Stalling

4-banger

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I have an old flathead 3 hp briggs and stratton engine and it runs fine for the first like 5-10 mins and then it will loose power and stall and it wont even fire over for a few hours. Any suggestions on what I can look at to see what is wrong.
 
After it stalls and will not restart check to see if you have spark. If you don't it could be a heat issue with your ignition parts. If you still have spark you have to look for a fuel supply problem.
Good luck
Jim
 
It has spark and when it turns over it spits puffs of white smoke out but never fires over. I believe it is getting fuel as I just rebuilt the carb in attempt to solve the problem, but it didn't help.
 
Is the spark jumping good? I had a situation where after the engine warmed up, the spark would start jumping across the side of the plug. The problem fooled me for a while because I could hear the spark so I assumed the plug was okay. If it's not a fouling plug, I'd guess Jim is right. It's been years since I last took sandpaper to a magneto, but I don't recall it being that tough.
 
Sounds like a bad coil. Not that unusual since the gasoline formulation has changed. Apparently the engines runs hotter causing the coil to malfunction at a certain point. This has been a problem in my brothers lawn and garden shop on both 2 and 4 strokes.
 
How can I test the mag. There is no coil on this engine because it has a mag right?
 
Not that unusual since the gasoline formulation has changed. Apparently the engines runs hotter causing the coil to malfunction at a certain point. This has been a problem in my brothers lawn and garden shop on both 2 and 4 strokes.

just a guess here - but - I don't think it's gas (hotter) problem

I think that they are making cheaper coils now days..

in the old days they never thought about saving 5 cents and making worthless parts

but -- very common today....

just a thought from --

ride that thing Mountainman
 
I had that problem with the same engine after switching carbs and still had it i found that the gas cap wasn,t drilled for vacum releaf on a new cap smokie
 
Is this an old brigs with points? Also check the shear pin.
 
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