I have added the major parts of this thread to the LM FAQ.

Thanks.

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none writes:

On Tue, 17 May 2005 03:18:06 GMT, "James Sweet"
wrote:



No doubt....

On a different subject; the last time I had occasion to check the Repair
FAQ
regarding a lawnmower issue, (I had a shear key problem which was easily
fixed with the info contained there. Thanks, Sam) I noticed a very
interesting dialogue concerning the relative merits of Briggs and Tecumseh
small engines.

Being how it's much too late (probably) to get my $.02 in the FAQ, I
thought
I'd post my opinion he

IME, Briggs motors are much more 'finicky' for starting and maintenance,
but
they last longer and use much less gas and oil.

The Tecumsehs (I have two of those, and one Briggs & Stratton) start much
easier, although that's probably due to the priming bulb which my Briggs
does not have. They start using oil right out of the box, however. I
have
to check and add oil on almost every use. My Eager1 uses almost twice as
much fuel to mow the same yard as my older Briggs of the same horsepower
and
cut width. I almost never have to add oil to the Briggs in an entire
season.

Given the greater oil and gas consumption, I assume that the Tecumsehs are
emitting considerably more pollutants per hour of use. The consumables
only
add a negligible amount to my lawn-care costs every year; but multiplied
by
(however many millions) of them out there.....

Any thoughts?

jak


Well it's hard to say these days, back when I was tinkering with this stuff
a lot I was dealing with engines made mostly in the 1970's and the Briggs
motors were very noticeably better made and easier to work on. The
Tecumsehs' were nothing but a pain in the ass, carb problems, ignition
problems, a few common models would regularly throw rods. It was no shock
since they were always about 40% cheaper than a comparable B&S. Now days I
don't really know, the Tecumseh engines seem to have improved somewhat,
while the Briggs engines have gotten *very* noticeably poorer. Somebody said
they're now made in Asia so perhaps that's when the quality took a dive. BTW
the new ones do have a primer bulb, haven't tried starting one though. My
mom has an old mower with a Tecumseh and it does actually start quite easily
though I have to take apart the carb and clean out the banjo bolt on the
float bowl every year, never had to do that with an old Briggs. Unfortunatly
I never compared fuel consumption but I don't recall oil usage problems on
either.


Yes, there was a time when Briggs were better engines.
Not so anymore. B&S has gotten into the parts game. They make nearly
as much profit on parts and service as they do intial sale.
Techumseh had to rethink their whole market strategy in the late 70's
and refocused on building better quality engines that were certainly
more standardized. On virtually every Techumseh vertical shaft engine
the carbs and coils are interchangeable, unlike Briggs where every
engine requires a particular model coil or carbuerator-setup.

Odd that your eager-1(Sears) mower uses so much oil. I'd say it might
be just the particular engine as virtually none of the ones I've used
or serviced ever developed this problem during their useful life.(Cast
iron sleeves and 2 oil rings unlike the single ring in Briggs and the
cheap alloys used in both the sleeve and ring.)
The poorer, cheap design in the Briggs carbs make for a much worse
problem in regards to polution as they tend to run rich with just a
little age.(I've seen some come into my shop that are runnign so rich
that they actually wash the cylinder. This results in excessive wear
on the sleeve and rings, allowing bypass into the crankcase. Once the
oil is broken down by the gas it'll bypass the rings and the result is
a smoking engine.(great if you want to fog your yard as you cut it.)
Techuseh carbs are actually easy to operate and care for once you
learn some basics.
They're float style carbs and as such you can't just run 'em and
forget 'em. leaving gas in the carb and tank off season is the worst
thing you can do. (Most people don't realize that gasoline actually
goes bad with time and actually expect a mower that's sat unused for
six months to just crank up on the first pull.)
Run the tank dry at the last cutting of the season then loosen the
Bowl nut and drain the gas out of the float bowl.(It's easy, all it
takes is a 1/2 inch socket to loosen it.)
Then leave it dry for the winter, DON'T put any type of winterizer in
it. Worst stuff in the world. Just ensures you'll be taking it in for
a carb job as the stuff just turns to jelly and will make a real mess
of your carb and tank.
There's just no way to "preserve" gas, use it or lose it.

If you want proof as to Techumseh's quality over Briggs just look at
how Briggs has copied Techumseh design.
Techumseh has the best design in a starter recoil mechanism hands
down, Briggs finally gave up using their ball bearing starter clutch
mechanism on all their 5hp or larger engines and copied the Techumseh
design out right.(stilll not as good.)
They went to a float style carb but picked what is in my opinion one
of the worst makes, Walbro.
I tell all my customers if they insist on a Briggs just get one of the
Sprints, either a 3.5 or 4hp model and don't expect much more than 2
years of use out of it. I have some customers still using the same
Craftsmans mower with a Techumseh engine for 10 years or longer.
I gave my inlaws one of my personal Craftsmans that I purchased back
in 82 and it's still going strong, with NO major engine work at all.