126 head gasket leak
 

I mow my acre with my new to me 126 and notice black oil on the top of the engine below the gas tank. Well here is what i found and somehow dropped a nut behind the fan shroud. How do I get the drive pulley off? The nu is off now what. Love this thing by the way and thinking about rebuilding the motor since it is out. Don't know yet.:BangPC:

Wiggle it!

duh, i'm dumb

The bore and piston don't look too bad. If it doesn't smoke, knock, or use oil, I would just flatten the head, put on a new gasket, and be done. That mouse nest needs to go though. It looks like someone painted the engine without even cleaning it...there's paint on the mouse nest...

I would think it is NOT, a good idea to paint the cooling fins ??

It's fine to paint the cooling fins on the cylinder. It's just going to burn off the paint and rust again anyway. I don't think the heat transfer through paint is a lot worse than through rust. Bare iron would be best, but that can't be maintained. The aluminum head, however, should remain unpainted for best heat dissipation.

chances are the heat has to go thru rust and paint , most of the tome when u have gotten something from a PO, they just thro paint on while its still assembled, so they dont do a good job of cleaning it, therfor, its rust and paint ! I just would try to give myself a bit more of an advantage, As I have enough problems as it is LOL! sorry to mess up ur thread!

Well i am still trying to decide if I want to rebuild it now or just fix what is wrong and continue to use it. I have the original owners manual and service manual and the chassis and motor numbers both match what was wrote there long ago. All in all good machine

if it runs good, just leaks some oil, just put a gasket or 2 in and let er roll!! get as much as u can out of the old girl !when she cant no more then rebuild it.I had my motor out yesterday, was thinking the same thing, but it ran great, didnt smoke, so I put the motor back in, will install a new gasket in the morning and im all set. I have another motor i was gonna put in, but heck, a gasket dont cost that much !! And it only takes an hour or so to pull the motor out or put it back in, so throw ur gaskets on and good to go.

If it don't smoke and has good power, don't rebuild.