throw the v twin on there and put a 7 inch pulley on the engine and 3 inch on the transaxel. and btw im pretty sure on that briggs the exhaust valve isnt seating properly causing no compression and why the valve had to be adjusted soo much
It seems like you bent a valve from over revving but it was just slight enough to keep running but not restart. Would also explain the loose rockers. If the valve can't come all the way back up then it won't take up the whole space. I hope the engine swap goes good but please do a full tear down!!! (The top end. Piston, cylinder, valves, etc) It's good for learning and it's content
it could've dropped a valve seat on the exhaust valve from not running the shroud and overheating. The only way you'll know is if you pop the head off. You can pop the seat back in and peen around it with a punch and it will hold the seat in. I've done it before and it has worked reliably, but technically the heads ruined and the seat could come out again.
Swap that kawi vtwin in though, it'll be so much more fun and you'll have plenty of torque. I've moved the clutch back 2 inches, put a smaller clutch pulley, redid the keepers/belt system and threw an 8.25 on the front and a 3.5 on the rear with 22" tires and hit 61 mph. Just put some synpower 75w-140 in that transaxle, and it'll keep it nice and lubricated. If you're interested in any suggestions I'd be glad to share any knowledge as I've built a few race mowers.
Seems like it pretty much has to be a failure in the head, im going to make a video tearing down the Briggs but I’m not going to put it back on the mower, I just want to know where it failed for sure. Thanks for the info
Doing what he did loading that into the bed of the truck is, how I ruined my back, picking up the front and rear end of the mower to move it across the yard
So another reason it was smoking is you probably didn’t adjust the pedal so you were smoking off your belts and if you don’t govern the pedal which means j adjusting that screw, it causes it to use more oil than it should and blow the motor And to be honest, you didn’t have that much oil to start with considering it leaked
