FX850V dilemma

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
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Nov 29, 2014
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Considered that they are basically copies of Honda engines that are out of patient they behave as you would expect.
The only real problem I see down here are due to the very shallow sump & low oil capacity.
Several of them only run 1 litre of oil so the fine line between just enough oil and not enough oil is very fine indeed thus I have had 2 low oil seizures.
All vertical crank engines are tilt sensitive but the Loncins are more so.
Apart from that no more or no less a problem than any other engine.
The pull starts are a bit on the flimsey side but they seem to hold up for now , remembering that wide useage of them is quite recient .
Time will tell
Yet to see a twin
The float bowl is smaller which also makes them sensitive to lean running when used across slopes.
Build quality is reasonable .
Casting quality is excellent so the extra money spent on top quality castings is recovered by next to no dressing of the castings ( similar to Kohler)
The metal is thinner so abuse will probably take a higher toll on the engine and as mentioned you have to check the oil without fail.
I put 10w40 in them as the SAE 30 mower oil tended to leak out a bit hot and caused slow cranking when cold.
OTOH both Honda & Kawakasi specify the same 10w40 .
Now that Loncin have established a parts warehouse down here I will be fitting their engines to domestic repowers and Kawakasi engines for commercial repowers.
I have 10 B & S engines and 3 Kohlers left over from the last pallet load of engines I bought and when they are gone they will be the last B & S or Kohler engines I will be fitting .
 

7394

Lawn Addict
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Sep 5, 2014
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Hold the phone..........Before the surgery on the FX, do a leak down test to pinpoint the exact cause of the issue..
Might be very minor.
Can't see throwing parts at something w/out knowing the real issue..
 
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