It's powder coated.

I threaded the governor bushing and run a breather on there and see how it works.

I will display my abysmal ignorance once again...  :-)  What is powder coating?  Not a home-shop process, I suspect.

Your governor bushing could have been easily removed before tapping, and on mine I put a 1/4" pipe "drop" in there as a splash shield.  I put just the breather in the tapped governor hole in a 479cc Vanguard, and it blew enough oil to make more mess than I want.  Not a huge ammount, but always oily.  Enough that if you piped it to the air filter it would cause a tiny bit of exhaust smoke.  Maybe a lot at high RPM(?), but I never wound it up very high like you racers do.
Garry

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Anything looks faster with some Bowtie Orange

Bowtie orange?  What the hey is that?  :-)  Like international orange the hunters use?  I want snazzy, not obnoxious...  LOL!  My engine will be in full view and an eyesore against all the other bright colors unpainted, to me.  Dosn't matter if it overheats and blows, as long as it looks good doing it!
Garry

http://www.pace7232.org/reporter/Jun%2002/production_of_opposed_twin_ends.htm

A must read!

There is a "new" 46 shortblock at Small Engine Warehouse also, but it's a parts-stripped engine and not much for the $450 plus shipping price...  But, if one wanted to start with new...  I figure I might get a nice pile of junkers for the same price?
Garry

The 18.5 is almost always a 42. I think towards the end of production Briggs really was just throwing whatever parts together.
Also possible someone switched tins.
What was the model # on yours Garry?

Rooster crow'd correct...  I finally figured out the correct way to measure the stroke, and she indeedy be a 42 cubic incher...  No biggie, I just have what I thought I bought 'tis all.
Garry

Ive jumped in head first i actually gave it a shot and got good results from it i learned what direction to go by studying the carb a bit. Where can i find his book or video at and also im working on a attachable accelerator pump at the moment.

You can google G-Team Racing, or it's available on eBay as engines 101 from his eBay store.  It's well worth the $39 and I use the heck out of mine porting and such, but I was a little tongue-in-cheek on my previous post.  Don races with the stock carb because it works fine for him (according to the DVD), and Rooster posted he buys his carbs from a carb guy.  I'm not going to use the briggs carb myself, not being a racer, and I have two in my trading stock.  However, no one here is into the barter system apparently.

Can you convert a vertical oppy to a horizontal i see the plate on the side of the engine where you can switch the engine mounting location with the proper pieces i got another engine and it is a 18.5

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Also i got my mower today it is a wizard lawn tractor which will be the victim for my race mower guys i really appreciate the help.

Hey Mowpower...,
Your conversion make the oil dipstick/fill disappear like mine did?  My horizontal base has a hole tapped and plugged at the oil level like it could be used on equipment where oil was checked by taking the plug out.  I'm liking that, and am using it.  To fill I'm putting a tee in the old governor shaft hole, which I have tapped to become part of the crankcase breather system.  Yes, it is splash-shielded.  It has a 1/4 inch drop pipe threaded into the inner shaft support.  I'm enjoying this conversion because it requires looking at the workings of the change and getting creative.  There are quite a few small differences among block types and years, it appears.  Gotta go with what your's is!
Garry

i only saw one oppie at the All American...in one of the lower classes. pretty much a dead horse. Maybe its time to trade her in? Sure be a lot easier......just saying.

Like trying to change any other kind of addict, you are most likely wasting your breath, or electrons...  :-)  Especially with old-stuff lovers like me.  My interest isn't as a racer, so at least my insanity for the old oppy isn't totally off the wall.  Besides, perhaps none of the top oppy builders made it to your mentioned race? The boxer design has some actual advantages also, like fewer vibration issues... 
Garry

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The 18.5 is almost always a 42. I think towards the end of production Briggs really was just throwing whatever parts together.
Also possible someone switched tins.
What was the model # on yours Garry?

Well, this old feller has embarassed himself, again...  As a double-check on my 46 (allegded) crankshaft, I measured the bore, measured the worn area for stroke, subtracted for the difference between the high ring and the oil ring, did the math and...  Ta-da(!) came up with exactly 44 cubic inches.  I give up...    Yet the crankshaft does measure what I have read as the ammount for the 46.  I gotta cut back on some of those prescriptions I guess!

If i were to run dual carbs on an 18.5 oppy which ones should i use.

You may want to switch to displacement rather than B&S horsepower labeling for these guys so they know exactly what you have.  My 18.5 has 42ci numbers and heads, but turned out to actually be a mis-labeled 46ci!  Was I happy. oh yeah!   (Measure the crankshaft throw.)
Garry

You need an engine mount or sump. The block rear cover comes off the vertical and the new horizontal sump bolts there. The side cover for a horizontal bolts were the vertical sump is. Search ebay. You need a sump, a side cover, a dipper for the number one rod, You need a sump with a dipstick hole. Youll also need an intake for a horizontal. Easy to do. The only difference is the crank is close to 2 inches to long in the lower bearing area wich will stick out of the side cover when the vertical is made a horizontal.

Whoo-hoo!  This is a timely thread for me!  I'm right in the middle (in my case muddle) of doing a vert to hori conversion right now!  Just cleaning up the parts on the newest engine in the conversion, the verticle shaft.  Not sure if I want to use the horizontal crankshaft I have, or use the longer verticle crank.  The longer may have advantages for me.

Has anyone ever run a oil splasher on both rods?  Like the long improved one on number one like stock, and a smaller one on number two maybe?  Wouldn't that douse the innards better on a standard-reving engine?  I could see problems on the high-reving engine frothing the oil to much, maybe...?
Garry