1641 with blown engine

[brudder]

Time for an update on this thread. I decided i wanted to keep this tractor and fix it. It's a little long but maybe the details could be useful to someone else someday.

First thing to deal with is the engine. I was going to half-@$$ rebuild it on the cheap. I got a different 16 hp engine that was also blown up but the crank was good, so I was planning to make a good engine out of the two using a piston and rod from each. Well, then I realized the rods that weren't broken were also bad. They had some aluminum from the rod that blew up melted on to them... In hindsight, now that I know what I'm looking at, it's obvious and makes sense given the trauma the engine experienced during a lack of oil situation... So then I decided if I was buying two new rods and a gasket set, new rings are obviously necessary. Briggs changed the pistons so I couldn't just buy new rings... A new piston was required. At that point, with everything else being new, some machining would be in order.

I didn't want to spend all that money and end up with something with problems because I've never done a rebuild. So, I found a new 16 hp vanguard on Amazon marketplace in very good condition for $700 after taxes. Bought that. Well, Amazon shipped it in the cardboard box with NO padding inside. It banged around in the brown truck and brown plane for a couple days and showed up at my house damaged. Key was bent, blower housing banged up, wiring frayed, air filter box bent up, etc. Amazon refunded my money and told me to keep it. Most of the stuff that was damaged I didn't need because I had from the old engine or it was already on the tractor, so I could work with it. I had to straighten the blower housing and repaint it. They changed the flywheel from the older Vanguards. Otherwise, new engine for free. Win.

Well, with a brand new engine, I decided to go through some other things. Pulled out the wiring harness to do a better job of cleaning up the tractor. Re-taped and replaced some of the split loom conduit that was melted to the engine. I replaced fuel lines and shut off valves (my valves were rusty and one wouldn't shut off). I adjusted the Ross steering box and greased the front end including the steering CV joint. I also cleaned up the driveshaft and will obviously re-grease when it goes back in. The old grease was black and came out in chunks.

Here's a couple pics of the damaged engine and where it stands now. I need to get things lined up and the engine tightened down yet, then electrical and fuel hooked up, air cleaner on, etc.

A couple questions related to start-up... I won't need this until next spring, but I want to get it running. Any thoughts on starting up a brand new engine, running it for 20 minutes, and then storing for the winter? Ultimately, I think I will run synthetic 5w-30 (briggs recommendations: https://www.vanguardengines.com/na/e...endations.html) but am thinking SAE-30 would be better for engine break in. The problem is it's cold here now, so don't know if cold starting a new engine with 30w oil is the best for it.