okay here you go...
based on my own personal experience ,which goes right into these engines. i will try to remain objective and discuss the differences in a pro and con kind of way.
the briggs is about 150 dollars more in canadian dollars anyway and around here,not sure of difference at your local.
the briggs is " new technology " its basically a completley new engine and from the very design plans the engineers knew they were building an emmissions engine. this is why it actullay runs as well as it does with todays gas and it has none of the hiccupps associated with todays gas and non adjustable carbs.
the tecumseh engines that im familliar with ( and i have sold and serviced a great deal of new ones ) will start and run pretty good for an old design of engine that was developed in the early 60s.yes there have been many advance since its beginning but basically its old ...very old. however a good deal of those early engines are still running strong.and they will continue to do so.
its a tried and true design.those engines were never designed in any way to be emmission engines and you have to give credit to tecumseh for being able to get it to run as good as it does.and many never experience problems at all.
there have been some connecting rod issues with the tecumseh engines and a lot of it is operator error,low oil wrong oil governor missadjustment and so on.
there are a few cases where there is actually somthing wrong from the factory,if an engine fails due to a rod toss in less than 2 hours of use then it is caused by insufficient clearance to the crank.
if the engine gets to about the 10 hour mark and the rod fails then there was excessive clearance.
if you get past these hours of use then you can say you have a good engine.
i regularly get to work on upwards of perhaps 250 snowblowers a season ,and more each year (i guess im that good).and have seen only 1 tecumseh that went in less than 2 hours and 2 engines that went at around the 10 hour mark.
they all were covered under warranty.
the 2 engines that went with 10 or so hours were not what i would have repaired under warranty at one time.when the con rod is burnt where it breaks it usually means lack of lubrication.but tecumseh says fix them so i did but i saved the pieces and showed the customers .as soon as they look at the parts they know i know and thats all there is said.
as far as the briggs engine goes ,its basically a made in japan design built in the states and it works good.
we have no personal service issues with this engine. never saw any problems with it.we sold 12 new snappers with this engine and have no complaints at all.have also sold this as a replacement for the tecumseh about 15 times and have no reports of problems. i have askes technical service about this and the only ones that have any issues are installed on sears units,there is somthing with the muffler that will allow snow to melt after the engine is shutoff and stored and possibly enter the muffler and refreese ,this blocks the exhaust and it wont start. havent seen this only heard about it sears unit has a different spec exhaust.
as far as the horsepower and torque war goes.i have to say from experience that the briggs wins no problem.
i know that the actual numbers say that they are really even but when you use 2 identical machines with each engine the briggs will outperform with a noticible difference.
there is somthing about the powercurve that realy does help when you are in 2 feet of snow.
the briggs never seems like it is straining to do the job.
that being the case if you never see 2 feet of snow you will seldom get the chance to know about the briggs.
the carbs on the tecumseh engines are a sore spot with a lot of mechanics.
1 shot of gas thats a little old and it has to come off there is now way you can do a proper tune up without removing it and cleaning.it.
why is this ...its my own opinion that in its design which is from a long time ago when gas was a good thing.the carbs had many different materials in there makeup.
the body is aluminum,the float is brass,the bowl is some kind of tin.there are steel welch plugs ,.brass metering tubes and nozzels and some other stuff were not sure what it is made of. add todays gas with its zillion chemicals and the alcohol,dont forget that there is up to 10% alcohol in its makup.and thats not the good kind either.the alcohol in it is agressive and it draws moisture right out of the air.this is what gives the problems with BAD gas it eats up all the dissimilar metals in the carb there are actulally chemical reactions taking place in there that you cant see ,you just know it happened when your snowblower wont go when you need it.
does the briggs have this problem...have no idea never saw the carb on the briggs engine.yup we have not done a thing to them except change oil and plugs.thats it.
we dont make any service dollars on the briggs engines ...
and we make lots on servicing the tecumseh.
but whose fault is that really. when tecumseh originally designed that engine gasoline was not an issue it even had LEAD in it. good for engines ...bad for us. nobody knew that today there would be over 300 chemicals in the makeup of our fuel .
these engines didnt have any problems with carbs until the fuel started to change .
then you get people that dont really have the knowhow to do a proper job cleaning their carbs and adjusting governors.
this i beleive is where another story of connecting rod issues starts.
mess up the carb and the engine is gonna go.
folks here ask questions and can then do a proper job on the carb and governor adjustment .
i guess it all comes down to information and what you do with it.
time will tell if the briggs lasts 40 years like the tecumseh ar if it gets tossed in 10.
i hope i helped a little .
later chris
craftsman 10/28 snowblower with tracks husky 372xpg chainsaw sachs dolmar bc212 bushsaw mondo trimmer monster tractor with trailer cheep wheelbarro and couple shovels and a partridge in a pear tree
Pete and Chris,
