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Books : Small Engine Care & Repair: A step-by-step guide to maintaining your small engine (Briggs & Stratton)In association with Amazon.comRating:  - FAST SHIPPINGFAST SHIPPING. BOUGHT IT FOR MY HUSBAND AND HE IS PLEASED WITH THE INFORMATION. IT IS A BASIC GUIDE ON MAINTAINING YOUR OWN SMALL ENGINES. Rating:  - Pretty but DumbOK maybe that's harsh. If you've never touched an engine before, and yours is still running, this is a friendly introduction. Or if you lost the operating manual. What I was hoping for was an updated version of the old B&S manuals you could buy at the auto-parts and hardware stores (See Briggs & Stratton Repair Manual (For Single Cylinder 4-Cycle Engines)), but this is not it. It seems dumbed-down a lot. The "Care" and "Troubleshooting" bits are mostly in the manual when you buy something with an engine, and the "Repair" stuff is mostly obvious if you've got any mechanical sense. Unfortunately, Neither Haynes nor Chilton seem to have updated their manuals since the late 90's, and the newer pubs by other folks seem to be dumbed-down as well according to the reviews. I'm at a loss to recommend an alternative. Personally, I'm going to dig up my old B&S manual and see how much of it still applies. In the end it'll be the carburetor, it always is, and the old book won't help because that's the part that changes continuously from year to year. Oh well. Rating:  - Very informative and methodicalI love this book. I found the information to be very helpfull, I was able to replace the gas tank on my lawnmower and clean out the engine. This is the first time I have done anything like this, but because of this book I think I can even work on my other small engine equipment. This was a great buy for me. Rating:  - Check to see if you really need thisOK, here's the deal on this book: if you either need to do some repair and heavy maintenance on your B&S (or, as I like to call, BS) engine, or you already have part of it apart and don't know how to get it back together, then this book will be helpful. However, if you have already torn your mower apart, put it back together, but are still having trouble honing in on the problem, I don't think you'll get much out of this book. I was in the latter position up until, well, today. I had taken the carb off, "rebuilt" it, and readjusted it several times. But I couldn't get my mower running. Turns out the smallest internal part of the carb -- the needle seat -- has to be put in a certain way. This book doesn't go into anywhere near that much detail. This is only one example of which I'm sure there are others, particularly when you start messing around with the head and piston. You can only learn engine repair and diagnosis through experience with (hopefully) a mentor. Online forums can help be that mentor in many cases. If you have no idea how to get started, then yes, I recommend this book. But if diagnosis and other small issues are your problem, I don't think this book will help. Rating:  - Very Dissappointed - Only covers 1 type of B&S engineI have two lawn mowers with Briggs and Stratton engines. One purchased in 2000 and the second in Oct 2006. Both have roughly the same 4 HP engine. (This has to be one of B&S more popular B&S lawn mower engines.) This book does not offer any guidance on repair or maintenance instructions for the carburetor that is on my 2 engines. Very generic. I thought it would cover all models |
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