... of the 16 or 18 Indian companies who claim that they are making engines - how many really are. Some of them are just exporters who will swear blind that they manufacture.
I would hazard a guess that you could boil your list down to output from perhaps only 5 foundries.
I guess however, the customer in the West will never be fully understand the true relationships between these suppliers.
I've made just a little bit of headway in this direction. For instance one site has two lines, one of which I'm sure is a rebrand of the Satyajeet GM-90. There are a number of small clues, eg Ashwamegh has exactly one direct injection engine, the 14/1, so I can look for that in spec sheets. However I believe you're right in that the relations between sellers are extensive and fluid.
Classifying the engines by injection type, lubrication, bearings, etc might be useful, but that is not clear cut either. Anand sells two lines for instance.
A third approach is to poll owners for frequency of repair. Our small sample is a problem. Worse though is spotty quality among brands. Utterpower.com has a page gushing about Ashwamegh, and there are many happy Ashwamegh owners, but then Shipchief got the dreaded sandy hopper and several other folks had broken gear teeth.
Anyone should feel free to extend or copy the Roundup as they see fit. It was essentially my own research, and I published it here to earn my keep. I bought an Ashwamegh 6/1 from what has been an otherwise excellent lot of eight, so I probably won't have much time for this list anymore.
