Was it smoking?
Sometimes the carb leaks through to the crankcase, diluting the oil.
This "thinned" oil then gets past the rings easily and burns/evaporates, leaving the oil level low.

"It's clear that the battery is fine because when I crank it the engine attempts to move"

I don't think that's clear to anyone that has any engine experience. Do you think they fail instantaneously?
What would you do with the voltmeter?
8 penlight batteries generate 12V, but certainly lack the capacity to crank the engine.
A LOAD TEST is the way to properly test the battery.

IF this is a Briggs OHV engine, too loose of valve lash won't allow the compression release to work. I doubt that's the problem though, since that tends to be a gradual occurrence.

Since you failed to post the Sears 917.xxxxxx number, we don't know if this is a Briggs or Kohler.

This post was edited by bill_kapaun on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 19:18

Thanks for the response. It's definitely a Briggs engine. Or let me put it this way, there's a big 'ol Briggs and Stratton stamp on it. The model # is 31G77. I believe that's right.

Good point. Getting a voltage reading is not a true indicator of whether or not the battery is good.

It wasn't smoking, only when it conked out. It was laboring, laboring, laboring, then it conked out and threw out a puff of smoke.

The reason why I'm GUESSING the engine is a little sieged is because when I turn the key, it appears I have good power going toward the cranking process (you can hear and feel that jolt of energy), yet the engine "stops" it. It's almost as though there's a heavy break on the engine. When I try and spin the engine from the top by hand, it won't budge. Then again, I have no idea if you normally can spin it by hand because I've never tried to do that!

Sorry for being such a newbie. From the little research that I've seen taking the spark plug out and putting penetrating oil down it, waiting an hour then trying to manually move the pistons by hand as a *possible* solution. Again, this is assuming I'm right and the engine's seized.

I would check the valve setting.I can send you detailed instructions IF you like. Address below, put in proper format and remind me the engine model number and what you want.

Walt Conner
wconner5@frontier.com

duplicate

This post was edited by walt2002 on Thu, Aug 28, 14 at 17:29

I would remove the valve cover and check the rocker arms,sometimes the studs that hold them in place come loose and back out causing the push rods to come loose and bend,this would cause too much compression and throw off the timing and sometimes it can shear the flywheel / timing key