Flathead Briggs Build from Scratch | Homemade Performance Mods! 

I could listen to Ike talk about piston rings, old timer tricks, etc, for hours. Much knowledge in that man.

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I want to see more about the 5 horsepower Briggs

I'm root'n for the briggs . Solid reliable engine.

finally a non- predator build lol

To correctly check the ring gap you have to remove the rings from the piston, then put the ring in the bore and use a feeler gauge to measure the gap at the top and the bottom of the bore. This also checks the bore to make sure its in round without an expensive machine shop. Another trick is, on the cam get a Drill 4- 1/2" holes close to the center of the cam gear. this will lighten the gear and being that it only spins half the RPM of the crank it's hard to make it out of balance. Then just mill the head a bit and you are good to go.

I was the engineering manager in tooling at American Yard Products in the 80's. Me and my son use tow WKA race in box stock. He had to run the restrictor plates he started a age 7. You were talking about welding the cams. I had a guy in Columbia, SC that ground my cams and cut my rings down. He told me he hated to weld the cams for the modified engines. At work we used thousands of Briggs engines each week. We made over 1,000 garden tillers a day that used the horizontal 5 hp. I could get dent scratch and dent engine for $25.00 new. I called up one of the Briggs engineers and ask if there was a way to get cams that had the journals and gear cut but not the cam lobs. He said easy because the lobs were actually broached not ground. Couple days later I get a box with six uncut cams. Went to get cam cut and dropped one of the uncut ones in the guys hand he had a fit. After that Briggs started selling uncut cams to the racers. I think I still have some in the garage. I also had a way of cheating that could not be found in the WKA tear down and never got caught. We ran at St. Matthews in SC and some in the Spartanburg area of SC. My son got bored so he quit at 16. We never had an engine failure in all those years we ran. I tore rota-tor cuff cranking an engine that had nitro in it like to have torn my arm off. I use to race flathead Fords so same as the Briggs more or less.

Still rockin a Briggs on a 60's built kart, I have a Lewis performance built alky race kart engine I scored a few yrs ago from a buddy for 75 bucks, it was a $1400 engine when built i believe he said. Rock on guys!

sounded great,

Who else wants to hear that home made high duration cam run?

I just got an 3HP Briggs and Stratton engine on a go kart for helping my neighbor clean out his basement and restoring it as we speak. Thank for another cool video

I've got an old flat head Briggs in the shop. The carb is trashed and I've been thinking about making an adapter to run a stock predator carb on it. This video had inspired me to finally try it.

I love old Briggs flat heads. Easy to work on, reliable, and I think they are just a little more powerful than a clone long term. The newer OHV Briggs are also a great engine for modding because of the parts available

Please continue with the Briggs! They are so much more interesting than the predator ones.

Did a similar thing on the cam, 51 yrs ago in 8th grade. I did not have a welder so I took a grinding wheel and reduced the base circle on the cam then flattened out the nose of the lobe for more duration and so it would not hit the head LOL. Milled the head on a piece of sandpaper on top of hardwood, used Prussian blue to check for high spots and got it so flat that it sealed with no gasket.Also chamfered the top of the cylinder adjacent to int and ex valves to aid in flow into the cylinder, and of course retimed it and installed a motorcycle carb.

Lol....I used to build 5hp Briggs and race go carts on small dirt tracks in the southeast. Those were the days. Used to make a Briggs scream and passed inspection in the stock class every time. Lol

I have a 8hp Briggs from a old generator on my yerf dog with a Torque converter. That I put together with parts I made and The knowledge from this channel. My little brother , my cousins and I love that thang it’s so much fun and could not done it with out you 2. I topped it out at 33mph and I put a car horn on It with a lawnmower battery. I would love to send you guys a video of it and I planning to go to the next Busch beach meet up when I get my license to drive thar

Love and grew up on the old school flat heads. Can't wait to see more on this project!

Grew up in the late 50’s early 60’s, running everything our family owned had a Brigs. Karts to Snow Blowers.. I was always yearning for a Jakobson Orange reel mower. “ they made these near my home town “. Welded lobes and filed our own cams... Terry&thepirates

Been doing this for the past 10 weeks at engineering college! Taking them apart and reassembling! Really cool to see you guys doing it aswell and see how you guys do it and everything! In the end we would have build off races to see who could completely strip and rebuild one the fastest! Good job guys 👍👍👍

Hell yes oldschool briggs. I've really enjoyed the last couple vids

Really digging this lil series y’alls projects are awesome 🤙🏼🤙🏼

Cool find and video guys! That engine takes me back - probably 20 years ago now is when I got my start turning wrenches with a 5 HP Briggs. Started that adventure after I seized it and had to rebuild it myself, better than ever. There will never be any like those!

Watching you guys building this motor brings back some good memories of a old 3.5 Briggs I had built up in high school. Built my own head and had so much compression the stock rods would bend in almost no time.

The 5 HP Briggs is an excellent choice when upgrading an old equipment need( think David Bradley or Gravely) or flat out hot rodding a go cart application. And, like you guys, boxes and boxes of stuff, it's hard to remember just what you may have tucked away. Congrats on the "Monster" cam find. Love your work...and with that...love the true friendship that Ike and John share.

I always loved working on my Briggs, and running the snot out of it. Thanks guys.

Right on guys! I have two old Briggs 5.5 & 5 hp engines on a mini bike and a go kart, I’ll be working on the mini bike in my next video. Can’t wait to see how yours turns out! Heck I can’t wait to see how mine turns out, lol love the channel, it’s an inspiration for my channel really. Keep it up!

Nothing beats a old flathead briggs! Back in the day i raced 5hp briggs alcohol! Loved the sound of 30 briggs screamin around a corner at 60mph

Just started watching all your vids, great content and really enjoy seeing your projects come to life, keep up the great work and thank you 👍👍👍

For an accurate ring end gap measurement, you have to take the ring off the piston and recess it down below the flash line (where the top ring stops in the cylinder). The best way to do this is remove the ring, flip the piston up side down and press the ring into the cylinder at least an inch or better, then measure the end gap. There is no wear to the cylinder wall where you checked the gap of the rings, so as the rings get down into the cylinder where they belong, the end gap will be greater. Proper end gap for compression rings is .012-.016 and .020 on the oil scraper ring. You'll loose quite a bit of performance if the end gaps are beyond these numbers. Zip~

Briggs flathead. The small block chevy of small engines. Reliable, cheap, and lots of aftermarket parts. They can make unbelievable power with the right mods. It's my favorite go-to engine.

My dad still uses an old 3.5 hp Briggs on our lawnmower, when he got it for free it didn’t run but he says it only has 3hp now I don’t know what exactly he did but he rebuilt the whole thing to getting it running. It’s an old Toro lawnmower with little to no safety features but I love it

Great video. Still running Briggs. Nostalgia over power.

Yep! I got a Briggs 3 horse on my mini bike!

I absolutely love this build! It reminds me of the stuff we threw together as kids. My ho it brings back memories! Thanks Guys!!!!

26 years ago I ran micro stocks with a 5 hp flathead modified on alcohol. With the mods we did these engines we could run near 80 mph , some of the driver/car weights were over 400 lbs and were still competitive. We started by boring .100 over , put in a dykes ring piston or made a gapless ring set for a Horstman standard ring piston. Basically the same type of porting that you did except I used an air die grinder with carbide ball cutters to get into the ports better. A Tillotson carb with a second fuel pump and a lapped in 3 1/2 hp flywheel ( Iron on the tracks where we were flat out all the way around and aluminum at tracks where we had to lift for the turns). The ONLY aluminum stock flywheel that is safe to use is the one that came on the old 3.5 push mower with the rope start mounted on the side of the engine. The ones that are a thin disk with 2 blocks 180* apart WILL EXPLODE!!!! Also take a small degree wheel and mount it on an old starter pully so you can use a timing light. You most likely won't be reving to 9000 + like me so lapping in the flywheel and tightening the @#$% out of the nut should hold your timing without a key or get offset keys from Power Sports.

Killer build fellas!

I love the old briggs 5hps. They are great to play with and modify. And if you mess it up they're not very expensive at least around me.

I grew up with thunderkarts and my dad and uncle raced them in the open yard kart class. I can still hear and smell all the hoped up 5hp briggs running on alcohol ! They had some of these flat heads with so much compression they had extra braces to keep the head down

I grew up with Briggs and Stratton. Every lawnmower, go cart and mini bike had one. One thing I've learned is the only constant in life is change. It will be fun to see two races. Both bikes around the course time trial same driver, and head to head (no cheating)

I run both the Briggs and clone engine, the adult side of me likes the clone. Because they are so cheap to build up, but the kid in me likes the Briggs, because of the top end they have.

SO MANY VIDEOS IN ONE WEEK!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Long live Briggs & Stratton. I only run those vintage flathead engines on my mini bikes and go karts. I only have 1 over head valve engine and its the Predators 212 that came with a Bonanza frame I wanted so bad. The engine is sitting underneath a towel in the garage waiting for me to put it on something

Keep up the great job guys! Love the awesome builds.

This is a good video because I just rebuilt my snowblower!

I have a 5hp Briggs with a 1inch shaft..its a beast of a motor

I'll definitely answer the question you asked. EVERY TYPE. I have a predator on mine,a tecumseh that we just removed the rev limiter (governer and it revs high now) and I have a Briggs on my race mower (that goes 14 mph. Very puny 14.5 horse). It's awesome.

Excellent video dudes, you make it look easy. I’ve got a 40’ish year old 7hp Tecumseh Snow King from a long gone Ariel’s snowblower that I might experiment with. Keep doing what you do!

Love to watch the engine builds we need more

Way back in the day in shop class, my buddy, and I disassembled a busted briggs 5 horse, rebuilt it with good parts, and started it, in 8 min. 35 sec. We're kind of a big deal... 😎

The b&s episodes are the best. No one does anything with them anymore. I like the 8hp 319cc flat heads the best. I have one that smokes my sons predator 420. Its a 8hp from a generator. Ported head, made a head gasket from a 25oz beer can for more comp, 26lb springs, governor delete, 30mm carb and runs on c16 race fuel. Just finished it about 2 weeks ago. I'll have to upload a video of it when the weather breaks.

Briggs and kohler engines are my cup of tea

Glad to see you guys are messing with an old flat-head Briggs..... and yeah, I'm a +1 for the flat-head over the Predators.... but I do like the Predators also!!! Love the video!!!

Can't wait to see the mini bike. I have an idea of what I think it is hope its ratty!!

Been watching your videos for so long when i made a new account. You guys were the first people I tried to find

Fantastic video gentlemen. All the way over here in Australia 🤙

Nice work dam thats briggs sounds nice!!!

Love your show,.Work on small engines,I use to own a Rupp kart with an 2hp Briggs,It was slow on accelaration had good top speed.

Just used cc10 on a clutch I needed for my 68' mini bike restoration, love the channel. Thanks!

I started with Briggs engines when I was about 8 years old. I lived in southern Virginia on 24 acres where my father borrowed a tractor and cut a 1/10 mile tri oval on a red clay field next to the house. My kart ran about a year then the rod let go. I had nothing to drive for about two months but when we were at a neighbor's farm I saw an old roto tiller on his scrap pile and bolted to it was a 5 hp briggs. I asked about it and said I could have it , but it was locked up. At first my father said no but the neighbor said it would keep me busy all summer and still not run. They laughed , but I was laughing 10 days later when it fired. A better flywheel to use is the aluminum one from a 3 1/2 hp push mower that uses the side mounted pull start cartridge. The gear that engages the pull start cartridge keeps the piece from blowing up. Don't use the regular aluminum flywheel , can explode at 6,000 rpm. I have run the one with the starter gear up to 9,200 and never had a failure.

God love a flathead. Love that sound. Go Biggs. Good job guys. Thanks.

Would like to see you guys build a comfortable rat rod with a large Briggs engine

I'm putting a Briggs 5hp flathead on a mini bike right now... with just a governor delete and 18lb springs for now. I'll fab a header. Love your videos!!! :)

Sounded good! Can’t go wrong with a 5 horse Briggs

Love the flat head best motor ever

yes, rebuild some more old mechanical stuff, great content👍 get some Craigslist projects "will it live" yard ornaments😛

Had a 5 hp on a red two seater, raised a lot of hell on it threw the neighborhoods. So much fun.

Killer motor build vid. She's got a cam in 'er. That piston head is really trick. Can see how it'll start the burn on the thin side. Didn't know they made plugs that short. Lookin' forward to the oldskool mini bike.

Guess what? *its got a cam in it*

Ike and John,from watching what you guys did to that 5hp b&s,it's totally rebel and I love it! BTW Ike I love the whole muscle car thing,so maybe you will get around to doing some more things to that 69 SS.

Briggs for life it's not that I hate all Tecumseh engines I just never really had a good experience with one. But I don't use them for go-karts or mini bikes I just use them for lawn equipment

I'm really happy you shaved the eyebrows I told you guys to do that in like 20 videos lol. It's really cool seeing old school real hot rodding, just working with what you have.

You guys should try and find an 8hp briggs and use it on the rat rod wagon......if you could get the kind of torque I get with mine (it came from a wood chipper) you'de be burning rubber for days

oh yeah guys where i work at harbor freight one of the predator 212s have a certain skew number look up the number ending in 63 for an extra horse power

This was so helpful. I got an old school go kart that runs a 3 hp briggs flathead. I've upgraded the engine on the kart to an 11 hp tecumseh flathead but I'm working on the briggs to get something smaller and fun going for my niece and nephew and this view was really a big help

Nice job fellas, I like it... 👍👍👍

Have you guys ever thought about getting some actual Honda motors and putting them up against predator motors?

I will run flat-heads til the day I die. Nothing sounds or looks as cool.

Nice work guys!

Love this briggs series!!

Nice Build.. 😊😎 What do you use for motor oil..?? Lucas is great stuff.. Gets stiff in colder climates though.. Also what about octane booster..?? I used to make up my own special Lawn Mower Mix, Octane booster and Marvel mystery oil.. 😁😁😋

I have a Mikuni carburetor on my 1986 Honda to00 SX four wheeler

Good job guys. Shes gonna be a killa!

Wow, a couple of you guys look very young! Four years of RU-vid have taken their toll.

Clinton engines, remember them. enjoyed your video on the briggs.

Love you alls content, been here for ages. This is my obligatory comment and like

Good to see another channel doing flatheads. Not bad guys.

super cool episode, always love the motor tips etc.

I'm actually an odd ball and have a kohler 10hp on my off road buggy

Baby face john

Pretty cool you threw one of the old Briggs together, I started racing karts on dirt when I was a kid and back then Kawasaki’s was the motor to have. Would weld up the lobes and get some stiff valve springs etc. another trick me and dad did was fill the intake port with jb weld then drill out a small hole for short tracks 😂. The tricks we used to do back in the late 80’s 🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼

Sounds really good!

20 hp Predator 212 vs 20 hp Briggs

Or GNT aka good and tight, well ive got Briggs and predators and i prefer the Briggs its sounds better and more reliable

In high school I built an engine mount to be able to hold the engine with a bench vice because i would always get fed up trying to run them on the ground or on a test bench and they would rattle around. I used 2 pieces of angle iron with 4 holes for the mounting bolt and beneath it was another angle iron welded so that it would be able to get clamped on with the bench vice

Subscribed. Very likable guys and extremely knowledgeable 👍👍

Pretty hard to beat the reliability of a Briggs motor

I'd send u a pick but I have same motor right here

Hell yeah finally I've been asking you guys to do a performance Briggs & Stratton forever since the first episode of the Rat cart

Yup, have a fully built 5hp that makes probably 25hp on 118 octane racing fuel. The dude I bought it from ran it on a junior dragster. Its going to need piston rings pretty soon. Good thing is that I have 3 milk crates of parts and parts motors.