Trying To Restore A Rototiller With Seized Engine

I got this rototiller last fall from a friend for scrap metal price. It had a seized engine but he said that it had been turning freely when he got it a few months before. I plan to restore this old tiller and get it running again.

I could not turn the engine by hand on the crankshaft or by pulling the pull rope. Nothing I did could turn over the engine. It seems like it is fully seized up and has internal damage.

I first decided to remove the shroud and see if I would get lucky and find something that is jamming up the crankshaft. What I found surprised me.

Inside the shroud a mouse had made a nest and made a terrible mess of the engine. The mouse feces is corrosive and ate a hole through the bottom of the shroud and froze the flywheel to the coil. It had caused everything to rust up solid and corrode.

I figured that this engine would not have spark at best, even if I could unseize the engine.

I wanted to open up the cylinder head though to see if there was any damage inside before I went on too far into repairing the engine.

To my surprise I found mouse feces inside the cylinder on top of the piston as well. I have no idea how this could have gotten in there but there it was. I cleaned out the cylinder and the flywheel area as well as I could. I lubed up the piston and let it sit a while.

Next I used a board and log as a hammer to try to free up the engine, if possible. A board is best for this so that you do not damage the flywheel fins.

The engine started to turn slowly with each hammer blow.

I got the piston to top dead center and then cleaned out the cylinder some more. More oil on the piston and then I turned the engine back the other way to get the piston to the bottom of the cylinder to see how the cylinder walls looked.

I was happily surprised to find almost no wear or scoring on the cylinder walls. This engine was not run much at all in its short life. This is certainly good news.

Stay tuned for part two of my attempt at restoring this old rototiller.

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Troy
http://www.thedoityourselfworld.com
http://www.theoffgridproject.com

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