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.