New Snowblower/small engine QUESTION!!!!

[Kestas]

I see many people repower their snowblowers with new engines - moreso than automotive engines. I assume this is because of oil-related failures, and that small engines aren't as robust as automotive engines. To me it makes sense for people to step up snowblower lubrication maintenance and use synthetic.

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
I see many people repower their snowblowers with new engines - moreso than automotive engines. I assume this is because of oil-related failures, and that small engines aren't as robust as automotive engines. To me it makes sense for people to step up snowblower lubrication maintenance and use synthetic.


Look at some of the threads were people changed their engine to a newer one. Many of those machines are 20, 30 or even 40+ years old. Those engines were tired and well worn out anyways.

Most premature small engine failures are due to owner neglect. Use of a synthetic and still be a neglectful owner will not give you much extra margin in the long run.

 

[boraticus]

"Look at some of the threads were people changed their engine to a newer one. Many of those machines are 20, 30 or even 40+ years old. Those engines were tired and well worn out anyways.

Most premature small engine failures are due to owner neglect. Use of a synthetic and still be a neglectful owner will not give you much extra margin in the long run."

Very true.

As mentioned, the vast majority of OPE engine replacement is on very old machines which happen to be much better built than newer products. Often the owner does the change for more power or simple preference. From what I've been seeing lately in OPE, is the engines outlasting the machines they come on. A prime example of that is a lawn mower I found in a scrap heap with a defective deck. It had a 3.5 h.p. Tecumseh Eager 1 L head engine on it and probably hasn't been started in twenty years. I rescued the mower, cleaned the carb, replaced the primer line, changed the grease/oil added some fresh fuel and had it running like a top in less than an hour. That engine is well over 30 years old, not particularly well maintained and very well used. It has good compression and now runs as good as new. I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to say they're not very robust.

 

[The_Jeff]

The tecumsehs I've retired have carb problems, though I bought one with no spark.

Unfortunately with the dissolution of the company parts are expensive and I've had bad luck rebuilding their carbs. Stuff like main jets galling into the casting. It's really a lot of hassle when I can get a "chonda" for $100 or even less. Chonda also has the alleged benefit of overhead valves and modern design.

I wish things were different and tecumseh parts were for sale at cost, $12 for a complete carb for example. But, pragmatically, it's not how it is. If Lifan goes tango uniform I can still put a honda part on. I don't like the waste of throwing out a whole engine block, but it beats trashing a several hundred pound machine, and replacing it with a flimsier-framed one.

Also there is the immesurable benefit of telling the wife "It SHOULD run, it has a whole new engine on it."

Tinkering with carbs, declaring it good, then having a problem (related or unrelated) a month later, in the middle of a storm when she's trying to clear the driveway so I can pull in, reflects poorly on me.

PS I've actually sold my used tecumsehs on craigslist for about half the price of a new chonda. One guy paid $30 for one he couldn't start, but "had good compression" and he was thrilled.