FX850V dilemma

[bertsmobile1]

Engines are designed to ideally last through the warranty period. What is the source of your information?

My engine wholesalers
A warranty period is not the design service life.
If that was the case no mower would last more than 3 years & I have 6 in my yard that are better than 20 years old and at least a hundred in my service run of similar age
Service life is time the engine can be expected to run for if used within it's design parrameters and serviced according to the makers schedule.
Warranty is the time during which any faults in design , materials or manufacture will have become evident & be repaired at cost to the makers.
Outside that time problems will be considered to be owner caused .

If mowers are supposed only to last till warranty expires then there would be on 100. 200 or 500 hour service schedules because the mower will have ceased to be operational before then.

No mower company would even think of marketing a mower that has a very short design llife because they want you too b happy with your purchase and replace your mower with another on from the same maker .
Junk merchants like Lowes, Walmart , HF etc don't care because their customers just want what is cheap & they will often sell short life brands the drop that brand when they become known as trash & sales drop off .

 

[txmowman]

There is no published service life. The service life is dependent on the proper maintenance and care given. An engine that is 20 years old or more, lets say, is not still running because it was "designed" to.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Everything has a designed service life.
from the biro in a hotel room that only has a 1/2" of ink to a pacemaker .
And with computer modeling and what is known about lubricants & materials now days you can design a mower engine's service life almost to the minute
An alloy bore has a designed service life that is shorter than an iron bore
An iron bore with hard rings has a shorter design life than and iron bore with soft rings
A wider bearing surface on the crankshaft will have a longer design life than a shorter one
A rolling element bearing will go in an engine with a longer design life than a plain non replaceable bush.

This is why engines get tested to destruction

My usual reply is there are 2 very famous Henry's in motoring history.
Both of then tested their vehicles to destruction
One of them did this till the first major component failed, then downgraded everything else to fail near the same time
His name was Ford & by doing this he made the cheapest car it was possible to make at the time which sold faster than he could make them and became one of the richest people on the planet.
The other Henry did the same then as each & every part failed, he made them stronger so his cars will ( and do ) run forever .
His name was Royce & he believed an automobile should be a one time purchase & last forever.
His cars did not sell well and he died a pauper.

Everything, absolutely everything that is manufactured has a designed service life.
And the fact that most of them are way too short is exactly why the planet is going to hell in a hand basket and it very well could be that children born today may never live as long as my generation has .

 

[VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ]

Burning oil could be a few things, at that hours, i could see piston rings causing it, it could also be a valve guide seals.

The thing about doing a total rebuild, you really never know for sure what you need until you tear everything down, and break out your caliper and micrometer, check the ring gap in the bore, measure the plain bearings, and rod clearance on the crankshaft....
Carrol stream has the FX850 for 2,189.00.
Looking through IPL's, doesn't appear there are oversize rings available, so if a bore is out of round, or is scored too badly or just wore out and needs bored out bigger, i don't see any rings to accommodate that, nor a piston...
as far as repowering with a briggs, i really don't know how much longer Briggs will be around... so can you get parts for it 5 years down the road?

B&S will be here after we are long dead. The CEo's just took the money and ran. There production sales are booked into 2023! With existing engine and chassis information, check with a qualified B&S Dealer for an existing repower known engine option. If you go ahead with the overhaul investigation, check the bore with the proper method as ring gap is not a tell all. Need bore ID at top, middle, bottom, inline with crank and 90 degrees from crank and any variation beyond spec ( ussually .002" ) is not going to last if just re-ring cause of ring flex and breakage.If a general feel for bore is used with ring gap before going to the better method, you need new rings as old worn rings will lie.Get started now, spring will be here early we hope!

 

[Scrubcadet10]

B&S will be here after we are long dead.

I hope you're right...

 

[bertsmobile1]

I seriously doubt it
The days of petrol powered mowers is rapidly coming to an end
Company greed will have more & more mower fitted with imported engines , much the same way as B & S / Tecumseh killed off engine makers in Europe & Australia in the 40's & 50's & 60's because they were substantially cheaper.
The only thing B & S have going for them now is the fact that there are millions of them out there needing parts
But again company greed had B & S outsourcing most of the parts used in their engines .
Then having done the dirty on all of these suppliers , no surprise that they will either not supply B & S or continue on a COD basis.
When they can get supplies, smaller volumes mean higher prices
I only fit kawakasi & loncin engines now days
The shop up the street fits Kohler Kawakasi & Ducar
None of the tool sores down here sell B & S powered tools any more, all Chinese engines on the cheap stuff & Honda on the expensive ones .

 

[txmowman]

Nothing other that adjusting lash. I did replace head gaskets a couple months (about 300 hours) ago. Everything else appeared fine at that time. The cly with 125# had a blown gasket is why I changed them. Really don't remember checking compression afterwards tho. Ran fine and had much better power. Would mis-adjusting valve lash explain the higher comp number?

Everything has a designed service life.
from the biro in a hotel room that only has a 1/2" of ink to a pacemaker .
And with computer modeling and what is known about lubricants & materials now days you can design a mower engine's service life almost to the minute
An alloy bore has a designed service life that is shorter than an iron bore
An iron bore with hard rings has a shorter design life than and iron bore with soft rings
A wider bearing surface on the crankshaft will have a longer design life than a shorter one
A rolling element bearing will go in an engine with a longer design life than a plain non replaceable bush.

This is why engines get tested to destruction

My usual reply is there are 2 very famous Henry's in motoring history.
Both of then tested their vehicles to destruction
One of them did this till the first major component failed, then downgraded everything else to fail near the same time
His name was Ford & by doing this he made the cheapest car it was possible to make at the time which sold faster than he could make them and became one of the richest people on the planet.
The other Henry did the same then as each & every part failed, he made them stronger so his cars will ( and do ) run forever .
His name was Royce & he believed an automobile should be a one time purchase & last forever.
His cars did not sell well and he died a pauper.

Everything, absolutely everything that is manufactured has a designed service life.
And the fact that most of them are way too short is exactly why the planet is going to hell in a hand basket and it very well could be that children born today may never live as long as my

Everything has a designed service life.
from the biro in a hotel room that only has a 1/2" of ink to a pacemaker .
And with computer modeling and what is known about lubricants & materials now days you can design a mower engine's service life almost to the minute
An alloy bore has a designed service life that is shorter than an iron bore
An iron bore with hard rings has a shorter design life than and iron bore with soft rings
A wider bearing surface on the crankshaft will have a longer design life than a shorter one
A rolling element bearing will go in an engine with a longer design life than a plain non replaceable bush.

This is why engines get tested to destruction

My usual reply is there are 2 very famous Henry's in motoring history.
Both of then tested their vehicles to destruction
One of them did this till the first major component failed, then downgraded everything else to fail near the same time
His name was Ford & by doing this he made the cheapest car it was possible to make at the time which sold faster than he could make them and became one of the richest people on the planet.
The other Henry did the same then as each & every part failed, he made them stronger so his cars will ( and do ) run forever .
His name was Royce & he believed an automobile should be a one time purchase & last forever.
His cars did not sell well and he died a pauper.

Everything, absolutely everything that is manufactured has a designed service life.
And the fact that most of them are way too short is exactly why the planet is going to hell in a hand basket and it very well could be that children born today may never live as long as my generation has .

Nice story

 

[LebronPMS]

Doing a rebuild would be the more affordable option. We sell these engines and parts where I work all the time. Depending on what parts you would need, I'd also be able to work something out on a complete fx850v engine brand new if it is still something you were considering. I have a smaller FS691V on my Ferris and I'm gonna do the swap soon for an FX850V, I almost never hear anything bad about them. Plus as long as they are maintained properly, the ones we sell come with a 3 year warranty!

 

[larryuno]

I seriously doubt it
The days of petrol powered mowers is rapidly coming to an end
Company greed will have more & more mower fitted with imported engines , much the same way as B & S / Tecumseh killed off engine makers in Europe & Australia in the 40's & 50's & 60's because they were substantially cheaper.
The only thing B & S have going for them now is the fact that there are millions of them out there needing parts
But again company greed had B & S outsourcing most of the parts used in their engines .
Then having done the dirty on all of these suppliers , no surprise that they will either not supply B & S or continue on a COD basis.
When they can get supplies, smaller volumes mean higher prices
I only fit kawakasi & loncin engines now days
The shop up the street fits Kohler Kawakasi & Ducar
None of the tool sores down here sell B & S powered tools any more, all Chinese engines on the cheap stuff & Honda on the expensive ones .

Hi, I know you work on lawn tractors a lot, would you give an opinion on Loncin motors' quality? Many Chinese products I have bought have been seriously disappointing. Thanks, Larry.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Loncin motors are used fairly widely, They are the makers of Harbor Freight predator engines ( or at least their horizontal shaft engine) and also they make the predator generator engines. They also make Toro's own brand engine, as well as MTD's powermore engine. I've worked on a large handful of them... Usually minor issues like carb trouble ( fuel sitting too long) or bad ignition coil here and there. I wouldn't expect 2000+ hrs from.