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

I have a Techumseh HMSK80 and am thinking of replacing it with a Subaru SK30 engine. Has anyone used this engine on a snowblower before? It puts out 9.5 hp and revs to 4000 . Is it a quality engine. I was thinking of something different , and better performance than a Techumseh HMSK80. I cant find a NEW  10 ,11 or13 hp Techumseh HMSK engine.I here Honda clones have to many problems. I was told Briggs & Stratton Vibrate more than Techumseh. A REAL Honda GX340 is outstanding but cost is very high. That leads me back to subaru. I want to here from folks that  are using them. I want to repower my  serial #924108 Ariens Snowblower

bus708 wrote:
Not sure where you're getting your information but some of it seems a little inaccurate.  From my experience B&S snow engines do not vibrate more than a Tecumseh engine.  I have an 11 h.p B&S snow engine on my Simplicity snow thrower.  I've used it for three seasons and in some very heavy snow conditions.  The engine performs flawlessly.  It makes much more power than the 10 h.p. Tecumseh's I've owned and actually runs quieter and smoother. 

My limited exposure to Chinese clones has been with good results.   Do a bit of research and you'll see that there are a number of very good Chinese small engine manufacturers.  The brand mentioned above and Champion are two well established manufacturers that make consistently good products. 

There's nothing wrong with Subaru/Robins engines.  They're an excellent product.  Just make sure you check the bolt pattern to mount the engine and ensure that the shaft fits the pulley{s) and that pulleys have the correct height/clearances to fit the machine.  

Check out Small Engine Warehouse if you want to look for a suitable small engine.  They have tons to select from.  

He's referring to the OH358SA 13hp. It has a balance shaft to cancel 2nd order vibration (the only snow engine to do so to date). This engine is also equipped with light piston technology (as were the large L-heads the last year or two of production). This engine vibrates a good deal less than the equivalent 342cc Briggs. Very smooth. For the rest of Tecumseh's engines, the opposite is true. They vibrate in magnitude about twice as much as the equivalent Briggs.

I doubt you can get the Subaru as an after-market engine (only Ariens uses them) and they certainly will be expensive. It is a commercial engine built with full automation in Japan (even the GX is made in Taiwan).

Borat had the right idea. Small Engine Warehouse has several engines that will work for you. There is only one with the truly correct crankshaft extension (Tecumseh #3, 1" diameter).  It's a Tecumseh 11hp OHV Snow King. I myself would get the HMSK100 (re:358cc L-head) with the adaptor for the 3/4" crankshaft (displacement is your friend). The output on these is rather beastly.