Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I have a long steep driveway, about 60 feet, one car, with a flat bay about 50 X 50 at the base. I have nvere owned a snow blower, but I am getting alittle older and the back isnt waht it used to be. I have looked at the Ariens  11526DLE Snow Blower, which I think is an 11.5 HP. I was wondering if anyone has any experience on this with a steep hill. If not does anyone have any recomendations on one that will run up a steep hill

I just received information about the Tecumseh OHV 11.Hp motor and the OHV9.25 version.  Correct, both motors are of the same displacement, 318cc's. I asked Tecumseh folks if they could provide me(readable) performance comparison dats of the two motors. I say readable because i've seen some data on the we thats unintelligable.  They were very prompt and did provide two graphs, one for each engine.   Net is the 11HP motor has about 17% more torque and wider torgue range than the 9.25HP.  Specifically, the 11HP peaks at approx 16.25FtLbs the 9Hp peaks at about 13.9FtLbs.  The predominence of the operating range of the 11hp starts at around 14FtLbs and increases rapidly to max of 16.25FtLbs. Whereas the 9HP starts around 12FtLbs and peaks at 13.9FtLbs.  Best understanding I ave is this is accomplished trough carburation diffrerence between the two motors.

So these are the facts.....

RedCoupe,

           If what Tecumseh said is true, you can buy for about $70.00  the carb that is on the 11Hp engine.

If you have an 8, 9, or 10 HP engine you can make it an 11 Hp engine just by putting on the 11HP carb.

Cheap price for the HP gain!!

                                                              Fred   

Sounds like I've opened up the can of worms again.

Carburation was mentioned as a possible suspect but someone else looked up the part numbers and they said they were identical.right down to the jets. This lead to speculation on it being an adjustment difference.

I mentioned some of this to a local ( Ontario Canada, Eh ) dealer and he said he had heard there was a class action lawsuit in the US that was about the mislabelling of engine HP ratings, I don't remember which firms were mentioned but it was several. I haven't heard anything else about it but it could be interesting. Of course they could always claim that the sticker just guarantees the minmum HP from the engine and that if the engine happens to exceed the spec then so much the better.

The bottom line is I suspect shennanigans but there's still a lot of rumour going around.

Couple of points...1. Correct, there was/is a class action lawsuit in the U.S., a local dealer said it involved Toro and possibly some others.  He said the manufactures were considering refraining from using HP as a measurement and simply state cc's.   2. The facts I mentioned in previous post about 11Hp and 9Hp torque ratings and carburator being the differenece were from a direct conversation I had today with Tecmseh's technical manager.  There was nothing vague in his comments, he directly answered these questions.  If I knew how to imbedd the charts in this forum posting I would have done it.  I will gladly send as an email attachment to anyone that asks.  My email d is milite@hotmail.com.

For the 13 hp motor, I imagine the cc's would be bigger. If carbs makes the difference, does that mean a card on a 16 hp on a 13 make the 13 hp into a 16 hp? Technical question.

I believe the 13Hp motor is a bored 318.cc(11hp) to 357cc's.  Bore difference is 79.375 versus 79.400 with same stroke.  Some valve differences as well. 

The 13hp Tecumseh may look similar, but it is a completely different engine. Crankcase, crankshaft, head, piston, etc. It is also counterbalanced, whereas the others are not.

PK

Snowman, with the counterbalance, does that mean the motor would run with less vibration? What are the benifits of a counterbalance. The reason I ask is I am thinking of removing my 10 hp Tecumseh for a 13 hp unit for my blower.

The counterbalancer really works well. If I remember correctly, its 60-75% less vibration than the 318cc models.

PK

If the 10hp you are replacing is the L-head (358cc), you may experieince greater than 75%  vibration reduction. That particular engine vibrates the most.