Slight rust on the flywheel won't affect anything. You have a 7 year old motor with an adjustable carb main jet ?? Even though you cleaned your carb, I still think there's something inside. A couple tanks of Sea Foam and you might not have that problem anymore. The main jet starts out at 1 1/2 turns, but your idle air screw should be about the same. Try this. Put the idle air screw at 1 1/2 turns. If it won't idle, there's dirt somewhere. If you can get it to run at high speed, back out the main jet until the engine just starts to lose RPM. Then turn it back in until the same. Adjust somewhere in the middle and favoring the rich side. If you can get it to idle, go from slow to high speed suddenly. If it stumbles, increase or decrease the idle air screw until there is a smooth transition from idle to high speed with a sudden throttle, like gunning your car engine.

I think I found the adaptor that you are talking about. There are two part numbers. 794661 is 1.75" long and 496002 is 2.25" long. Unfortunatly that's another $25 into this engine to get it running. I'll have to order the parts today. After I thought about the timing some more, you are correct in that it can only be set one way. I am used to automotive timing where the dots have to line up at TDC. I checked the valves last night and they appear to be working in the correct order. I was very carefull to get the dots lined up. I also set the valve lash at .006, 1/4" beyond TDC on the compression stroke. From what I read I think that is the correct position. Hopefully I should be good to go. I double checked the coils against each other last night and they appear to be exactly the same. The "bad" coil had the spark plug boot missing and the spark plug end rusted solid to the plug. Thats the reason I chose to switch them. The only thing on this engine that is still a little funny is the sound it makes when I rotate the crank around. It makes this sound like a goose honking. It isn't anything mechanical. It sounds like air moving within the case. The sound is coming from the breather area. I am guessing it is just because it doesn't have any oil in it at this point and is causing a funny echo. Any thoughts? Keith

Bought used riding mower w/ engine trouble. 21 hp intek plus b&s (could not determine model etc on engine, shroud, inside of hood). Craftsman 2000 42". Will crank in choke but only for 10-15 secs. Will not run out of choke. Tried everything me and 3 neighbors could think of. Today I did comp test w/ only 30psi....should be around 120 on 3 yr old engine. What should I do to fix the compression problem?

***"Do I need to remove the engine completely to get the cam shaft?"*** Yes, you would need to get the engine on a bench to open up the crankcase. But, since I have read your description of the colors and other characteristics of how it is behaving, (and I saw Walt's offer) I think you should contact Walt and get his "how to" on the valve adjustment before you proceed with taking the engine out and apart. I know you have the head off and I'm not saying to put the head back and readjust the valves yet........I'm saying that you need to get Walt's instructions, read and study them, and if what you see in his instructions is very much different than what you have already done, then you might want to clean up the head and block and put the new head gasket in and do a valve adjustment, "according to Walt". Then you can try the results in action. If, after you do this and still see no improvement, you WILL NOT need to remove the head again in order to get the camshaft out, so it's not like you're throwing away a new head gasket. When you say adjusting valves is new to you and you wonder about how easily the feeler gauge should go in, it should go in easily enough that you can PUSH it in by inserting the END of the feeler gauge without the gauge wanting to bow or bend, but it should be tight enough that if you "twist" the feeler gauge (think of a see-saw motion across the short, flat of the blade), you will not detect any "rocking" of the blade. Actually, I recommend that a set of "GO, NO-GO" feeler gauges be used if you have little experience with the use of standard feeler gauges. GO, NO-GO gauges have two thicknesses on the business end of the blade. The thicker of the two measures the next thicker increment above the spec value, the thinner or the two measures the next thinner increment below the spec value. To use the GO, NO-GO gauge, the valve is adjusted so the thin step fits easily between the valve stem and rocker arm, but the thick step will not fit between the two at all (using light, finger pressure on blade). Another method that has gain popularity in certain circles is the use of a "very low scale" "torque screwdriver" to set the adjuster screw pressure with the feeler gauge in place between the valve stem and the rocker arm. The GO, NO-GO feeler gauges and the torque screwdriver may be a bit pricey for the average DIY guy. A method that will produce results similar to the torque screwdriver is to run the adjuster screw down on the feeler gauge using only the finger tips. The tricky part is maintaining the clearance while you tighten the jamb nut or set screw. For this reason you need to check, check, and recheck the clearance to make sure the adjusted value does not change when securing the jamb nut or set screw. In my opinion, the GO, NO-GO gauges are superior in that it gives you a way to compare against a higher, and a lower value, in the same feeler gauge blade.