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

LCT and Loncin are getting their names out there.  Now Toro is going with Loncin.  Ariens has LCT on all three of their Sno-Tek blowers.  Husqvarna has the new revived LCT Snow King (Tecumseh "revival") on some of their blowers.  So who's best?  Will Briggs end up putting engines only on their own Simplicity, JD, Snapper models?

royster wrote:

I thought Ford stopped making those in the late 70's/early 80's????

pants on fire!

The Pinto was made 1971–1980.

royster,

did your 1999 pinto have a friction disk system? or are you going to change your pinto year to 1979?  i really doubt your 1999 pinto with 400km would have lasted 20 years of salt and more salt.

We had a Pinto that was in a city where I used to live and on teh back it had a sticker acroos teh entire back bumper that said

DANGER! EXPLOSIVE!  I think it had radiation decals as well.

No idea what year but this was like 10 years ago. It wasn't all rusted out which is a miracle for New England winters.

Of course it might have been all bondo under the paint.

I remember giving the Ford Pinto, and it's twin brother the Mercury Bobcat, a wide berth when traveling near either one....

Ford Pinto - There's no subsitute.  Nothing can be uglier  :) 

Ford's answer to the Porsche 924

Don't forget the AMC Pacer or even worse the Yugo whose seats felt like they were made of clay.

Pontiac Aztec was voted ugliest car of all time! The Pinto was similar to the Pacer which looked like a pregnant turtle.

My Toro snowblower looks like a Ferrari compared to those cars!

Loved my 'ole Pinto, 1971, 2.0L, ran it in P pure stock at Dover Plains and Lebanon Valley dragstrips back in the day, 17.89 times +/-. Chewed up Opel GT's, Duster 318's, etc. , gas was cheap also. A bit off topic but I felt good commenting on this great site....................keep up the good work.......

borat wrote:
Sorry, I hate to interject and derail this thread :)

It's a good point that time will really tell how reliable the Chinese engines really are. Otherwise it's easy to fall prey to what could perhaps be called Consumer Reports syndrome, rating things based on how they perform after 3 weeks, not 10+ years (when an MTD gets a better rating than a Honda). But my other concern with the "off-brand" engines (regardless of country of origin) is whether you'll be able to get parts in 5 years, never mind 25 years.

And how many engines will be retired before their time because you can't get a carb rebuild kit for them? Or because no info is available, like service manuals, or parts lists? It's tough to try and order "the little round metal thing with the hole in it", especially when you can't find a local dealer for that brand, but you'll have more luck if you know you're looking for part 9327481.

Personally, that's one of my biggest fears with these engines (though maybe it's an unfounded fear). Even though Tecumseh is gone, I have been able to get the parts I need so far. And the service manual has been a big help, as well as experienced & helpful people on forums like this. But as the industry fragments with a greater number of smaller manufacturers, I can see things becoming more difficult.

I see it as somewhat the same principle as Craftsman vs. whoever (Toro/Ariens/Honda/take your pick). It's hard finding other people who may have experienced the same problem that you're having with your 917.243783 snowblower/tractor from a few years ago. That size model may have been built by AYP that year, and someone else the year before. But a lot of people may have the Ariens ST824 (or Toro equivalent, etc) which was made as largely the same machine for a number of years, and there's more of a knowledge/history base.

A lot of people have worked on Tecumseh 8hp L-heads. Fewer people have worked on a Brand X, Model Y, which may not even exist next year, or may be under a different name. As an easy example, Harbor Freight sold Greyhound engines, now they sell Predator. That's 2 brands in ~2 years. And that's as many brands as Briggs and Tecumseh gave us in, what, 70+ years?