Simplicity 20HP B&S - Oil all over underneath. Where to start?
I’m looking for thoughts/concerns and appreciate any time spent reading this.
I recently purchased a Simplicity Conquest with about 1,000 hours on it, running a 20HP Briggs & Stratton Vanguard engine. I know that’s a lot of hours, but the seller (older gentleman) said he maintained it well over the last four years, and his brother owned it since new. There were dated stickers on several replacement parts, so I believed it had been cared for. Mentioned all the fluids were replaced this year.
Before buying, I ran it and mowed for about 15 minutes at his place — no leaks, smoke, or obvious issues.
After bringing it home, I mowed the rest of my 2-acre yard and afterward found oil sprayed all underneath the mower (see pictures).
I cleaned everything up and later ran it again for another 15 minutes while watching closely for leaks. I didn’t notice anything obvious, but I did NOT engage the PTO/deck that time.
A few things I’m wondering:
- Could this simply be from overfilling the oil?
- Could mowing on hills/slopes cause oil to blow out somewhere?
- Are there common leak points on these Vanguard engines?
- Does engaging the PTO/load potentially make a hidden issue show up?
- Anything specific I should check first?
If you’ve owned one of these mowers or engines, does anything stand out as a common failure point?
What would you do next? I called the guy… didn’t seem like he experienced that, but he had a very small yard. Probably didn’t need a mower this size.