Great to see some Common Ground Nitro and Rusty . I have not been on this Forum very long , but have been a Member of various other Forums for Yrs. We all have our own Opinions and Life's Experiences. Being Tolerant to Other's Perspectives is Important , but all to easily ignored. I myself have on occasion said things that were less than objective or tolerant , no real reason than being caught up in the moment and perhaps over reacting to another's point of view. Since were on the Topic and having just returned from the Olympics , what a better time show some Good Will ! Although I have previously apologized and Stated also that we can all agree to disagree ! Sometimes even I have trouble moving on . I just went through a rather sad situation with an Death in the Family , no excuse , just that perhaps the Hospital finally got the Better of Me and my Patience . So in this endeavor let me also State to Mr Raystom that I regret all of the Offensive Posts that I have generated towards you , they were Wrong not matter what the reason . Life is to Short to get caught up in such trivial issues. There is a Wealth of Wisdom within this Site which is easy to Utilize as it is to Discredit . So in closing Thank You to all the Members who have been more than tolerant of my previous behavior , I'm Truly Sorry that I did not Think more Carefully before I Posted ! P.S. Rusty you never got back to me on Your Snow Conditions ! Nitro great Job on the Blower Carburetor Engineering Retro Fit Great Pictures also Dude !

Oil the rewind spring with light weight oil,oil the small hole in the starter clutch with the same oil,use winter weight grease on the tabs that bend over the recoil rope pulley ,if nylon slides are present still apply some grease .....when installing the rewind housing ,PULL on the rope to apply tension so the rewind cover finds center of the pulley,and THEN snug up the bolts....if this fails you'll need to tighten spring or replace it .Jim

The Briggs easy spin camshaft compression release is a concept, not a group of parts making up a compression release mechanism. With Briggs easy spin, there is no actual mechanism. The easy spin camshaft essentially is made with a small "high spot" or "blip" on the camshaft base circle (opposite the large high part of the cam called the lobe). Whenever the tappet is in contact with the base circle of the cam, the valve for that tappet is closed. During the compression and power stroke, the intake tappet is riding on the base circle. The Briggs easy spin concept places a very small high point on the base circle corresponding to the compression stroke part of the 4 stroke cycle. When the intake tappet contacts this high spot or bump during the compression part of the cycle, the intake valve re-opens slightly letting just a little pressure escape back into the intake port and manifold. This is what causes the slight "puff" back to the carb on these engines. This concept only works because the very slow RPM during cranking operation allows ENOUGH TIME for the decompression to take place. Once the engine gets running, the high spot passes the tappet too fast for any appreciable decompression to happen. The higher the RPM, the LESS TIME the valve is open for decompression. At higher RPM there is not even enough decompression to slow the inertia of the induction stream entering the engine. It is a compression release system with no additional moving parts, based solely on the principle of Pressure and Time. At a given pressure, a specific volume of gas will flow through an opening in a specific duration of time. If you decrease the duration of time the volume of gas flow will decrease proportionate to the time. That's why at higher RPM the decompression is negligible. I wasn't trying to say that the lack of RPM was any way related to a compression release malfunction. I was simply stating that the spit back you see is normal for these Briggs engines with the easy spin cam. In an old engine like this one it can be difficult to read a spark plug's color to determine if the air/fuel mix is too rich or too lean because excessive crankcase blowby (in both directions) often puts engine lube oil into the combustion chamber and that makes it hard to know if it is only burning fuel (gasoline) or if it is also burning some oil. I would not be afraid to remove the spark plug and get the piston coming up on the compression stroke and fill the combustion chamber up with your favorite "rust bust" product and leave it set for a week like that, adding more if it leaks down. This will permit time for the solvent to work its way down through the rings and grooves. Now don't go pouring a whole can of the stuff in there, cause the idea is to just let the stuff find its way down through the rings and cut the carbon and corrosion. Oil is cheap, so drain the oil and put in fresh after you soak the rings. Fill the fuel tank with fresh fuel and add some Sea Foam gas treatment (solvent) to the fuel. Then you want to just run the engine. Run it, run it, run it. You may have to run a whole tank of gas through it to see if it is going to improve. If the problem is due to sticky or stuck rings it should show some improvement after a half tank or so of gas has been used. If it is due to the engine being wore slam out.....the spark plug will likely foul out or at least be sticky/gummy black after the running. Good luck.

Hello - this seems to be the forum with the most recent activity on the Tomahawk on the Internet, so I am resurrecting this thread. I picked up an 8HP Electric Start model in decent shape last year, and I used it for a solid week before putting it away in the spring. Unfortunately when starting it up this fall my carb seemed to be leaking a lot of gas so I decided to change it out. There are tons of cheap ones on amazon but unfortunately and strangely, all have a lower bolt mount about 1/2 inch longer that prevents them from properly mounting on my tomahawk. Compare a very expensive B&S original #390323 to any of the cheap ones to see the difference. I was lucky to find an aftermarket one on ebay this evening that has the proper lower bolt mount height, we'll see how it looks when it arrives.