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

OK, my snowblower has a Tecumseh engine, so when I read this I thought it could be either BS, correct, or old news.

You can't go wrong with a Briggs and Stratton engine. Tecumseh engines are prone to throwing piston rods through the crankcase wall if the oil level drops at all. The Tecumseh speed control is not nearly as robust as the Briggs and Stratton either. Briggs & Stratton is now back in the snow blower engine business in a big way with overhead valve engines ranging from 6.5 through 13 horsepower. Given prices, contracts and market inertia it's anybody's guess how quickly they will regain market share. However if you shop around machines can be found with these engines.

Anyone with any knowledge care to comment?  Here's the link.
http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/snowbuying.html


--SnowRemover

The person who has that website is a regular on this forum (gilsons; spectrum on old forum) and could probably expand on this. I have had experience with 4 tecumseh engines over the past 25 years, plus the one on my Ariens. They have all been worked hard (3 on tillers; one on chipper) and none ever threw a rod.

Snowremober,

Please edit your post and put in a source along with a link to the site you copied from.

Marshall wrote:
I thought I did that, could you explain further?

Thanks,
SnowRemover

My bad, it was little and I missed the link.

 Old eyes.........


I would appreciate you typing in the name of the site instead of putting "link".

Thanks

Marshall wrote:
I edited the original post.  I admit the word "link" is so small it is easily overlooked.

--SnowRemover

I had a look at the site and found a lot of interesting things. I didn't find the comment that was quoted by  SnowRemover.

I blew the Tecumseh engine on my snowblower late last winter. The situation for me was as follows:

1. Noticed problems with blower that I didn't want to deal with myself, I don't remember what;

2. Took it to a local dealer. They "fixed" it but mentioned that there was no oil in the engine and that they had put new oil in.

3. Took the machine started it up and it stopped working within 5 minutes. I couldn't even pull the starter cord. I didn't notice any external damage but didn't really look.

4. Took it back to dealer.

5. They called to say the engine was blown. I decided to pick it up and do some research on whether to get a short block or to get a new engine.

6. When I got it home I noticed a gaping hole in the side of the engine. I don't know if I missed it or if it happened at the dealer and they "fogot" to mention it. It was probably me but i had other incidents with these guys that had me wondering, nothing I can put my finger on but something had my antenna twitching.

I ended up putting a new B&S Intek Snow on the machine and so far am quite happy with the results. I also check the oil level EVERY time before I start it up.

I noticed a dead spot of grass this summer at the spot I kept the blower when it wasn't in use during the winter. I also remember seeing what I thought was some minor oil leakage. All in all I think I ignored a problem and it bit me.

How sensitive are Tecumseh engines to a low oil situation? I can't say for sure., but they sure don't like being empty :-(

Should this be over on the "Stupid OPE Tricks" thread?

nibbler wrote: Sigh

It figures, I went back to the site and behold, I found the exact quote. I got distracted by all the neat stuff there and wandered off to some of the other pages without gettting to the bottom of the one I originally went to.

Over 30 years ago Briggs for reasons that I am unaware of stopped producing engines for snow blowers. Last season they got back in the market with a vengence. Not only did they start producing OHV blower engines but they also to my understanding acquired Simplicity and Snapper. This accounts for the Briggs power on those two brands this winter.Great way to increase market share!

 It is true that Tecumseh engines blow their rods if the oil level is low or if they over rev when the governor linkage sticks. If you allow these conditions to evolve in your equiptment then suffer the consequences. I am on my second Tecumseh powered machine, the first one being sold to a close friend. Both have had no issues with the engines. I rebuilt a Tecumseh with a blown rod  that belonged to that same friend. Cause? No oil in the crankcase.

My 87 year old father cleared last weeks Long Island storm with his 1960 Briggs powered Simplicity . I don't believe that machine would still be in service if it had been run without oil or used with a sticky governor.Do you?By the way ,he doesent like Tecumseh. Why? He's a Briggs man! Why ? Cause that s' what he has! Ford vs Chevy!!!  

Take care of your stuff and it will take care of you. Abuse it and

Marc 

mml4 wrote:
And that's a fact Jack! 

Seriously, that is so so true. I have seen engines of all types and ages in my years, some old and working, some old and not working and some new and not working. It usually boils down to user maintenance to whether the engine expired or not or had all kinds of trouble.

Then you have people like me that have had a 3.5 Tecumseh and neglected the heck out of it, never changed the oil or air filter and 13-14 years later it still ran. My grandparents had an old steel decked push mower with a little Briggs on it, the engine was painted white, that's how old it was. That thing never saw maintenance and ran and ran and ran. While we see some of these things, they are certainly not the rule and I am not sure why they ran that long, just dumb luck I guess? Or, in the case of my little Tecumseh, maybe it would have seen 30 years if I had taken care of it and 13-14 years was a short life?

I am certain that if we had engineering notes to study we would find inherent problems within certain models of any brand of engine. Matter of fact I bet people like Sir Buttlint sit back and laugh at these threads because they could sit and right novels about any small engine out there and make it to where we would be leery of buying anything. 

Sometimes what we don't know is good for us.

While this has been debated and argued in the past I personally have never seen it or heard of it in person and I am surrounded by Tech engines of various ages and sizes blowing snow up here in the harsh winters we have.  I have a buddy who bought a Ariens 824 with a Tech engine from a hardware store.  He did not check the oil and ran the machine in a huge snow storm and that sucker according to him ran for about 30 minutes before kicking it.  That's impressive in my book.

When the day comes besides that that I run across a Snow King engine that has thrown a rod I will gladly post it.  Now that is my experience.  Pete has been into snowblowers much years more than me.

C