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OT: Rant need to vent

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I just took apart a Briggs and Stratton 6.5hp Intek engine, 2 years old. Some how between my brother and me it got low on oil. Saturday I thought it was knocking, buy with ear plugs in and other things running I wasent sure. Well yesterday I checked the oil, hardly any in it,(dont know were it went, hardly any hours on it) so I fill it, my brother starts it and it was smoking like a locomotive. He says you over filled it, But I knew what was wrong with it(lack of oil cooked it). Anyway I took the crankcase cover off tonight, and was shocked to see it has a plastic cam gear and cam lobes. The pto side ball bearing said china on it.
This is the second motor I had fail in a year, the last one was a Kohler 27hp at 1700 hrs. Kohler is junk and now Briggs is the same. Next time I need to buy a engine Im gonna take it apart to see how cheap it is inside. J
 
Never have seen plastic cam lobes, but plastic cam gears have been around in autos for 30 years or more.

They weren't as bad as GM's fiber cam gears in the early to mid '80's. Those things would run from 80,000 to 100,000 miles, then shred and plug the oil pump pickup. Next thing that would happen would be the front rod bearing spun from lack of lube.
 
I've got mowers, etc that are 30+ years old with B@S engines on them that still start on the first pull and run like a top. That just won't happen nowdays with a B@S so now, sadly, one of the best engines you can buy is a Honda.........
 
No, Honda is junk too. Had two gx 120s, or 160s 5.5 hp, one the valve guide fell out of, the other had carb problems. I have had better luck with the B&S flathead engines with the ball bearing recoil, and the carb on top of the gas tank. Now the recoils are riveted on. I learned on thing, we ARE living in a throw away world. No wonder IH went out of bussiness, they made things that lasted.
 
Found the same thing in a 3 year old, Cub Cadet 1040 in an 18 HP Kohler "Courage" [ Yeah I know what the heck is a name like that on a manly piece of equipment? } Plastic cam.

Found out yesterday that the little boxy Ford now [The none that looks like a bigger version of the Scion], 80 % of it comes from Turkey.and most of the bearings in all our USA built cars and trucks have had Chinese bearings, and untempered splined shafts in them for several years now.
 
I agree with you 110% that the products manufactured today are junk, no repairing them like older cast models with "available parts" use them and put them in the trash. With that said, you need to check the oil every time you gas it up.
 
When I was doing small engine work 15 years ago, they were using plastic cam parts. This is nothing new.

If you run any engine out of oil, whether it be new or old, foreign or US made, it will ruin the engine.
 
No they dident, Which shocked me. It wasent out of oil just pretty low. I do like the low oil sensor on some engines.
 
Not about small engines, but, I have a friend who owned an electronic repair shop. Last 5 years or so he really struggled, because nothing was expensive enough to have repaired-everything was just being tossed and a new one bought. The only thing he was finally working on was big screen tvs-which meant he had to have a large van and specialized equipment to work on them. He finally closed the doors and sold off everything he could. Greg
 
In your original post,you wrote "lack of oil cooked it" and "hardly any oil in it".

Why wouldn't this cause engine failure?

Bet ya check oil every time from now on......
 
1700 hrs on a Kohler isnt a over early death. I hear rumors of them going 2500 to 3000 hrs but usualy from the same guys that are getting 25 mpg from their 3/4 ton gas pickups. To run any engine out (or nearly out) of oil and then call it junk simply isnt fair. Small engines have made great strides in dependability from 30 years ago. I agree with you to the extent that it"s difficult to see plastics in an engine, but I would submit the vastly improved oil technology we have today more than compensates for it. Sorry, but without keeping it full of clean and fresh oil, you cant really judge it"s quality.
 
Well first off, the briggs we ran low on oil is still running. I say we cooked it because, after filling it with oil it smoked like @ell, and Im not saying any engine is junk if its run low on oil do to our mistake, Im saying the quality and how they are made is junk. My Kohler 27hp is a horizantal crank engine, there is no bearings to support the crank, just the aluminum block. The crank gear is pressed on with no keyway. The cam also runs on Aluminum. For a $2100 engine I expect better.
However, we have had the best luck with the Kawasakis. And thats all we will buy now. We have also learned to pay extra for the Donaldson air filter system.j
 
Yes, we had a vertical crank 20hp kohler that had 2700hours,(and used no oil), on it when I sold it. As far as I know its still running. The horizontal crank engines have no bearings in them.
 
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