1952 Briggs Model 8R-6
This is a 8R-6 manufactured April 1952. It is an early model 8 with the rounded blower housing. The later model 8's had a square top blower housing and a rectangular fuel tank.
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Problems began when I opened the shipping carton. The shipper had removed the fuel tank to fit the engine into the carton. There was not enough packing between the engine and the tank, and the tank got dented up pretty bad in shipping.
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Next issue was the fuel
filter. It was rusted solid and I broke the glass bowl trying to coax it
apart. 
I was able to get a complete new filter at a local Briggs dealer
for a reasonable cost.
The carburetor was corroded as bad as the filter. The main needle snapped off before it broke loose. To make the day even better, the main jet came out in pieces and the threads in the carb body were gone. I re-tapped the body and a new jet did snug up and seat. It may work, but I'm looking for a replacement carb.
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At this point the entire engine has been disassembled and cleaned up. The cylinder has been honed to clean it up and break the glaze. The blower housing has a few rust holes in it so I didn't get too carried away with sanding on it. This engine was off an old Toro reel mower and had been painted red over the Briggs factory black. It will be repainted black to help hide the rust holes and the dents in the fuel tank.
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Next step will be to clean up and rebuild the magneto plate.
Here it's been cleaned up and reassembled to test for spark. It does have spark, not great but spark none the less. The coil is physically damaged. You can see a crack in it just below the high tension lug. We'll kind of look for another one, but this will run as it is for all I intend to do with it.
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Always use new gaskets when rebuilding any engine. Reusing an old gasket is just asking for a leak that could turn a perfect restoration into a mess.
There are lots of sources for gasket sets for these old engines. Many on eBay for anywhere from $10 - $20. I cut my own. The set for this engine shown above cost about 85 cent for gasket material. The base, intake and breather gaskets are cut from .030" thick material. The reduction unit and magneto plate gaskets are made out of .015" thick material. The mag plate gasket is the critical one! It sets the end play of the crankshaft. The manual says the crank end play is to be .002 to .008". For all the engines I've done to date a .015" gasket has met that spec.
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If had to pick one thing about restoring that I don't particularly like, it would have to be the paint prep. So many of these old engine have been slopped up with paint in their life times. I get frustrated with cleaning up the dollar store paint jobs. Sometimes I forget that someone was probably just trying to protect it with a quick coat of paint to get a few more years service out of it.
Yeah... Hate the paint prep, but when you get a result like this, it's well worth all the time spent sanding, polishing and masking. At the last minute I decided to keep the original Toro red color.
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Big oil dipper in this model. A little more lubrication ability then the WMB and 5S models of earlier manufacture dates. The second picture is of the valves installed and clearance adjusted to specs.
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I've started making my own decals. Their not perfect, but good enough.
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The Finished Pics
It finished out nice. Great compression and run able spark. Feels like a runner to me!