations.

[bgsengine]

Sounds like you maybe got a blown head gasket.. Also, don't worry about being long-winded always better to offer as much info as possible, never know when something seemingly unimportant is the clue that solves it..

[lefty]

That sounds logical and like something that is well within my wheelhouse. I've had good luck in the past with these larger Briggs engines, removing the head bolts. But have suffered a failure on a smaller Briggs. Given the history with this machine, possibly running too hot, any advice when going after those bolts? Will penetrating oil help? I know I know I'll need to be careful with them, especially around the exhaust.

[bgsengine]

I doubt you'll have much trouble with those bolts.. look for the ones along the top though for visible threads and if you see rust , it can help to drop some penetrating oil on them..

[lefty]

Thanks.

Is this normal? This is the intake rod. There's a worn out area toward the rocker end, right about where it passess through the plastic guide about and inch from the end. Looks like some type of shoulder.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GvQGjYcgxNoSspcj6

[KE4AVB]

One Question. Is it louder at the valve push rod galley or the dipstick?

BTW I am self taught on typing so I think a lot faster than I think; hence, I leave out words.

And to answer the last question that pop as I started to post. Yes it is normal for the aluminum rod to wear but it needs replacing as it will break. Done replace six of them this year so far.