2055 White resto modding “White Lightning”

Good point @MightyRaze, crankshaft end play is dictated by gasket thickness and very important!

Ring gap was .010. I had to really tap the pistons in through the bore, there was a huge amount of resistance there. I may not have honed enough, but IDK. I have end play on the crank, and there wasn’t any increase in friction after the rod bearings went in. I think you’re right on the oil rings  @Brianator. I’m going to hook the motor up to my car and see if a 600 CCA battery will do something. If not I don’t have the money for new sump and head gaskets so I feel bad but I can’t put any more money into this. I’m trying to get into college in the next couple years and I work part time so money is very tight unfortunately. I love this tractor but if worse comes to worse there really is no good option here. I thought about a repower, but that’s $200 for a used motor. Double checking the rings would be $110 for gaskets.

I really appreciate all the kind words and suggestions , it does make me feel a little better.

NO DON'T DO IT! You could break a ring, score the cylinder badly and then have to overbore! Tear it down, inspect/compare the rings with the old ones and find the right rings if needed, there's shouldn't be so much resistance you have a bear of a time turning the motor over by hand with the spark plugs out.

.010" of end gap sounds like it is in the ballpark.

NEVER over hone a cylinder, literally 15-20 seconds of time should be plenty enough to cross thatch the cylinder, don't forget it's basically just there to help the new rings wear in.  I use clean motor oil when doing it then clean it all up by washing it with wd-40 and wiping it out really well with a clean cloth to get rid of filings.

Good to know. If that’s the case I think this is going on the back burner. Might be withdrawing at some point, IDK. I may consider looking into parting with it. It’s sad but that seems to be the smarter option here.

I know we are just throwing things at the wall at this point.  I understand your frustration.  I have one last question for you then I'll stop with the 20 questions!  Did you happen to clean out the ring grooves on the piston before installing the rings?

Alright, now that I’ve calmed down I think I figured the problem out:

All I did was gap the compression rings. I may not have even gapped the lower rings. I had the engine half together and I didn’t want crap getting in it so I may have made some stupid mistakes. The problems are these:

Head gaskets are $30 a piece. Sump gasket is $40. To get in this motor again I imagine they will need to be replaced, unless it’s okay to reuse a head gasket that’s just been torqued. Maybe I could add 5 ft pounds or so to the torque spec and get away with it but this is a bad idea. I’m a rookie and prone to doing dumb when turning wrenches, as many of you know by now. Interestingly though, Briggs really doesn’t list much for an end gap on these, all I really could find was the standard 2-4 thou for every inch of bore rule. Now, that’s pretty decent all things considered. Maybe the oil rings are tighter than they should be, and that’s on me for not checking them. That said, I checked again and I could turn the motor over with two hands if I put them on the fan shroud, or with a 3/8 stubby ratchet. That seems okay-ish to me, but IDK. Plugs out and I can do it with a 1/4 stubby ratchet no worries. Seems sorta rational. I wonder if maybe the assembly lube got wiped off somewhere and is making drag on the bores.

Also, there is some crankcase pressure building, and the motor has a whine when I turn it over, sorta like those inteks, but louder.

I dunno. Any advice is appreciated, and I’d like to do something to get this motor going without tearing it down and replacing all the gaskets, but you all have more experience than I do.

I did clean the ring grooves with a brush. All the parts were soaked in gas, then an ultrasonic cleaner with water and soap, then rinsed off with water. I think they should be okay.

And if anything, any thoughts are strongly encouraged. If my tone seems stubborn I’m really sorry for that, I struggle with that sometimes. I’m not afraid to admit I’m in over my head here and I need some guidance troubleshooting. Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have bought another small engine to rebuild to get experience before tearing into something as important as this. Lessons learned though!

Ok, so a quick phone call to a buddy that’s rebuilt some motors and we talked on what’s going on. I took a torque wrench to the flywheel, and it needs about 110-120 inch lbs to turn over on the non compression cycle. This is obviously high. He said that considering the rings checked out for compression, and oil rings probably aren’t causing the problem, we’re wondering if maybe more lube would help. I’m planning on putting some 3 in 1 down the plug holes and/or tipping the motor upside down to let the oil soak into the bores. During assembly I lubed the pistons but not the bores, this obviously isn’t enough. So before troubleshooting further I will add lube and see if it loosens.

In my experiences, of the gasket doesn't tear, rip or de-laminate it will be fine, because it's new. Putting a little extra snot on the bolts won't hurt as long as you don't overdo it.

You've checked the starter itself for proper function ya?

Brianator wrote:

In my experiences, of the gasket doesn't tear, rip or de-laminate it will be fine, because it's new. Putting a little extra snot on the bolts won't hurt as long as you don't overdo it.

You've checked the starter itself for proper function ya?

Yessir. It spins great in reverse. Are you referring to the head gaskets or the sump gasket?

Any. Lol. I'll be honest and say that when I've been in a pinch I've used RTV on gaskets that have torn or ripped to patch them and they've always held up long enough until I got a replacement. Be careful and you probably won't ruin them because they're new. 110-120 inch pounds isn't much resistance so I think you're idea of using some oil is a good idea, I hope it all works out I'd be sad to see you push your tractor aside or get rid of it over this.

Good to hear! I’m hopeful that this will be an easy fix. I got kinda worked up yesterday so don’t pay the stuff about getting rid of her or parkin her no mind! Lol

Quite possibly the cleanest MTD anything I've ever seen!

Thank you @fatboy_dan! These 990 chassis MTDs are a real “blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then” case. Very well made.



I’ve had her parked here for 3 days. She needs some depends…..lol.

In regards to the motor, I shot a bit of kroil and wd-40 into the bores and no dice. I plan to try some plain ol motor oil tomorrow. Might flip the motor over and let the oil drailn up into the rings too.

I read somewhere that a shallow crosshatch angle can cause a lot of drag, so I thing that mixed with a dry bore would be probable for this amount of drag. We’ll figure it out, I’m sure!

Well I put some 10w30 in the bores and turned her over with a ratchet. Starter turns her over now!!!!!!!

I’ve got to put the plugs back in and I do believe we might be able to see some smoke roll.

Fingers crossed for you!

Okay, so I got it to turn over with gas in the carb reasonably quickly. Strong smell of gas. Either I flooded her or she’s got no spark.

She’s a stubborn one but so am I! Lol.

I’mna ressurect this one whether she likes it or not! Lol.

Double posting buuuuttt I got her going!!!!!!!!! Brake was off lmaooo. Grinning pretty good now!

Awesome dude I'm happy for you!

Thanks man!I really appreciate your help and everybody else’s! I’m a rookie so I’m still shedding the green here.

Ok, so it looks like we’re down to three contestants in the build off. I plan to keep going with this prject here.

An easy thing that I’ve been meaning to do is get the front end all cleaned up, so I’ll be taking the front end down and repainting all the rusty stuff. Still need to get the front spindles welded up, but that’s a ways away. I have the parts for the rear so I hope to get that done before October is done. I’m going to try also to get a coat of paint on the body but I will be leaving the new hood in primer until I can get the mounting flanges for the grill welded to the inside. Anywho, I’m still in and still working at my snails pace! Lol.

Progress! Got all of the front axle mounts painted and the front frame. It’s not the best job in the world, but the visible stuff came out ok. The pitting was atrocious and I had to cut off a couple bolts. This powder coating they apply at the factory definitely did not get a primer or an etching profile judging by the rust worm and peeling. It’s been relieved of duty now anyway lol. I may blend the new paint into the old, but we’ll see. It might not be that visible once the motor goes back in. I didn’t want to go all the way back to the midsection because the powder coat is still in nice shape and it’s way more gas and oil resistant than spray paint ever will be. So I might sand and polish the line but IDK.

Transmission update: thinking now the control shaft is probably the source of the air. It leaks like a siv, and I found a cross reference on line, which is nice. Little by little, we’re getting there.

Nice to see more progress! I really doubt your control shaft seal is the source of air I'd look more on a suction line. My control shaft seal leaked badly but I wasn't getting air in the system, on my Eaton 10 the control shaft is on the bottom of the case if that makes a difference?

Brianator wrote:

Nice to see more progress! I really doubt your control shaft seal is the source of air I'd look more on a suction line. My control shaft seal leaked badly but I wasn't getting air in the system, on my Eaton 10 the control shaft is on the bottom of the case if that makes a difference?

Good point. I will need to remove the eaton eventually so I’ll probably replace all the lines when I do that. My thought was that it sits directly under the pump side of the tranny so air might enter there. It needs replacing anyway lol.

Thanks for the tip bud!

Little bit of progress today. Got the pto shaft all cleaned up, bearings removed, and all that fun stuff. Quite a pain trying to find flanged bearings for it! I’d prefer to replace them but if I cant then the ones in it are decent enough.

Trying to figure out now if I’m going to paint the body this fall or wait until the spring. Warmest day is 62, and 8 mph winds. IDK.

No pics yet, but the ol lady’s a roller again! Got the driveshaft and dash removed and painted, touched up some rusty spots, and fought the front axle back in. Boy what a chore that was! Glad its done with lol. Now onto the bodywork…. Weather permitting….