My Riding mower has an 8 year old Briggs & Stratton 14.5 HP OHV Engine. Engine always maintained properly and has run well. While mowing, engine ran well for an hour and then suddenly quit for a split second, and backfired as it came back to life. I continued to mow and it did it again, the third time, the engine died, and then would spin easily but not restart, I pulled the plug and found NO COMPRESSION and had proper level of oil. Any ideas on what happened? Rod, Valve, push rod? Ever heard of this problem before with this engine? Thanks, Mike

Take the plug out, insert a screwdriver, etc... in there... turn the engine over by hand to see if the piston moves in and out...
Kind of sounds like a bend pushrod though... hopefully

Good advice by briggs dude, I have seen rocker problems on this engine and may explain a gradual death, pull valve cover marked "OHV" and look for loose parts.

Pull sparkplug out put a punch in plughole rotate engine slowly should push punch out hopefully I have had one with broken valve spring