Originally Posted By: volk06
The decision has been made. I will be getting the toro super recycler. Now the question is, is $50 extra for the honda GCV160 worth it, or just save the money and get the toro engine. Kinda leaning towards the honda due to the 2 recalls in the toro engine and its only been out for 2-3 years where the GCV160 has a good track record.
The GCV is a decent performer, but this engine was designed with two very important things in mind: low-cost, and cheap to manufacture. Honda has two OPE engine lines, their GX and GC series engines. The (V) suffix simply means it's a vertical shaft engine, which you'll find on mowers & some pressure washers.
The GX engine is their commercial grade engine, which you'll also find on high end residential equipment. The GC series engine is quite the opposite, it was designed with price as the important variable.
GC engines have aluminum cylinder bores, which are not known for their durability and long term reliability. They also have plain bearings, and a camshaft belt which WILL break someday.
GX engines have cast iron cylinder liners, ball bearing supported crank, and a conventional overhead valvetrain.
I'd go with the Toro engine. Why? Because it's almost certainly a mass produced Honda GX clone. These engines are known as "Chondas," and a quick Google search will yield endless articles which mostly speak of favorable reliability. They have all the essential features which make the GX engine such a robust design, some of which I listed above. The nice thing about these, is that genuine Honda parts will fit the vast majority of Chonda engines, so you'll have a nearly endless supply of replacement parts, both made by Honda, and generic.
No other small outdoor power equipment engine has been as good a commercial success as the GX engine from Honda. They come in a dozen or more sizes, they've been around forever, there are millions of examples of the engines in use today. Rugged, reliable, just generally built like a tank. Some of the early Chinese knockoffs were questionable, but those kinks were worked out years ago. The engine manufacturers quickly realized that Toro, et al, will not put their names on the engine unless it wreaks of quality. There's very important reasons why the GX engine is being copied and not the GCV. It's the engine that all others are judged by, quite literally.
If country of origin is important to you, keep in mind that low cost Briggs (namely their aluminum bore engines) & many Honda engines are built in China as well. So as a deciding factor, this would be a poor one.
