1943 Briggs Model N
This is a nice example of a Briggs Model N. It's complete and everything is loose. The inside of the fuel tank is unbelievably clean. To make it even better I picked this engine up for less than $6.00
The serial number indicates it was manufactured in May of 1943 and the flywheel casting confirms that. It is cast with the number 43 and the letter "E" Fifth letter of the alphabet equals fifth month of the year.
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As rough as this magneto plate looks, all I did was clean the points and it has spark. This should be an easy restoration.
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When I opened this engine up I noticed there was no oil slinger on the end of the connecting rod. Here's why. It was equipped with a gear driven oil pump. The base had about 1/4" of sludge in the bottom of it, and I was a little concerned about the health of the pump. After a good soak and rinsing in the solvent tank it pumps just fine.
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Some Improvements
Here are the flywheel and magneto plate all cleaned up. The points and condenser are in decent condition, and the coil looks OK. Since it had spark before I tore it apart it should be fine.
Nice example of a Type K small two piece Flo-Jet carburetor. It's been disassembled cleaned and set back up to run. It's in great condition for being 63 years old.
1 Cam Shaft / 2 Cam Gear / 3 Piston Assembly / 4 Intake Valve, Tappet and Spring / 5 Exhaust Valve, Tappet and Spring / 6 Crankshaft / 7 Oil Sump Screen / 8 Oil Pump
All the Internal parts have been cleaned and inspected. Everything looks good here also.
Everything that will be painted is prepped and masked. The blower housing and fuel tank had some pretty deep dents. I pounded out what I could, and filled the rest to bring them back to shape.
Painted and ready for assembly.
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I had a few things to make before I could start assembling the engine. First I cut new gaskets. .015" think for the Mag Plate gasket to set the crankshaft endplay. In this engine the base gasket was also critical. It sets the backlash between the cam gear and the oil pump gear. Originally the engine had two base gaskets. One .010 and one .020 thick. I replaced them with one .030 thick gasket. The stop switch was missing so I made a new one out of steel strapping. As the picture shows the fuel cap was in too bad of shape to salvage, so I replaced it with a new one.
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The Assembly
Here all the internal parts have been installed. The rod cap bolts are torqued to 100in/pounds.
This is the valves tappets and breather before putting the cover on. In this engine the Exhaust Valve tappet clearance is .014 to .016 and the Intake Valve tappet clearance is .007 to .009. Both were within specs and required no adjustment.
This picture shows the cam gear meshed with the oil pump gear. The .030 gasket works fine. The oil pump gear turns easily with no binding.
Magneto Plate is assembled to the block. The points are set at .020 and the flywheel to coil gap is set at .014 It has good spark. I always check the spark at this point. It's not much fun to have to tear it all back down later to fix an ignition issue.
Next the flywheel nut is torqued to 55 Ft/Pounds. The flywheel nuts on most of these old engines are left hand thread.
The Carb, Blower Housing and Muffler are then put on.
And.....
Finished
The decals are homemade. Printed on vinyl and sealed with Krylon glaze.