Where's the Platinum?

[bertsmobile1]

Bert, PN changes are something pretty common , but what has changed on the parts, if that is known? The only thing I ever saw advertised by Intek was chromed valve stems and micro polished crank journals, hardly major improvements. One forum member stated he knows people in a stateside assembly plant where more careful assembly is done. No one has ever explained to me why some Inteks run cooler than others.

BTW I read Australia has produced its last motor car. The Holden was a good mod to the GM it seemed.

The motor industry was heavily subsidised down here.
The workforce was 100% unionised and the union funded the Labour ( currently opposition ) party.
Thus when time came to review the subsidy the current government cut it completely to starve the opposition of funds.
Factory workers do not generally vote Liberal so it was no problem for them.

Holden made a big loss on every car they made but made massive profits from making nearly all the alloy castings for GM world wide.
Thus nearly all of the all alloy engines were assembled down here.
Ford & Toyota both ran at a loss but neither were willing to pull out while any other factory remained for fear of loss of market share.
So it was a stand off situation with 2 loosing big money and the other making a reasonable profit.

As part of Working America the previous US government gave GM a "loan" to build a new foundry in Mitichigan where they will be casting all the alloy parts for GM world wide using Canadian aluminium.
To avoid consequences from claiming a chapter 27 ? bankruptcy Ford committed to also purchase castings from the GM plant .
It commnced pouring late 2016 & will be fully operational by 2018.
Joke is the new plant actually employs far fewer workers than the foundries that used to supply Ford so there has been a net loss of jobs, so much for "Working America".

Now all 3 car plants would be running at a loss and since the Howards governments brown nosing of the USA government in the signing of the USA - Australia Free Trade agreement there was no financial reason for any US car maker to have a plant in Aust.
FWIW whatever strait 6 Pontiac was sold in the USa was made in Aust & some of the smaller V 8's as well.
Ford made whatever the small convertable in their range down here as well.
AFAIK Ford is about to open a big plant in both India ( they already have one there ) & China to produce the 4 cylinder cars but I was lead to believe they are not big sellers in the States.

Getting right off topic, the motor industry was killed off by the Menzie's government where in good faith he introduced an import replacement subsidy to manufacturers immediatly post WW II.
In theory a good idea but it lacked the important phrase "of equivalent quality to the imported item" so factory owners put out substandard goods that the local market only bought out of necessity.
This then set the cultural cringe in concrete so locals craved anything imported as a status symbol so buying locally made was a sign of poverty and that very much remains the same today.

 

[motoman]

With the demise of independent journalism you should start your own underground press, Bert. Interesting stuff. I know there are lots of motor enthusiasts there and I remember the sedan racing series, but getting back to the Intek pn changes....did anything really change? The 44N endurance engine I have in the Husqy still references the original Briggs Intek factory manual as far as I know.

 

[bertsmobile1]

All that I wrote above has appeared in the mass media, it is just unless it is about a celebrity no one looks, listens or remembers and defineately bothers to think about it.
Then of course these things happen over time so you have to remember what happens 7 years ago when you look at what is happening today.
A little more clear to me as being in the foundry trade, I still subscribe to foundry journals and building a new foundry in the USA when most were closing down & moving to Mexico or Brazil was big big big news in USA journals.

Now back to the Briggs engines,
I rarely open up an engine as it is not economic to do so.
Most customers will go to a Harbour Freight type shop and buy a cheap Chinese engine oft imported from the USA rather than have their engine repaired.
Thus I do not pull them apart often, other than to prepare a bin for scrap.
I do not know the engine numbers for the various engines, but parts books are the best way to work out which part has changed particularly when there are several numbers for the same part in a single catalogue that are not tied to serial numbers which would indicate a revision rather than an alternative part or a part from a new supplier.

Generally when an upgraded part is introduced, unless there is a substantial cost increase then upgraded part that was offered in a "special" engine last year becomes the standard part in subsequent years otherwise the parts inventory becomes unmanageable.
OTOH it could be the platinum engines are balanced to better level or even dynamically balanced against static balance for general run parts.

So other than pointing you towards where to start looking I can be of no more assistance.

AS for starting a news letter, few are interested in facts & truth except those who practice deception & spread lies . They generally have very good legal people to prevent them being found out.

Ford & GM were never interested in building vehicles here.
They were most interested in milking the government for all they could get.

The only difference in the Ford factory from the day it opened to now is the colour of the paint.
VW decided to build the beetle in Brazil, in an air conditioned factory with robots, they were serious about building cars.

 

[cpurvis]

Ford & GM were never interested in building vehicles here.
They were most interested in milking the government for all they could get.

Who can blame them? If there is anybody to blame, it's governments for giving away their constituents money.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Who can blame them? If there is anybody to blame, it's governments for giving away their constituents money.

No arguement on that point.

 

[motoman]

Bert, Still think you could publish a great underground....maybe even a pirate TV show... Back to the Briggs


Without any depth of investigation I did notice that my 44N engine has slightly different bore and stroke. That in itself could generate a whole range of pn changes. And corporate/contractual dynamics might have resulted in "unique" appearing engineering data bases when nothing really changed. I wish we had more data on reliability of the ?3? engine levels . My grandiose sample of 2 suggests the 44N runs cooler and I hear you about balance in assembly. Perhaps pistons , rods, cranks get a better level of attention and selection. Boobala has apparently tried to start some sub theads within the Briggs forum. I hope he is able to motivate more response than I was able to on various subjects. If the several "grades" of Briggs really are better they do a really poor job of communicating it.....like, drumroll, "we use platinum plugs," yea! On the other hand they say better spark coils, so they should tell more as this is one major PITA for many.

Just imagine what a better world it would be if social media could show this....."oh my, have your heard about the wonderful changes Briggs has made in their lawn mower engines?.....""oh, I know , its so exciting". "Let me go right now and do a voice command..."." show me all the Briggs engines while I sip my latte."

 

[cpurvis]

Probably the more you pay, the better decals you get.

 

[motoman]

Well, boobala has mentioned something I am interested it re 44N. He says in a response to his thread that he found "vanes"in the blower assembly . Since I believe this engine runs cooler this is worth knowing about... anyone?

Edit. Just reading the "smart start" text provided by Boobala I see mention of a "vane" (singular) in that system. So need clarification if that is the vane you mention, Boobala?

 

[Boobala]

Well, boobala has mentioned something I am interested it re 44N. He says in a response to his thread that he found "vanes"in the blower assembly . Since I believe this engine runs cooler this is worth knowing about... anyone?

Edit. Just reading the "smart start" text provided by Boobala I see mention of a "vane" (singular) in that system. So need clarification if that is the vane you mention, Boobala?

Here's the News Letter Release from Briggs, you will have to ENLARGE it (sorry) see paragraph 4 ...

... click to open, click AGAIN to enlarge.......

.....P/Ns -217A,291,1386,1474

.....P/Ns -212,227,306,306A,573,865

.....P/Ns - 209,211,216,216A,222,501A

These are from the B&S (44R877-0001-G1) Parts Manual available @ B&S site
I have ..NOT..checked for IDENTICAL P/Ns in the (44N877-001-G1) yet !

I will be re-posting this and any further information on the B&S forum thread marked- ( B&S MODEL 44R877-0001-G1 )

 

[Boobala]

Motoman, I posted some new info on the B&S thread, pertaining to YOUR engine ...... Boobala ..:thumbsup: