Before I fix the ignition problem on the Briggs and Stratton engine that I bought on a whim the other day, I needed to complete an oil change.
I looked at the Operating and Maintenance manual and it said I needed to use 590 mL of SAE 30 weight oil which I bought at my local auto parts store for about $7.
As in any engine, there is a drain plug nut (yellow arrow in Figure 1) and a oil filler cap as shown by the red arrow in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Oil drain plug (yellow arrow) and fill cap (red arrow)
The drain plug (Figure 2) can be opened using the 10mm wrench (spanner) (Figure 3) and if it is too tight, you can use a few light hits of a hammer to open it up.
Figure 2. Close-up of the drain plug
Figure 3. Tools used to open the drain plug and the drain plug nut when removed
Place a collection bowl/pan below the oil drain plug before taking it out and let the oil drain out.
Figure 4. The drain plug is open
Figure 5. Oil draining into the pan
Once the oil has drained, tighten the drain plug back using the 10mm wrench (Figure 3) and it should look like in Figure 2.
Now it is time to pour the new oil (Figure 6) in. Remember that we need to get SAE 30 weight oil.
Figure 6. SAE 30 oil
Open the fill cap with your hand and take it off (Figure 7). Place a funnel in there to pour the oil in (Figure 8).
Figure 7. Fill Cap is open
Figure 8. Place a funnel in the spout
The manual says we only need 1¼ pints or 590 mL of oil to be filled. This model of the engine did not have a dipstick so I guessed my way out of the situation using a Q-tip (Figure 9) as a dipstick.
Figure 9. Q-tip as a dipstick
Using a funnel (Figure 8) pour the oil in slowly and keep checking until about half the Q-tip is full with oil. When you can see the oil with your naked eye in the fill spout but it is not in the spout, you have filled enough.
That’s it. It is quite easy to do. Now the next step would be to replace the spark plug and try to see if the ignition works.
