Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I came across a thread here from about a year ago covering pretty much the same problem that I have, and hope maybe someone will have some new insights. One of the two oil filler caps disappeared from my engine, a Tecumseh oh195sp spec 73503c, leading to major oil loss and seizing of the engine. When the engine stopped, I heard a very loud knock. The starter cord was completely locked up when I tried to restart. After rocking the blower back and forth a bit, something gave way, and now the cord pulls freely, and it sounds like maybe the piston is moving, but with no compression and very little resistance. I don't know if I made things worse with the rocking, but that's where I am now. The blower is a little over two years old and in perfect shape otherwise, so I hate the thought of just walking away from it. Main problem, of course, is the dual shaft set-up. I haven't disassembled the unit much yet, but it looks like the main shaft drives the impeller only, while the smaller shaft (which turns in opposition) powers the drive wheels. Although there are some great deals on tecumseh engines out there (Small Engine Warehouse, for example) everything seems to be single shaft. There does seem to be a short block available from Pat's Small Engines, but I haven't yet determined for sure if it's the right one. I also don't know if their short block will include cylinder and piston, or if it's likely that I'll need that. I'm also a little leery of diving into an engine rebuild, something I haven't done since rebuilding a 1964 MGB engine thirty-some years ago. So, assuming that the short block is the right one, which seems likely to be simpler; rebuilding with the short block, or getting an almost identical but single-shaft Snow King for about the same money (200-250) and re-engineering the machine to work from the one shaft? Finally, for my own curiosity, Can these plugs actually unscrew themselves over time and just fall out? This is a plastic threaded plug, about 3/4 inch diameter. I had the thing serviced by a local guy about a year ago, and either he left the plug off, or it worked its way out on its own. I might be able to get him to contribute to fixing the thing if it's pretty certain that it was due to his mistake. Don't really know the guy, but I figure it's worth a try. Many thanks for any suggestions

Thanks for the quick replies... Shryp, you mentioned finding "an almost identical engine" and switching some parts, but so far I've been unable to find detailed info re which oh195's are identical enough to allow this. I'd hate to spend $250 on a new engine only to discover that things didn't quite line up. Trouts, regarding replacing the rod, and perhaps the shaft, is it likely those parts are still available somewhere? Seems a lot of us were left high and dry by Arien's choice of Tecumseh (particularly the two-shaft models) for their blowers. I'm pretty much resigned to shoveling my driveway by hand for the rest of the season, as this is shaping up to be a very drawn out project

Probably any engine of the same style.  I am not familiar enough to know though.  A lot of engines of different horsepower use most of the same parts.  Any OH195 would probably work, you could look up parts on partstree.com and get part numbers and other compatible engines.  Maybe someone more familiar could help you.

Well, I looked at Partstree.com and they do seem to have all the replacement parts I would likely need to repair the engine. I guess the next step is to tear the engine down and determine exactly what was damaged. Probably will need to get a tech manual. If I go ahead with repairing, at least the finished product will be original specs, and I think there's much less risk of ending up buying or making something that just doesn't work as planned. Thanks again to everyone who shared their thoughts on this. If anyone has any further words of wisdom regarding a rebuild, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

I have never bought anything from partstree, I just use it to look up part numbers.

Here are some good repair videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/donyboy73

If you search his videos for "rod" you will find a lot of videos about blown connecting rods.  He fixed one, but usually scraps the engines.

If you ran it out of oil you might end up with more problems down the road.  You might be able to pick up a used machine for close to the same price as what it will cost to fix that one.  Then maybe you can sell yours as is and get some of your money back.  OH195 is only about 5HP so it sounds like a small machine.  You might be able to pick up a used one for $150 - $200 then sell yours for $50.

You never mentioned your blower model or type, but a lot of them were built by MTD under many different names.  You might be able to score a good deal on one with a busted gear case and then either move that engine to yours or move your front end to that.

Actually this oh195 is 7.5 HP, mounted on an Ariens 24' with electric start,. The unit cost around $700.00 a couple of years ago. You may still be right about the economics of the situation, but I'll be kicking myself for a long time if I've reduced the thing to a $50 piece of scrap. But yes, I get your point about generalized, perhaps hidden damage. So I guess you would lean toward a new tecumseh (around $250 at smallenginewarehouse) and then do whatever I need to do to run everything from the one shaft?

  I would not be too put off by hidden dammage.  There will be trace marks in there from the rod hits and pretty easy to spot.  You have to get the internals very clean for a good look.  Check all the spots equal to where the broken rod could have reached.  Check the bottom of the bore.   A rod side block wall hit will be very noticable by the marks.  Any puffing or cracks pretty apparent from the inside or out.

  The crank journal may look very bad and areas burnt.  Those cleanup easily with muriatic acid and Q-tips.  Possibly with loosing all your oil quickly there will be less journal damage than a rod break that happened over a long time with slow loss of oil. 

   I've done over three and scraped two.  One scrap was a nice 11.5hp OHV that had a bad crack at the starter mount area and one scrapped for chunks out of the bottom of the bore wall. 

   With the descriptions of the sounds you heard the first was the rod breaking and second possibly the sound when moving was the rod breaking free from a wedged position.  It's worth a look and you should be able to tell your liklihood for success.

Never mind.