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If you stick with the B&S, you can obtain cost effective new short block or full replacement B&S engines (£175-250 inc vat depending on model), that can be fitted yourself.
You can swap engines as I believe the Etesia deck takes both, but guessing you would need new crankshaft boss, drive belt, mounting kit and maybe some cable changes (eg for OPC). Post a message for Neil @ Etesia ?
We are just having a new engine fitted to Hayter 53 Pro Ranger as cost to rebuild an engine with a bent crankshaft is too costly ect)
If you fit a B&S engine, if you can,get one with a cast iron bore. They are much longer lasting and robust..... my Quantum I/C engine must have done thousands of hours and still going strong..... I even bought the engine 2ndhand on Ebay for £50.
Currious - under what circumstances did this happen? Had the engine been running for a long period?
I would agree with Geoff i have my mounfield quantum engine, that only in the last year or so have i actually serviced the engine and it still purrs like a animal, the newer engine although more technically advance with auto choke ect are great while they work but are prone to alot more issues than the older more robust engines(my mounfield is 9 years old) i put two stroke in my viking by mistake and its gives me major hell(remedy complete carb stripdown) not a simple task, all my machines now get new oil every 100 hours of work, all air filters are cleaned daily, spark plugs are wire brush and cleaned weekly, i must say the machines rarely give me problems, just out of curiosity how many people carry wd40, carb cleaner, copper grease, and spare parts ect... in there van ?
Geoff Norfolk said:
We use Honda mowers and can't believe the amount of abuse we give them and they still keep going! We still carry on cutting lawns in the pouring rain all day and are fine but can start to cough and splutter in bad rain. Makes me wonder if there is water seeping in our oil sump when it starts to cough and splutter :-/ Although we do change the oil regularly.
Indeed i have 4 Honda mowers and they just keep on going, this reminds me i must change the oil this weekend..
i have wangled a tecumseh 5 hp motor onto the etesia for the time being-just waiting for a blade boss to complete the transition. ive just won on fleabay a fairly recent 4.5 honda and also an older briggs motor with the cast iron sleeve-sounds like a novel!
im definitely of the opinion that newest does not mean best(est!) and i understand now why so many of you go through so many machines. they really are made for the most part to be thrown away after use.
im going retro on my mowers from here on in. hopefully keeping them presentable but using some of the more robust technology from years gone by that can be properly rebuilt and serviced.
the engine that i killed-and i admit i did kill it-just died on me. the only warnings it ever gave was cutting out on me twice when it had obviously been hot. without smoke, coughing, hunting-nothing. just died, whereas with a stronger engine it would show some symptoms before leaving you in the lurch.
i think i need to fit oil warning lights on my mowers from now on!
even managed to break the throttle lever on my honda today : /
I try my best to avoid anything with a briggs engine on it. Its a mindset with me, i just like honda too much. Kohler not bad though on the Etesia MB53C i tried in spring.