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

If you have problems with a TEC engine not starting or running like Cr@p after repairing it 20 times  and spent hundreds of dollars on parts and labor.  My suggestion unbolt the 4 nuts that hold the engine  on the snowblower  and get yourself a new Honda Clone engine or even better if you can find a nice used Honda GX270 engine and you will have the best running Snowblower  you have ever owned.   It may even out-perform the  over engineered  Honda Snowblowers.

While I do like my Honda mower and snowblower and think the engines are top notch I must say that I really have a thing for the Tecumseh engine.  I have machines over 30 years old and they run like new. Never had a major problem with one.  It is all how you take care of things.  Yes with a honda you can forget to change your oil and rev the crap out of it and it will most likely run and run where a Tecumseh would throw a rod.  But I take care of my stuff and still like my Tecumseh engines.  Was sad to see them go.

Just another piece of America gone away....  Clinton engines,   Tec.  and the old Lawnboy 2 cycle....  sad

Friiy

I was very sad to see them go as well.  They took all of the abuse I could give them and never once complained



          RIP 1934 - 2008

      A lot of people don't  know that for YEARS all Sears and Toro lawnmowers came with only Tec.  engines.........

I loved the Simple designs of their carbs..  Drain them and they would last forever,  Cleand them and you could get them to run....most of the time without parts.

Briggs made a more reliable motor (by a little)...  But the diaphram choke and pump system on the Briggs carbs were a pain in the ass--- do to warping of the tank mounting surface and the diaphrams getting old and hard.

Nice company to do buisness with also...

Friiy

friiy wrote:
I knew that Sears used Tecumseh almost exclusively.  In fact it's widely accepted that Tecumseh's demise was because Sears canceled their contract with them. 

I did not know that Toro used Tecumseh that much.

I really like the 139cc Tecumseh two cycle engine in the Craftsman.  I've never seen anything like it.  For some reason, it has "port covers".   Why it does is beyond me.  Maybe they come off some how to allow inspection?   Either way, it looks like a real well built piece and it starts and runs great.  Not bad for a 14 year old engine.  I'm sure it must have a fair amount of time on it because the machine it's mounted in had a severely cracked rear motor mount.  That kind of thing doesn't happen over night.  Regardless, the engine seems to have good compression (90 - 100 psi) when measured with a decompression system and will happily rev out to 6500 to 7000 rpm if you want. 

I also have a Jiffy power ice auger with a Tecumseh 85cc two cycle engine on it.  It's close to 30 years old and still running strong. 

It's sad to see the demise of these reputable American small engine icons.   More than jobs are lost when they go out of business.  A piece of history goes with them. 

Maybe the Chinese should buy up the rights to the Tecumseh name?   Who knows, there might be a TeiKumSee brand small engine coming to our shores some day?

My old JD826 was bought new in 1982 - been used every winter since then and the TEC engine has never had a problem.  

Dr_Woof wrote:
I agree those old TEC engine were and still are a jewel. The tech engine they produced  in  the last 5 years before they threw in the towel are junk. I found one of the best fixes for the new engines is to install the older adjutable Carbs makes the engines run much smoother

I have several Ariens machines with Tecumseh engines.One is a 6HP thats a 1968 and has been in my care since new.It has the original motor with a rebuilt carb,New points condenser and coil.It runs great and throws better than new.This is mostly related to turning the top end up to 3600rpm.It had been at 3300 since it was new.The only problem i ever had was i broke a flywheel on that machine durring a heavy storm.I have a trouts2 rebuilt machine with a excellent original 8HP on it and thats a 1980 ST824 with new carb and new points,condenser and coil.That one is turned up to 3600rpm and has run for 15HRs so far this season and has been a great machine.I will say i have seen 2 snow kings throw rods.One was a 7HP and the other was a 6HP both had been run out of oil.In both cases it was a good show.Both were under load and went off with a good sized bang.But you know those were both the fault of the user and not the Tecumseh engine.These engines may be old stuff now but you can tweek the carbs nicely on them because there adjustable.And the old L head Tecs make nice torque and throw well.I find when the carbs are adjusted perfectly they are very good cold weather starters to with 1 or 2 pulls.

http://s1129.photobucket.com/albums/m508/ranvette2003/

I had two 10 h.p. Snow King engines for more than 20 years.  Neither one ever skipped a beat or used a drop of oil.  They were loud, rough and crude but did their job without ever causing a problem.  Fuel and oil were all they got.