briggs mod questions

mudcrazy wrote:

im going to take the governor off then when i put more performance ie more than a port and polish and exhaust/intake stack in it down the road (prob december) im going to put a shield on it and save up for a flywheel. if it does explode that way ill at least have a shield so i dont get castrated... 

Yes you can have a shield to protect you but it can and  will destroy an engine so be very careful with this I would just say start saving up for an aluminum flywheel its cheap insurance

is there any place to get a used one or one cheaper then the 350$ at arc?

http://www.performanceracingpartsbyhitch.com/ Halfway down on the right hand side is the flywheels

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

Note:  The response below is in no way intended to belittle anyone's views on the subject.  No offense intended and take the advice and information for precisely the amount you paid for it.

Honestly, until you start messing with double springs, balanced assemblies etc, the engine is not capable of grenading a stock flywheel in good condition.  Valve float alone will keep the RPMs in a safe enough range.  For liability purposes, B&S (and every other manufacturer) have to test the flywheels at way higher RPMs than the engine is capable.  Governors can and do fail, and the manufacturer would be in a world of legal hurt if a flywheel exploded and injured someone.  Don't let them scare you... every time someone brings up that they witnessed a flywheel explode, it is on a high performance tuned/modified engine running far higher RPMs than a stock engine is capable.

We could really use a "Thanks" button. I get annoyed when people start talking about the whole exploding flywheel thing without having the slightest bit of a real clue. All day long folks talk as if its some kind of fact that running your engine above 3600 will blow your flywheel to smithereens every time. BULL! There is very little documented evidence of this, and most people will never ever see it happen. The odd time it actually does is because of a defective/damaged flywheel, and you are much, much, MUCH more likely to suffer a rod failure than a flywheel failure.

Sure, you may insert the typical jargon in here about "this is just my opinion, take it for what it's worth" etc- but it's like this- if flywheels blew up that easily, I'd be going through them like underwear.

Funny how I will see people running a chipped grinder wheel at 10-11K without thinking twice, but a perfectly balanced flywheel at 4K is so RENEGADE!

Doc its better to be safe than sorry so I would go with an aluminum flywheel I dont run one because my motor is still governed

matt-man wrote:

Doc its better to be safe than sorry so I would go with an aluminum flywheel I dont run one because my motor is still governed

Whatever makes you feel good. I run most of my engines well above governed speed with stock flywheels. As I said- If it was half the problem that the idiotnet makes it out to be, I'd be long dead by now.

To be truly safe, don't modify your engine.

Ya Im going to leave my stock flywheel I dont really want to drop $350 on an aluminum one and the aluminum ones dont charge your battery

Sorry to freak you out Pony (guess I should have kept it to myself, as I figured you would get upset at my response)... I was phrasing my thoughts based on his original questions, not based on your expensive and thorough build up.

He asked:
1)if i take the governor off will i need forged or billit internals. (My answer is a no)
2)if i do need them where is the best/cheapest place to get them (Nothing to do with double springs, etc here, either)
3) if i have a 12.5 briggs model 28 can i put a 13 hp briggs model 28 crank in to ''stroke it out'' (Still nothing so far that is going to make anything explode)

Now based on part of your response with regards to flywheels:
"Stretch is one of the lucky ones to never encounter a flywheel go.. I watched one go on a puller (Hint extreme high performance) when I was younger.. it made one hell of a boom and scared the crap out of me." You make it sound as if stock ungoverned engines explode all the time and Stretch and I, in our approximately 50 years combined experience with them have just been lucky and are ill informed.

Stretch and I have always said making a "Hell of a" motor is pretty much unnecessary for 99% of what goes on in this forum. We are by far not "just one of the lucky ones" as we are not modifying the engines to try to get to 10K RPMs. If he had asked in the beginning about building an engine up to achieve massive HP and RPMs, I would just cruise on by, as that is not my areas of expertise or interest. Instead he asked about what appears to be a mild performance mod to achieve more torque.

Once again... never meant anyone's ego harm, sorry if yours is bruised.

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

Sorry to freak you out Pony (guess I should have kept it to myself, as I figured you would get upset at my response)... I was phrasing my thoughts based on his original questions, not based on your expensive and thorough build up.

He asked:
1)if i take the governor off will i need forged or billit internals.  (My answer is a no)
2)if i do need them where is the best/cheapest place to get them  (Nothing to do with double springs, etc here, either)
3) if i have a 12.5 briggs model 28 can i put a 13 hp briggs model 28 crank in to ''stroke it out''  (Still nothing so far that is going to make anything explode)

Now based on part of your response with regards to flywheels:
"Stretch is one of the lucky ones to never encounter a flywheel go..  I watched one go on a puller (Hint extreme high performance) when I was younger.. it made one hell of a boom and scared the crap out of me."  You make it sound as if stock ungoverned engines explode all the time and Stretch and I, in our approximately 50 years combined experience with them have just been lucky and are ill informed.

Stretch and I have always said making a "Hell of a" motor is pretty much unnecessary for 99% of what goes on in this forum.  We are by far not "just one of the lucky ones" as we are not modifying the engines to try to get to 10K RPMs.  If he had asked in the beginning about building an engine up to achieve massive HP and RPMs, I would just cruise on by, as that is not my areas of expertise or interest.  Instead he asked about what appears to be a mild performance mod to achieve more torque.

Once again... never meant anyone's ego harm, sorry if yours is bruised.  

Once again, if we had a "Thanks" button, I'd smack the heck out of it for this... Thanks! And- I guess I'm not "lucky one", too. I run stock 'wheels 5-6K on a regular basis, and do not belong to the flywheel-of-the-month-club.

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

Sorry to freak you out Pony

No offense taken dude.. I just dont build stuff half way lol.. Its either ridiculous or stock..

Troybilt Pony wrote:

If you want to build one helluva a motor.

Remember.. I'm going off of this.. I'm not telling him he has too.. Thats up to him..
And doc.. I just go off the "rather be safe than sorry" I'm not telling him its going to explode.. I'm just saying its not safe if you do the mods I listed to run a stocker and run 7-8k rpm...

mudcrazy wrote:

ok guys im new to modding lawn tractors. my background is in trucks so I have three questions to begin.
1)if i take the governor off will i need forged or billit internals.
2)if i do need them where is the best/cheapest place to get them
3) if i have a 12.5 briggs model 28 can i put a 13 hp briggs model 28 crank in to ''stroke it out''
thanks in advanced for replys

1)No you will not need forged or billet internals but i do recommend a billet rod just for safty measures.
2)if your looking into modding one of these engines "cheap" its not gonna happen.
3)no you can not take a 13 crank and stab it in there for a stoker you will need to find a Longer rod for this case and the top of the piston will have to be milled for zero-deck clearance.

I do agree with Jay aluminum internals is not needed but is highly recommend and these arent cheap to build either if you are looking for cheap you are in the wrong hobby

matt-man wrote:

if you are looking for cheap you are in the wrong hobby

Not at all true. If you are looking for a fire-breathing torque-monster that's going to spin 7-8K RPM then cheap ain't gonna happen. This hobby is NOT the wrong hobby for cheap. Especially for you guys in the states. You can get tractors all day long for under $100, and mods to them are indeed cheap. That's one of the more attractive points of this particular hobby- You DON'T need to break the bank on high-performance stuff. Hell, you can get by just fine on a stock motor for any of the tractors on this forum with very few exceptions like a LEGIT racer. Even a backyard basher that somebody wants to build in the style of a recer, and call a "racer" can get by just fine on a stock powerplant. So, how can I put this... Wrong.

Doc Sprocket wrote:

matt-man wrote:

if you are looking for cheap you are in the wrong hobby

Not at all true. If you are looking for a fire-breathing torque-monster that's going to spin 7-8K RPM then cheap ain't gonna happen. This hobby is NOT the wrong hobby for cheap. Especially for you guys in the states. You can get tractors all day long for under $100, and mods to them are indeed cheap. That's one of the more attractive points of this particular hobby- You DON'T need to break the bank on high-performance stuff. Hell, you can get by just fine on a stock motor for any of the tractors on this forum with very few exceptions like a LEGIT racer. Even a backyard basher that somebody wants to build in the style of a recer, and call a "racer" can get by just fine on a stock powerplant. So, how can I put this... Wrong.

Well the reason I said that is its not cheap for me but I guess thats because he is building a mudder and I am builder a Racer

Then be careful how you phrase things. My mother always told me "Say what you mean, and mean what you say". We don't want to scare a bunch of noobs out of participating in a clean, fun, CHEAP hobby because they just got the impression from you that it was going to cost them a ton of money.

FWIW- I, too, am building a racer. I am building it to WOO specs for the modified class. It will be inspected and certified by race techs. When I am done, I will have about $600 into it. By hobby standards, that IS cheap!

Have you got a link to this expensive racer you're building?