23hp Briggs v-twin 625 hours... Rebuild?

[SamB]

Big business and in particular the money managers ( pension funds/ hedge funds / investment funds etc ) would never allow such an engine to be made.
And in any case it is not warranted for small engines as it is very resource wasteful.
We used to make engines that run forever , remember names like Generac, Wisconsin, Villiers & BSA or even Honda for that matter ?
However the public has been brainwashed by the money men into believing that every thing we want can be made for a lower price just as good so quality engine makers went broke because YOU would not pay $ 200 for an engine which would run for 50 years over an engine that is only good for 10 years .
The money moungers make no money if you repair your old whatever but they make a lot if you buy a new one and it costs a lot to maintain their fleet of Gulf Streams & private luxury ships .

My grandfather had a stationary gasoline engine that he used around the farm in the 1930's,'40's and up into the 1950's. He got it from his father who had purchased it who knows when,but it was a very long time ago,early 1900's or maybe even earlier. My 'little brother,(65+yo) lives on the farm now and has it. It still runs fine! I don't remember the make,but it weighed a bunch,though.

 

[SamB]

Not a school of thought, an economic reality.
A production line with 20 workers pumps out better than 1000 engines a day
That is 50 engines per worker in 8 hours
Which is 6.5 engines an hour
To pull down diagnose the problem order parts & rebuild the engine is 10 hours work in which time the production line worker has made 65 engines.
The profit margin on complete engines is higher than for individual replacement parts .
So from a pure most profit / least cost basis it is always cheaper to replace major parts like engines or hydros than it is to repair them .
From the owners point of view the cost is almost the same, what they save on repair time labour they loose on the extra price of a whole engine over just the broken parts .
The biggie for the owner is less down time & the entire new engine has a new warranty .

If you are the mechanic & doing it in your free time then the least cost will be to repair because your labour time is effectively free .

From an environmental point of view repairing the old is always the better path to travel but when the environment is up against big business profits, the environment always looses which is why the planet is on it's last legs right now .

Big business make the most profit by selling you a complete new engine.

IDK about less cost to repair. You can't buy just the rods for most of the Briggs engines,you have to buy a 'crank set',including the rods and a fitted crankshaft. Couple that cost with any other parts,valves,gaskets,etc,and you're way past the cost of a replacement engine. It isn't easy staying in business for the small business owner these days.

 

[SlopeMan2]

Been reading all the suggestions you have Ru. I have over 1,200 hours on my 2008 26 hp B&S, and still runs unbelievably well. I better not brag, but it has been mowing some very tough, tall grass lately, as it powers my 60" Bad Boy. I have always used Mobil 1 synthetic, never let it get dirty, and clean air filter often. I use the foam wrap over the paper filter, with a slight film of oil on it, hoping to keep clean air coming in. I remember running a model gas motor model car in the dust, w/o a filter, and distroyed the engine in one hour. I am kinda thinking like others " if it ain't broke, don't fix it". -- that is, if it doesn't smoke, and has plenty of compression to start and pull well. A lot of people just don't treat engines with TLC.

 

[bertsmobile1]

IDK about less cost to repair. You can't buy just the rods for most of the Briggs engines,you have to buy a 'crank set',including the rods and a fitted crankshaft. Couple that cost with any other parts,valves,gaskets,etc,and you're way past the cost of a replacement engine. It isn't easy staying in business for the small business owner these days.

Sam,
I came into mower repair from transport & logistics.
It costs almost the same to store pick invoice & despatch a washer as it does to do the same for a complete crank
The only difference is the actual freight cost.
This is why lots of small items are only available in 10,20, 25, 50 or 100 packs.
The more individual items in storeage the greater the fixed costs of the warehouse
Thus the most economical thing is to warehouse either assemblies or packs of bits that are normally bought together.
When I started playing with motorcycles, you could buy each piston ring individually , same for the pin & pin clips
Now rings only come as a set and clips with a pin or in packs of 20.,
For a lot of items the warehousing cost exceeds the actual valve of the goods in a couple of years.
Lucas used to add the warehousing costs on a pro rata basis to everything that was unsold for 12 months
So when they closed down the warehouse and tried to sell off the old stock, a silicon rectifier which was 50p back in 1956 was now $ 275.
They had a complete box of 144 and a part box, forget how many were there.
Back then 1975 thought they were really ripping me off at those prices but having run warehouses I now realize the price quoted was the actual accrued costs .
B & S parts were always disproportionally cheap and a big part of this was volume throughput .
However in recent years the volumes are dropping like a stone as more & more manufacturers switch to other brands .
And going bankrupt twice in the last decade & shafting their parts suppliers so not they pay up front or extra or both for their parts that has to be reflected in the price.

Unless there is a radical shake up B & S will not be around for long
Vanguards will probably be upgraded to take the spot now occupied by Kawakasi as the premium engine & standardB & S engine will all come out of Asia with a very limited parts supply just like the house branded Loncins & Ducars

 

[rubantin]

Thanks guys... Been working 60+ hrs the last 2 weeks... had no time to respond. I have decided to just take care of it and when it dies, will replace the motor..

 

[bartles]

I think it is very likely people rebuild these engines prematurely. Unless the exhaust smoke gets so excessive it becomes a health and enviornmental issue run the engine until poor clyinder pressure affects its performance. Installing oil is a pretty cheap thing compared to boring liners and changing out parts. So it smokes a little, so it burns a little oil...run it.
Now that I mention oil....be sure you are using the correct viscosity for the ambiant temperature you operate in....too hot or too cold affects oil consumption drastically.

2cents worth.

 

[SlopeMan2]

I forgot to mention the Snapper Comet with a 7hp B&S that my dad bought in 1965. I actually mowed a steep ditch with it today. It has the independent rear wheel braking, which works great on slopes. It is pretty well retired now, but getting some heavy rigs stuck in 5' deep ditch along side old route 66, I find it much easier to use the narrow, 30" wide Snapper. All 3 of my kids have helped him mow with it. Someone told him to only use non-detergent oil in it, since it did not have a filter. It has never had anything but 30w Valvoline non-detergent in it - and was always kept clean. No telling how many hours it has on it, but I would think at least 1500. It does not smoke, and has good compression. He had a farm, and would haul it out and cut stuff that was unbelievably tall. If you have ever used an old reel type push mower in tall grass, you can see how impressive it was to me to see what it could do. So, you can see why I am impressed with the older B&S engines. If other brands are as good, I will be satisfied. All I have ever done to this motor was to keep the valve clearance right, clean the carb, and I did put a CDI module coil on it. So, you can see why, with good care, I expect these engines to go over 625 hours. This reminds me, that I need to blow the grass out of the cooling fins on my 26 hp Briggs tomorrow. Good luck with keeping yours running Ru.

 

[slomo]

This reminds me, that I need to blow the grass out of the cooling fins on my 26 hp Briggs tomorrow.

Every year on every small engine.

 

[SlopeMan2]

Every year on every small engine.

I have kinda neglected that. It smelled a little hot the other day. I was working it real hard, but I'll bet that is why. I am taking the shroud off and blowing it out before I use it this afternoon. Thanks slomo.

 

[Ronni]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I had well over 1000 hours before my lawn tractor engine developed serious problems. And, even then, those problems were not normal ones but ones that were caused by poor engine design and never would have happened to a well-designed engine. I am talking about the Kohler Courage 20hp engine, otherwise known as the "bucket engine". The problem is the "bucket" design of the crankcase that is its weakness. With age, it develops a crack in the crankcase sidewall that isn't repairable.