Didn’t know exactly where to put this but figured here would be fine. I was mowing my yard last weekend and got half way through my back lot and the motor kinda did a hiccup and started to blow oil out of the dipstick or so I thought. I got off to check and found a hole in my block next to the dipstick but the motor was running fine. Took it to the garage and shut it off and inspected and could see the dipper is broken off the rod so I have to pull the motor. Got the motor out and removed the pan and found the bearings in the balance gears has went out and caused the gears to break. From what I understand this is a typical failure for the balance gears and some people prefer to remove them to avoid this problem and I had done that to a previous motor. I removed the head and pulled the piston and rod and the piston was kinda dinged up as well. I had a nice used rod and piston from another engine rebuild but had order rings for it. I did find the block pieces and job welded them back in. I haven’t ever had great luck with jb weld in the past but figured I would try it again. Finally got the rings on Friday and honed the bore and polished the crank and put it back together and she runs great! She used to smoke a little but didn’t seem to when I used it today to mow and the jb weld seems to be holding.
