its a 4 stroke mower (well it has an oil pan so i guess it is). Anyway, i got it second hand several years ago, with no manuals. Im guessing i just tip it over to loose the oil and then refill with new. Does anyone know what grade oil? Is it worth changing the plug, lead or filter? Or do i just do that when it stops working. Cheers!

Is it broken, or are you just short of something to do
If its not broken , top it up and carry on using it till it is.

Haynes do a fix your lawn mower book

sae 30 oil
change plug / air filter
there is most likley a square drain plug one front and one rear that lets oil run over the body
is it a rotary or a cylinder mower ?

dont bother use it till it blows up then buy another from a car boot, theres always someone selling nicked mowers for £20

If its a Briggs & Stratton engine multigrades that are low viscosity at the cold end are also suitable Ford Zetec spec 5w/30 is ideal as is a synthetic 10w/30 but don't use 20w/50 or 15w/40.


See http://www.briggsandstratton.com/display/router.asp?DocID=65888

well, i broke the pull cord again the other day, there now isnt enough left to rewind so i bought another on ebay. Thought whilst i was at it id do the rest of the service. I'll change the oil just cos it been 2 years since i bought it and it might've been only then, i know they dont get much use but i dislike excessive consumerism (the break it and buy new approach!) so i'd rather keep it alive.

Cheers for the tips chaps, i'll leave plug and lead til it breaks, wash the filter and get some oil in.

I use zetec oil in mine. works perfect. I serviced mine last week. Put it up on some axle stands with a pan under to catch the oil.

The bungs are usually 3/8 square.

[Edited on 17/4/06 by Danozeman]

I get my briggs motors from the tip!!!!

Got an old cast ally deck mountfield which a mower shop told me are worth a fair bit now, cos all the new mowers are cheap crappy pressed things!

Dad hit a manhole and bent the crank on the already incredibly aged engine which was already the second one on it, so I popped to the tip and fished a likely candidate out of the skip and chucked it in the boot before they could start trying to charge me for it.

Changed the oil, cleaned the airfilter and carb out, works a treat.

Briggs engines are so basic you can pretty much dismantle them with a hammer, all my early (10 yrs old) engine learning was done on them, like porting with a file, straight-through-ing a carb (get rid of the 90 deg turn on the inlet, hacksaw the end off!!) and skimming the head with abrasive on a plate of glass, took hours that one!! oh the fun of childhood!

did you ever get it dyno'd on a rolling lawn?!