Well, after reading the preceding stories and questions and statements and dissertations, about how to treat yer mower, and how not to, and the nasty remarks made to and about me, i have the feeling that some of you got out of bed on the wrong side, or put yer shoes on the wrong feet! I have the feeling that the original poster should stick to cooking, and pay somebody to mow his lawn! It would certainly be much cheaper. And also pay somebody to fix it, although i feel it has taken its last trip to the dump! But, several weeks ago, i spied a really nice looking leaf gathering machine (A Craftsman ) sitting out for the G-man, so i grabbed it and took it home. It was brand new! The engine was shiny, the steel deck and blade cover was new looking. The engine also had a very large hole in the crank-case, and there was no indication of ever having had any oil in it! HMMM! Can anyone figure out how that came to be??? Back about 6 years ago, my friend operates a sell-anything store. He took me back into the back room and showed me a brand new self-propelled Southland mower, that they had sold, but the buyer brought it back, saying the oil was watery! Said he didn't try to start it, but brought it back and got a refund! The store guy didn't want to sell it again, so he gave it to me. I took it home, checked the oil, saw none in it, so i put new oil in it, started it up, and it ran for 12 more years, in the hands of one of my other friends! Ahh yes, buy the kids shoes, send them to school--and they eat the books! Previous treatise by: Rusty Jones, the aging(87) WW II Veteran! Happy Memorial Day to you all! May we all live forever!

rcmoser.... Yes, changing oil frequently is good. I actually change the oil every 25 hours of engine time. Every 50 hours, I change the oil filter too. That makes 6 oil changes per year.... We don't often get feedback as to how effective frequent oil changes are in preserving our engines. I recently had to disassemble my 26 hp Briggs Intek V-twin to replace a leaking sump gasket. The engine has been mine since new, with the above oil change schedule. Currently the hour meter reads 751 hours. Below, I will post two pictures of what my 'lower end' looked like when I cracked it open, for the first time, last month (before any cleanup). In the pictures you can see the sump gasket pieces scattered all over the sump and block. Other than the gasket pieces the 'lower end' is perfectly clean. Not a sign of any gunk or sludge could be found. Now I know why Briggs designed the engine with that oil screen in the bottom of the sump. The purpose of the screen is to prevent pieces of their cheap and poorly applied sump gasket from reaching the oil pump!

Thanks guys, for all the advice. Re: my advice to her, I told her to make sure if she started the engine to let it warm up, to do that before she tried loosening the filter and certainly before draining the oil. Come to think of it, I'm not sure she knows how to drain the oil either. I don't think she lives near a Deere dealer but she DID tell me today that she has a male friend who is coming by to look at it. Speaking of wrenches, I live near a Deere dealer and have wondered if they have special wrenches for filter removal. Might pick one up for her if they do...

Not to hijack this thread, but I changed the oil and filter for the first time today in my 20hp Kohler engine in my 42" lawn tractor. I've changed many oil filters over the years in many types of engines, auto and otherwise, but that was the toughest filter I've ever had to remove !!!! I almost tore it in two before I got it to start coming loose. Then I installed the new filter, ( I danged near fell over when they charged me $13 at Sears ! ) but to get that filter to seal without leaking, I had to tighten it way beyond what I should have had to do. Has anyone else ran into this problem? Krazy~