What happened to Tecumseh snowblower engines?

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Originally Posted By: Johnny
They went out of business, at least that is what I was told. No more Tecumseh engine company.


Wow that sucks. I just rebuilt my carb on my 5 HP Tecumseh snow blower, great little engine. My brother claims the engine I have has an iron sleeve. I was able to get another carb rebuild kit, now I'm glad I did.
 
Originally Posted By: SrDriver
Have noticed now on many things like mowers, lawn tractors, etc., that we are now seeing them equipped with engines made in China.


Get used to it brother! They own us now.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny
They went out of business, at least that is what I was told. No more Tecumseh engine company.


Both Clinton and Tecumseh are gone. Haven't heard anything about Wisconsin engines in years. That pretty much just leaves Kohler and Briggs&Stratton and the offshore hoardes. :-( Not a good sign. Plus the smaller Briggs vertical shaft engines (the ~3-4 HP series) has been on a big quality slide for years in order to be price competitive. If you buy a B&S, make sure its in the Diamond or Commercial series. They're still good.

Tecumseh actually was better than B&S (IMO anyway) in that small vertical-shaft engine class right at the end. They just couldn't keep the market share with Honduh and the chinese knock-offs cutting in.
 
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Yeah I noticed that my model MTD/ Yard Machines snow blower used to have a Tecumseh on it a couple of years ago, and mine has a no-name 179cc OHV....Chonda or who knows?!
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Tecumseh actually was better than B&S (IMO anyway) in that small vertical-shaft engine class right at the end. They just couldn't keep the market share with Honduh and the chinese knock-offs cutting in.

LOL, Techumseh has always been at the bottom. Below Briggs, Below Honda, below Chonda. They wouldn't have gone out of business if they were "better".
 
I've got one of the 5.5 models on my mtd snowblower. Engine has always ran great..too bad the snowblower itself is junk
 
Originally Posted By: daddi
I've got one of the 5.5 models on my mtd snowblower. Engine has always ran great..too bad the snowblower itself is junk


Just keep the engine when you junk the blower!
grin2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: typ901
Yeah I noticed that my model MTD/ Yard Machines snow blower used to have a Tecumseh on it a couple of years ago, and mine has a no-name 179cc OHV....Chonda or who knows?!


I also got a Troy-built snowblower. It's suppose to be made in Cleveland, but I noticed the engine looked like a Honda. I was told that Honda shared engine technology with MTD in exchange for generator technology. Come to find out looks like the engine is made in China. I never really thought too much of real Honda's OPE engines in the first palce having owned one, let alone a CHonda.

I wonder what the real story is on these engines? Are they licensed products or just unlicensed knock-offs? Also I thought Honda had two primary OPE engines, the commercial and the resisdential. The residential, at least the verticle shaft and I know with snowblowers we're talking about horizontal shaft, is an OHC with timing belt. The commercial, and I think in both verticle and horizontal, have a more durable OHV design.

The MTD snowblowers have the OHV, so are they the Honda commercial? Anyway, all the Hondas and Chondas smoke when you first start them.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I wonder what the real story is on these engines? Are they licensed products or just unlicensed knock-offs? Also I thought Honda had two primary OPE engines, the commercial and the resisdential. The residential, at least the verticle shaft and I know with snowblowers we're talking about horizontal shaft, is an OHC with timing belt. The commercial, and I think in both verticle and horizontal, have a more durable OHV design.

It's simple thievery as the chinese are well known for. They just copy Honda's engines, without Honda's consent, Honda is very upset, there have been many lawsuits, and they have instructed all their official mechanics NOT to work on chondas.

The one they copy is I think the "commercial" version, I have the stupid OHC homeowner version on my pressure washer and I'm willing to bet a Chonda would run better than this POS. I've never had a small engine that was louder or harder to start...
 
Originally Posted By: SecondMonkey
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I wonder what the real story is on these engines? Are they licensed products or just unlicensed knock-offs? Also I thought Honda had two primary OPE engines, the commercial and the resisdential. The residential, at least the verticle shaft and I know with snowblowers we're talking about horizontal shaft, is an OHC with timing belt. The commercial, and I think in both verticle and horizontal, have a more durable OHV design.

It's simple thievery as the chinese are well known for. They just copy Honda's engines, without Honda's consent, Honda is very upset, there have been many lawsuits, and they have instructed all their official mechanics NOT to work on chondas.


Now I feel a little dirty just owning the Chonda engine. Well I don't feel bad for Honda, not saying they completely copied American designs but China is just doing unto Honda what they did unto American manufactures. It's kind like having a Hyundai that's a knock off of other cars lol. I wanted a Briggs engine like on my John Deere lawn mower. It's great.

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The one they copy is I think the "commercial" version, I have the stupid OHC homeowner version on my pressure washer and I'm willing to bet a Chonda would run better than this POS. I've never had a small engine that was louder or harder to start...


Well I think Honda charges an arm and a leg for their commercial engine. Plus Honda is chintzy about offering any service info unless you're factory authorized, unlike Briggs. The Honda commercial is held in high esteem, but that's just mostly because it says "Honda" on it.

The Honda OHC engine is a piece of junk, but I don't find it particularly noisy. I about broke my arm trying to start it the other day just to run some Stab-il through it. I had to rebuild the carburetor not too long ago because it wouldn't start. The thing never would start very easily even in 70-80F temps. The only reason I bought the Honda was because at the time it was the only one they had a choke and I dislike primers. Some choke it has.
 
I bought what I thought was a replacement new carb for my Honda 11 HP power washer. I logged exactly 1 hr on the carb and had it fail. I took the OEM Honda carb I took off and rebuilt it. I used it all this season. Careful inspection of the "Honda" carb said made in China. My guess is it was a counterfeit Honda carb? Not sure but the carb was real junk IMO.
 
Wow where did you get the carb? It doesn't sound good for CHonda stuff. You may never know sometimes if you are getting the OE or a counterfeit.

In the case of my Honda mower's carb, it is the original Honda carb and is still junk I had to rebuild. The worst part is I'm not sure how you can really fine adjust that Honda carb setup because to get to the mixture screws you about have to take the air cleaner off. But then the carb falls off!
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
The thing never would start very easily even in 70-80F temps. The only reason I bought the Honda was because at the time it was the only one they had a choke and I dislike primers. Some choke it has.

LOL, that's what I was thinking too. This is the only engine I've ever had that gets harder to start after it warms up! (and god help you if you ran out of gas, takes about 40 pulls to pump fuel back up through the carb) The one time I put my Briggs loyalty aside and bought a Honda! Grrrr....

Unfortunately I don't think it will be very long before Briggs engines start coming from China. They already opened/are opening a factory there but it is supposedly for non US markets only. We'll see how long that lasts...
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Now I feel a little dirty just owning the Chonda engine.


I hope you don't think the rest of your snowblower components are made in Cleveland regardless of the engine. Or even the US for that matter. I bet the majority of the components are imported from China. No way around it my man. We're not "a little dirty". We're all downright filthy.

Joel
 
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