Author Topic: More engine questions  (Read 5310 times)

broncodriver99

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #15 on: July 17, 2018, 02:30:20 PM »
So the Briggs engines are crap.

Who BUILDS the good ones?

I can't remember who makes them, it is more a partnership than a rebadge. All of the Vanguards I have seen were made in Japan though.

I have got a JD mower and my yard vac with Kohlers on them.  Experience with them is limited to a few hours so far but they run VERY smooth. No problems starting, run clean and have reasonable power.  As the gear they are on is well used, I don't think they are particularly fresh engines. No experience with Kohlers other than this and never worked on any so see how they pan out.

Kohler's are in a whole different class from Briggs and Tecumseh. They are the "heavy duty" engines. They have always been very well made and one pays a premium for them here in the US. They do have a cheaper line of engines out now aimed at competing with the import stuff that has had a few issues.

Did have a couple of Techmseh's many years back and they seemed like garbage too. I have no idea what became of them. Haven't seen them in years.

Tecumseh's have been junk for a long time. I think they went downhill sometime in the '70's.

Honestly , in the power equipment world in the US Kawasaki has taken over. They have been slowly gaining market share for the last 20 years. They make a very good product that has held up to the abuse of commercial landscape crews. Some of them are made in Japan and some are made here in the US. They and Kohler seem to battle for king of the hill these days.

38ac

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #16 on: July 17, 2018, 02:53:05 PM »


Honestly , in the power equipment world in the US Kawasaki has taken over. They have been slowly gaining market share for the last 20 years. They make a very good product that has held up to the abuse of commercial landscape crews. Some of them are made in Japan and some are made here in the US. They and Kohler seem to battle for king of the hill these days.

We have a Wheel Horse with a 20HP liquid cooled Kaw and it has been very good. I noticed that lots of the Z-turn manufacturers have been switching to them.
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guest23837

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2018, 03:18:45 PM »
My brother has a small camping generator about 1.2 KW I think it has an Onan alternator it has a Tecumseh engine he thinks its the best thing since sliced bread. I think it's 50's or 60's

LowGear

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2018, 12:50:01 AM »
I've got a sinus headache so my reading is even down from the normal (for me).  So if it's already been covered I apologize.  Isn't it Toyota that is messing around with part time gasoline compression ignition in one of their new models?
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cobbadog

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #19 on: August 03, 2018, 07:11:43 AM »
Back to the original part on TVO (Tractor Vapourising Oil). We have a David Brown Cropmaster 30C tractor and is a TVO engine. As already discussed kero is way too expensive to buy and use so I always run it on Premium unleaded petrol. For no other reason than better mileage and performance (for want of another term) running on petrol all the time in all weather conditions from the cool 10'C through to the mid 30'c there has never been an issue of fuel vapourising on the tractor and causing any loss of power or over heating. Mixing diesel is something i would never do as explained it is the wrong component to use as a blended fuel for a petrol engine. We drive our 2 seater tractor on Tractor Treks and these can go all day with no issues ever running straight petrol.
As for B&S engines they should be branded BS engines as that is the best description I can think of them now they have degraded the makings of the engine. Alloy bores just dont work in this situation and then you have the country of origin issues. If you find the codes on the cowl of the BS engine, write them down and go to the B&S site and decipher the codes. It will tell you everything you want to know, date of manufacture and country of origin.
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guest23837

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #20 on: August 03, 2018, 07:55:29 AM »
I've got a sinus headache so my reading is even down from the normal (for me).  So if it's already been covered I apologize.  Isn't it Toyota that is messing around with part time gasoline compression ignition in one of their new models?
https://www.wired.com/story/mazda-injection-compression-skyactivx-engine/

mikenash

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #21 on: August 03, 2018, 07:58:10 AM »

Never heard of "Part time gasoline Compression ignition"  so I looked up on google.
Apparently they haven't heard of it either  ::)

Bruce is right of course:

Experimental petrol diesel unit here:

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a19909520/gas-diesel-engine-reactivity-controlled-compression-ignition/

and Mazda Compression-and-spark ignition petrol engine here

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/mazda-compression-ignition-technology/

The big story isn't the fuel, it's the efficiency - claimed 60% fuel energy used as "drive" as opposed to (something like) normal 40%

cobbadog

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Re: More engine questions
« Reply #22 on: August 04, 2018, 06:39:16 AM »
Another form of fuel saving is from the past too. Have a look at engines described as Hit n Miss. I have a couple of them one air cooled the other is hopper cooled but the theory of them is not to be firing all the time. they use the inertia of flywheel/s to keep the momentum going and only firing once the governor is opened because it is running a bit slow. Not ideal for a car but as stationary engines they are unbeatable.
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