bowtiebutler956

I sure wish I lived on the same continent as you Mark. I would love to see your amazing creation in person. Matt

Nice job Norm! Thats a great looking horse that will stand out in a crowd. Matt

Like I've said before, your welcome in my home anytime Terry. Matt

Thanks Terry, and its always very rewarding to have them fire to life, and run great after a restoration. Even after all the engines I've reworked over the years, I'm still amazed at the amount of anticipation I have leading up to the first start. Matt

I doubt I'd steal the show, but it sure would be alot of fun. Thanks Terry. Matt

Thanks Norm. Matt

You guys got to work harder at getting your wives properly trained. I sure hope my wife doesn't read this. My wife has always been very supportive of my hobby. Matt

Well, now that I've been bit by the antique engine bug again, I thought I'd share another engine. This is one I bought a year or two ago, and never got around to messing with. Its an early production Sears 500 Briggs Model N. When I got this engine, it had two of the mounting ears broke off the base, so I replaced it with an extra one I had on the shelf. Only problem is the one on my shelf had been repainted, so it doesn't blend in very well. All I had to do to get this one running was clean the carburetor, and clean the carbon out of the head. It already had good fire, so I haven't even looked at the points. I have no intention of restoring this one, as its so original, and still runs great. Its nice to have a few nice original engines sitting next to my restored one. Here are a few pics, and a video. Matt

Yes indeed, and very regularly. Matt

The NR2 is now living the good life with my other honored engines that live in my bedroom. Actually its more like a storeroom off the side of my bedroom, but there is no door separating the two. This is where all my restored, and very special engines live. I have a really good wife! There are 20 here in my bedroom, and another 20-30 at my shop. Here are a few pics. Matt

Thanks, and I just acquired an NR6, which is what I thought this engine was when I bought it. So, the NR6 will probably be next on the list. I'll post pics as soon as I have it in my hands. Matt

The wait is over. Thanks Ian, and I've lost count! I know I'm over 40, but would need to take inventory to know just how many. Alright, here is the video from today, and as expected, it fired right up, and ran great. Just need to get a couple more things, and it will be done. Sorry for how shaky the video is. Youtube can fix the shaky, but then its blurry, so I decided to keep the shake. I'll do better next time. Matt

Thanks Richard. I have a couple more I'll be working on after this one is done. I acquired an NR6, as well as an early production Sears 500 Model N. I may not restore the Sears as it still has all its original decals, but at the very least it will be given fresh rings, and a thorough going threw. Matt

Thanks Norm, i appreciate it. Hopefully. i'll have a video of it running today. Matt

Its great to hear from you Terry, and thanks for popping in to say hello. Matt

My reproduction spark plug wire will be here tomorrow, so its not running yet, but I did assemble it for a few beauty shots today. I still have to get a reproduction ID tag, and one more Briggs decal as well, but its almost done. Hopefully there will be a video tomorrow. Matt

I think that compliments your C-120 perfectly. It will now sound as mean as it looks! Matt

Well, I got the paint on. It was really to windy to be painting today, but I did anyway. The problem is, even with doing the painting in my shop, dirt is blown around from the wind coming in through the ridge cap at the top of my roof. Needless to say, I have some unwanted debris in my paint, particularly the shroud. Oh well, it still looks decent, and its shiny. Matt

I don't even know what to say about that. Its very interesting. Matt

Thanks for the kind words Pete. I really love these old Briggs engines. I have a couple Model I lever start engines that I really like. I'll put a pic below of one of them. Its all original, and runs like a top. Made a bit of progress today. I was working on my most disliked part of any restoration today. Sanding Bondo, prime, san, prime, sand, repeat, repeat, repeat, until smooth! I started off with a coat of (green) self-etching primer, to make sure it sticks to the bare metal. Then followed up with sandable (brown) primer. Everything turned out decent, so I should be able to paint tomorrow. Matt

Yep, if they were holes, I would have had to use JB Weld, instead of Bondo. Matt

Thanks guys, I appreciate the encouraging words. Continued stripping paint today. Did the gas tank, air filter, rope cup, etc.. The gas tank had several dings in one end, although they didn't show up very well in the pics below. Anyway, I gave it a skim coat of body filler, as well as a dab on a couple other small dings. Once its sanded, you'll never know they were there, except for the fact I just told you they were. Anyway, here are a couple pics from today. Matt

Nice work Norm! That Horse has a very sinister look to it, like its just waiting to attack. Matt

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