Tecumseh??

Both Briggs and Tecumseh made both good and bad engines. The ones on the $99 lawn mowers were basically throw aways. Basically equal engines at a price point. Both companies also made good cast iron engines pre the 1990s that ran good and lasted a long time. Unfortunately they weren't CA EPA compliant so both companies have quit building them. You gets what you paid for in other words. The HH and OH series used on better Sears not Craftsman tractors were very good engines. Roger

I've always heard tecumsehs were prone to blowing, but I've been happy with any I've owned. The 32 year old tecumseh OH140 on my sears runs like a top. Also have had many briggs with no trouble, but I have heard them referred to in several threads here as "breaks and scatters". I think it's a lot like the ford and chevy debate, both are good, but a chevy guy hates fords no matter what and vise versa.

Briggs engines were aleays easier to work on... but not by much. If I had my druthers for push mower engines it'd be Tecumseh. The most common failings are flywheel key shearing and sump pan gasket failure below the cylinder. Older Briggs don't seem to have many internal failings aside of scored cylinders: Which aren't uncommon on any non sleeve engine... But Briggs carbs do get very tempermental when they have alot of hours on them unlike Tecumseh. It doesn't mean much to have a good engine and no reliable way to deliver fuel. Now, newer Briggs have great Walbro carbs; but I've totally lost faith since they began using cams with plastic cam lobes. I've seen more Briggs with crap cams due to delaminated lobes than I want to remember.

As far as tractor engines, Briggs are slightly more reliable than Tecumseh... But Tecumseh feels like it produces more torque... But that's just an opinion.

That being said about both makes... I'd rather have a Kohler.

i have always had much better service out of Tecumsehs at least from back in the day of adjustable carbs; I used to hate Briggs; as a teen whose only transportation was a 10 speed bike behind which I pulled my mower while steering my bike with teh other hand (and carry the gas can w/the same hand I steered with) I remember the Tecumsehs seemed "torquier" given the same HP; and as a teenager that had yards to mow all over town, yards that got mowed with thrown away and hand me down mowers I had to put less into the Tecumsehs to get them back running again and on a given yard; i'd go thru 2 tanks of fuel on a Briggs 92000 series while a nearly identical mower w/ say a Tec LAV 35 I could mow the same yard twice on 1 (same size) tank instead of filling twice each time w/ the Briggs.

and also; those "auto choke" Pulsa Jets used to give me fits back then and teh Tecumseh's choke setup and carbs (again we are talking engines old enough to be adjustable) seemed "easier"; if not to work on, easier to get to run right with 2 adjustments for mixture (idle and hi speed) than teh Briggs' with their single mixture adjustment setup.

now on larger stuff with the 2 pc Flo Jets and such? I liked those Briggs engines.

and Honduh's? I still try to stay at least a "10 ft pole"'s worth away from them; what experience I have with them tells me parts make Kohler K series parts downright cheap; and it seems everything is "special order" and 2 weeks away. More expensive+not as readily available= not for me.
I had a Honduh G-80 on a Troy Bilt Horse once; a real cobblejob install to be sure.
yeah it ran pretty smooth and quiet; WHEN it wanted to run.
It had a sight bowl on the petcock made of some sort of plastic; if I hadnt experienced it I would not have believed me when the PO had told me this; Every time I used the tiller; I had to shut the gas off and wipe the sight bowl DRY; if I didnt about every other time that I used that engine I had to replace that bowl; it actually SHRUNK and leaked; I ahd a couple that were about 3/4 their orig size; first they would seep; then eventualy gush; and the next step was the sight bowl falling thru the retainer nut!
so I had to keep a couple on hand at all times; $13 a pop for the bowl, screen and nut; the only other way it could be gotten was as part of a petcock asembly which I did once for $65!
and I always had to drive 30 mi away to prepay for the parts, wait 10 days-2 weeks for the Honduh place to get them in then drive another 30 mi (one way distance) to pick them up!
one time I ordered the new petcock, an extra bowl, a needle and seat and an air filter element; just those parts alone set me back $130! It was an easy fix when it would start to leak gas but expensive;
after about the 5th or 6th bowl, I pulled it off and put a HH60 Tec on there like would have been OE for that tiller that I'd rebuilt and had sitting here a while; I spent less than $130 on a total rebuild; and had alot less hassles and alot longer service out of that Tec than I ever did from the Honduh.
and I felt better about sending that honduh on its way as I am not a fan of Japanese or Chinese built product.
to this day I run the other way when asked to work on a Honduh. but not before telling them to buy something with a different brand of engine.

For many years, the snowblower engine of choice was the Tecumseh HMSK (that stands for Horizontal shaft, Medium frame, Snow King series). I can't remember ever seeing a commonly available snow thrower with anything else but, of course, that's probably just my limited viewpoint! My Brute snowthrower has an HMSK-100.

Unfortunately, the company pretty much went out of business, selling off parts and certain lines to other companies. As of last spring, certain parts were hard to get, carbs, in particular, being listed with availabilities of 2-4 months or longer to unknown.

jhorwitz said:

Unfortunately, the company pretty much went out of business, selling off parts and certain lines to other companies. As of last spring, certain parts were hard to get, carbs, in particular, being listed with availabilities of 2-4 months or longer to unknown.

Click to expand...

Looks like there may be some hope for parts though:

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=147862

I used to fix snowblowers in college for beer money. I am one of the few who like Tecumsehs; Snow Kings were great. Like everything else though, the older ones were better.

I personally LOVE the old HH and OH series Tecumseh.....Im not a huge fan of the little 7 and 6hp aluminum block engine back in that day but it was good!!! I HATE the junk they replaced them HH and OH series engines with!! man what a junk fest I feel...I didnt like the old cast iron briggs ive NEVER had good luck with the carbs, and for that fact I dont like the aluminum block ones that still use that flo jet carb...IVE NEVER had any luck with them....But the vertical shaft briggs motors I wouldnt trade anything for they are nice! I got a 10hp thats got man i dont know how many hours and its been on about 5 frames, killed 6 transmission(these are on the sears companion line of tractors) and 4 steering colums...I then installed it on a Snapper and finished that frame off while plowing snow....it was even ran for 1 minute idling without oil, shut it off refilled it with oil and no problems yet!!! I LOVE that motor!!! id say its all personal choice and how lucky u are!!!

thanks for all the reply's, they kind of confirmed my theory.

Having built Performance Honda atv engines, I love the durability of those engines, and think of Briggs the same way, but by being a "tuner" on these machines, carbs aren't really an issue for me, as long as the passages are clean and needles aren't worn, they run perfect.

My curiosity is no peaked to work on one of these older tecs. I have thought of using a khien motorcycle carb on a tractor, as I have easy ways to jet these carbs to any size I want for perfect running. I really hate the price of new carbs for small motors, and finding a carb used with the right jet size has not been easy.

Thanks for all the input!!!

pintopkp said:

Looks like there may be some hope for parts though:

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=147862

I used to fix snowblowers in college for beer money. I am one of the few who like Tecumsehs; Snow Kings were great. Like everything else though, the older ones were better.

Click to expand...

That report is quite a bit newer than what I reported previously in this Thread and in another one in April: