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I thought I'd post another project I'm working on. Most of you already know I have a love for the old cast iron Briggs engines, and especially the Model N lineup. There are so many different variations of the Model N, it can make you dizzy. I've been working for years at trying to get as many good examples of the different variations of the Model N as possible. I have acquired yet another one that I didn't have yet. This is a 45 Briggs NR2, and has a 2:1 gear reduction built into the block. It funny, I purchased this believing it was an NR6, which is visually identical to the NR2, and are more much more common the the NR2. It didn't have an id tag, and the seller had no clue what it was, so I was very surprized when it arrived, and the engine rotated twice for every rotation of the pto. Needless to say I was very pleased, as these are much harder to come by. The engine was in rough shape, but still had lots of potential. Once I opened it up, I found it had a .020 over piston in it, a .010 under crank, and replacement valve guides had been installed. Both the piston, and cylinder looked great, but the rings were wore out. I tried finding .020 piston rings for it, but I never did. Eventually, I found a complete Briggs .020 piston assembly, which came with new rings, so I went that route. The crank, and the .010 undersized rod were in perfect shape, so all was good there. The valve guides were still in decent shape, but the intake valve had already been cut one to many times, so I located a new new valve. I cut both seats, and then lapped the valves back in. I'm currently working on getting it all painted up. This engine should run very well, as it tested at 120 psi on its compression test as you can see in the video below. Thats amazing compression for these old engines! Its magneto is also putting out a very strong spark, as you can see in the video. The OE carb was very corroded, but I had a good rebuildable core on the shelf that I used instead. The original PTO oil seal can no longer be found, but after taking some measurements, I found a modern seal that fit perfectly. I'm very thankful to have other good friends that are Briggs collectors as well. Thanks to Den, a good friend who has a much larger collection than I do, I now have the correct Briggs Type # for this engine, so I can get a new ID tag made. I decided to replace this engines original shroud with an identical one thats in far better shape. Aside from the rust, someone had done some horrible welding to the original shroud! While it could have been repaired, I had one on my spare parts shelf, thats in much better shape, so I took the easy way out! Here are a buch of pics, and a video of where I'm currently at. Thanks Matt

With the help of Old Buzzard we were able to put together a .pdf file of the Bolens 1556 operator/maintenance manual.I took the pictures and resized them and OB used his pdf maker to put the file together I uploaded it to the manuals section for anyone that wants it.

Well, nothing went bang so out came the grinder.. Strange baffle thingy.. I guess it's there to stop dirt from entering the carbs.. About to go under the knife grinder After fuel tap pipe enlargement surgery.. I had to lower the fuel tap to give me a fighting chance of getting some sort of air filter fitted! Yes the fuel tap outlet is lower than the carb fuel inlet, but as the tank is above the inlet gravity should still do it's thing and fuel the carbs up. The old fuel tap hole was blocked up by screwing in the end of this bolt and some welding. I still need to make some brackets to bolt the tank down but as it will need to go in and out a lot while I sort the induction side of things out that job can wait a little while.. Speaking of induction, this was the carbs to air filter box pipework.. I only needed the carb ends.. Which were a perfect fit over this 2 inch diameter pipe, or part of a Reliant prop shaft to give it it's full name.. The plan is to plumb this pipe into both carbs and stick and air filter on both ends.... This time I will make sure I get the right size filters

There could be something in what you're saying Neil but one needs to be cautious about the urban myths surrounding the Amnor plant in Belgium. It was an assembly plant that did not manufacture components. It did have a paint shop to process the parts shipped from the US which were in bare metal form. So taking a couple of things into account i.e. nobody seems to have recognised the bagger in the US and the fact that on a timeline the rather old school design was pretty much obsolete compared with the vac baggers WH were producing by the 1980s it is perhaps possible that it was produced for the US market, didn't sell well, so the stock of parts were shipped to Belgium to be assembled for the European Market to get rid of them. I have found an interesting link to this design on RS submitted by Vincent in Belgium. I remember thinking that this looked a bit 'hookey' when I first saw it but I can see now that it's a rather nifty adaptation of the original design using a wheely bin to collect grass. It even has the same clear hose as shown in the WH brochure. Here's the link http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/topic/30947-new-vacuum-bagger-system-made-in-belguim-orginal-from-wheel-horse/ I agree with Vincent about it being made in Belgium but I thing that is in the context of 'by a previous owner'. Vincent's photos show what the addition belt guard was like which is useful.

Another fine engine job Matt, you certainly go through them and a good report and photos. A lesson to us all and a hard act to follow. Well done mate

Superb job.