tecumseh versus Briggs & Stratton

[drifter420]

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on it?

How are they stacked against each other in winter and summer ( and same HP range) ?

I didn't include Honda's and others cause those are the higher end engine that not alot of people will purchase on average.

I didn't see an option for polling.. so have to do it the hard way

 

[Turk]

This should be interesting...

 

[drifter420]

I"m more concerned bout the Tecumseh snow king vs. B&S snow
But in general would be great also.. I will post my experience as soon as I dust the snow off all the summer equipment to verify the engines on them.

P.S. lets just post our experience.. and not a flaming war

 

[JTK]

Which ever one is the OHV version would be my choice for a snowblower. All the newer ones I've seen with briggs engines were OHV. Tecumseh powered snowblowers are still a mixed bag of L-head and OHV.

Joel

 

[Bill in Utah]

Love my B&S OHV 8 hp on my blower.

Never had to use the electric start as it starts the first time.

At first, I did not care for the non throttle but now, its the only way I'd go.

Uses very little gas, easy to work on (ok, so I only change oil and add gas in it

) and is pretty quiet.

My last snow blower had a flat head Tecumseh (5.5hp) and it always seemed to struggle. Even with easy work.

Spent 3 hours today cleaning up our last storm (about 10 inchs last night) and the blower did well. I do need to adjust the belt since I'm having slight problems going real slow. (I've never adjusted it)

Take care, Bill

 

[JohnBrowning]

I do not think it makes much difference until you get into Honda's,Onan, and other high end engines.

 

[Turk]

My 2-stage snowblower has a 5HP Tecumseh. It starts on the 1st pull, runs great, does well except in the super wet stuff. Does not use oil, never had a single issue. Use it a lot in Minnesota.

Had it ~8 years.

What more can I ask for...? Nothing.

 

[flatlandtacoma]

My 15 year old 8 hp L-head Tecumseh Snow-king works great! We have had quite a bit of snow this year and it has started on the first crank each time I've used it.

I don't have any experience with Briggs powered snothrowers or the new non-adjustable epa carbed Tecumsehs. If I was buying a new one with an L-head Tecumseh I would invest in an adjustable carb for it.

 

[TWG1572]

I have a 5 hp two cycle Tecumseh on my snow blower. Starts and runs well, but uses a poor (in my opinion)carb design. It has a fuel bowl, with a needle valve that can stick open and floods the carb (and my garage floor) with gas. I prefer the B&S carb and engines.

Besides that incident the engine has worked well, so I can't complain too loudly.

 

[Cujet]

I have a Tecumseh powered bush hog (homemade, out of a 6HP string trimmer). It is a low end engine and it used to smoke when new. But now it just runs fairly well. No smoke. No major issues. Just not perfect.

It is a bit cold natured, and will bog unless fully warmed up.

The Kawasaki 6HP mower I have runs far better all the way around.

Chris

 

[Olive1465]

I have work on both b&s and tecumseh and the tecumsehs seem like they always need carb work. b&s seem like the carb has a better design
Robbie

 

[NThomas]

Carb. problems can happen to ANY small engine. The problem is the gas you have bought or have had sitting for a year and the conditions where the gas has been.

Not many Briggs snow engines out, Tecumseh has pretty much had the market for years. With Tecumseh going bankrupt and having to sell, and Briggs making a big push on the "Snow" engine market I am sure we will see alot more Briggs out there.

Tecumseh has always had problems with valves not seating right after time or loosing clearance fast. With new EPA standards, and gas not being what it once was, you will find a lot more carb. problems as well as valve problems. Tecumseh is by far the leader with valve related problems.

If I had a choice I would go with a OHV Briggs or OHC Honda on a homeowner level. Those seem to have the least amount of problems.

But again, carb. issues can/will happen to any of them and it is not the machines fault. This year has been the worst for fuel related problems and I have gallons of bad fuel from machines of all types.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: NThomas

Not many Briggs snow engines out, Tecumseh has pretty much had the market for years.


Isn't that the truth! You can go back ~40yrs and all you'll see are Tecumseh engines on snowblowers. I often wondered why? IIRC, I once saw an old Simplicity all OEM with a Briggs ~8hp. I might be mixing up the brand, but it was the only old-school machine I ever saw with a B&S side-valve engine on it. Who ever makes the snowblowers for Sears started with the B&S OHV engines about 5yrs ago. I know Murray used to make the snowblowers/throwers for Sears, Murray is gone, but someone may have taken over the production.

Joel

 

[dwendt44]

The older series of Briggs engines didn't do well in the cold weather.
Some dealers wounld accept B&S engined blowers from Simplicity, would only take the Tecumseh powered ones.
Companies learned quick from those years, and would only equipe their products with the Tecumshs.

 

[Craig in Canada]

I hawe a 22-year old Tec L-head on my Toro 824 snow blower. After dealing with some carb issues (original carb) it fires up in the first half pull and really chews through heavy, wet snow. No major work has ever been done on it, and it only started getting OCD maintenance last year.

It's noisy as heck, and I wish it was OHV, but it's doing just fine for what it is.

All my other four stroke OPE is Honda, no B&S to compare to.

 

[bob_ninja]

Mine is a Murray machine, 10hp T, not sure which type, about 5 years old.
The only problem I have had is that it keeps snapping shear bolts. First it would be chuncks of ice in augur. Now it is snapping drive bolt when I try to push too much snow or catch something on the ground. In other words, it is rather powerful and never bogs down.

I use electric start when cold, manual when hot. Either way starts easy - no messing with carbs. No issues with storage - use stabil and fogging oil.

 

[kd5byb]

Growing up (about 20 years ago), we bought rotary push-mowers from Sears that were always Tecumseh engined. We'd put maybe 35 hours a year on them, changing the oil each spring and at the 25 hour mark (we kept track - Dad was an engineer and I am too), and they'd be way down on power and mostly useless in about 4 years. (A lifetime of about 140 operating hours)

About 1995, we bought another Sears rotary push-mower, but this time it had a Briggs engine on it. It gets used a lot less, maybe 10 hours a year, but has held up far better. Sure, it has less hours (about 120 now), but it's managed to maintain power over those hours. Only problem is that this engine's carb is very sensitive to dirt - I've had it apart at least three times. No fuel filter, so dirt goes from the tank to the carb, plugs the float valve, and fuel everywhere. Fixed this problem with an add-on fuel filter.

So, I'm a big fan of Briggs over Tecumseh, with the Sno-King being the exception. We had a 5HP snow blower (Ariens) with a Sno-King. It was hard to start, but ran great! We bought an electric starter for it that ended the hard starting.

Lately I've bought two Honda-knock off Chinese engines. The little 6.5 HP jobbies. One is a Jiang Dong brand and is on a generator set ($200 at Costco - couldn't pass it up). The other is just an engine - one of the bargain sub $100 engines, also from Costco. The Jiang Dong starts easy, runs great, and seems to be holding up. Have about 10 hours total on that genset. Haven't run the other one yet...

later,
b

 

[andyd]

I dont buy new stuff, so I only have experience with flat heads. When I check out free OPE to re hab, I much prefer the Tecumseh. Mostly because what ever carb problems it develops from stale gas can be fixed with carb cleaner. B+S Pulsa jet carbs and a rusty steel gas tank are a bad combination

 

[hemitom]

1980 blower with 10 horse tecumseh totally reliable.only work ever done, carb kit,heli coil{stripped spark plug}height adjusters wore them right off. Changed oil every year and thats about it.never starts on the first pull, but always by the third.

 

[NThomas]

Originally Posted By: andyd
I dont buy new stuff, so I only have experience with flat heads. When I check out free OPE to re hab, I much prefer the Tecumseh. Mostly because what ever carb problems it develops from stale gas can be fixed with carb cleaner. B+S Pulsa jet carbs and a rusty steel gas tank are a bad combination


The problem with some of those [censored] Pulsajet carbs is the fuel tank will warp and create an air leak. That design has to be one of the worst out!

Gas is so bad today that it will start to varnish after 3 weeks. Depending on the conditions that it is stored can make it go bad a lot faster.

A lot of people complain about the engine when it is the gas that is the problem.