On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:17:03 -0500, dpb wrote:

On 9/26/2011 7:04 PM, aemeijers wrote:
...
and noticed the PowerMore engine looked a whole lot like my shiny new
Kohler. Went home and looked online, and apparently there is an OEM in
China that makes utility engines for a lot of different equipment
companies. So pretty clearly my new engine was born in China. My
question would be, do these OEM companies build them any better for name
manufacturers? Or are small engines totally a commodity at this point?

Kohler web site, of course, is silent on where they get engines from.
...

Well, not entirely...it says they formed a joint venture in China so
they are building at least some of their product there for (one
presumes) both foreign and domestic markets. It also notes they bought
an Italian small engine manufacturer at roughly the same time for a
European presence.
And China makes a lot of part-for-part compatible Honda engines too
- doesn't mean any of your Honda is Chinese made, or that it has any
Chinese DNA. The Chinese are a whole lot better at ripping off other
designs than the Japanese ever were. The Japanese took, say, an
American design and modified it to make it beter - the Chinese take
that Japanese design and make it cheaper.