If this is a late 70's single cylinder Tecumseh OHV, they had an overheating problem by design. Craftsman, Bolens, and probably other OEMs used this engine thinking that it would be a great new technology for small engines. But it was put into the marketplace before it was perfected. At that time I had gone to Tecumseh tec school and was a certified tec. We were seeing a lot of these engines failing from overheating at about 200 hours, and the factory would not stand behind the customer, the OEM, or the shop.
The problem.... The valve box sat on top of the aluminum head's cooling fins. Of course the rocker arms and push rods needed to be oiled, and so they were. But the heat of the head transferred up into the base of the steel valve box and the rubber O rings on the attachment (head) bolts could not take the heat and so cracked and failed. Now the oil was leaking down onto the head's cooling fins and forming hard crispy chunks that continued to grow from more oil escaping and baking until the cooling fins below the box were totally blocked. The heat would now warp the head, dropping the steel valve seats and destroying it.
In later series OHV engines, they found a better quality O ring that could stand the heat, and so the problem was solved. The cast iron cylinder and crankcase and lower end parts were plenty substansial, commonly giving an engine life of about 1500 hours.
Of course, mouse nests mean big trouble for these engines and all air cooled engines as well.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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