Cleaned mower crank case with mineral spirits, what next?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

I bought a lawnmower off a member a few weeks back and he gave me another non working mower for free. He told me that it had been sitting outside for a couple of winters, so I figured it would be a fun project to try and get it running again.

This weekend, I had some time, so I started to tinker with it. I pulled on the starter cord and could hear the swoosh of water in the engine. Not quite what I was expecting, but easy to fix. I pulled the head off to take a look at the cylinder and it didn’t look too bad, some scoring on the wall, but otherwise no rust and the piston moved freely. Then… I pulled out the oil fill tube and found the crank case to be full of water. Not sure how it all got in there, but there was virtually zero oil and all water. So I pulled the engine off the mower and took the base off the engine to get into the crank case to find it was coated with a slimy oil and water mixture.

So… next I took some mineral spirits to the base and the crank case to get the slimy crap out, which worked well. Now my question is, since I used the mineral spirits, do I have disassemble the crank, rod, etc. or can I let it dry and reassemble and put oil back in?

2

reassemble it like you’re building the motor. use some grease in the right places. Just make sure it’s all dry first …

3

What do you mean grease in the right places? Should I use assembly lube on the rotating assembly or just regular 10w30 before I put the base back on?

4

If you have assembly lube use that. If not use whatever grease you have around. If you have none of that just use 10w30 and let is soak for a bit. Then before starting remove spark plug and crank it a bit. You’re not building a precision motor and you don’t need to waste money on a fun project.

I don’t know why but recently I’ve starting building/repairing small motors.