It does not matter if you own a Craftsman or one of the other models. If it has a Briggs and Stratton engine on it it will eventually fail. In my case the snow blower was given to me because the connecting rod in the engine was making a noise. I suspect that when the blower was first bought no one put oil into it and started the engine thus scoring the crankshaft bearing.
The engine is an ebay purchase for $99.00 plus shipping, a good price since a short block was almost $250.00 from a dealer.
Here are some of the problems I had in the conversion and why the engine was so cheap.
PS I took the flywheel nut off with an air impact socket, came right off
