Mower Engine won't rev (Hunting?) - Page 2

**DFB FGXR6** · 14-07-2015, 06:27 PM

I can't understand why people rat on Briggs and Stratton engines.

I have a little 3.5hp side valve on a Victa. That thing earned me many many dollars mowing lawns in my teens. Thrashed from day one. I still have it, its a bit smokey now but still go's and has never let me down in the 13 years I have had it, unlike a VERY expensive Honda that failed on its second job. In fact, I have never (touch wood) had a Briggs engine let me down, just fill em with fuel and pull the cord, change the oil every now and then. The OHV 850 series on a Victa Mustang and a Masport Utility I have at the moment is a powerhouse.

Crazy Dazz · 14-07-2015, 07:14 PM

Cont: OK, the "quantum 2" engines have the filter on the side of the carby...

Like a lot of things, once you know what you're looking at, its obvious.
I removed the air filter and cleaned out 20 years of muck, and it is now running much smoother.
Still won't rev AS high as I remember, but more than it was, and no hunting.

Gotta give credit to the old girl. ~ 20 years old, never had a lick of maintenance, and with a bit of clean she's still purring along.

Trevor 57 · 15-07-2015, 11:12 AM

look at that bracket on the front to get higher revs

BENT_8 · 15-07-2015, 09:01 PM

Nothing wrong with the Briggs motor, we always used them as the second/backup to our Buffalo's.
I just prefer the Honda equipment.

When my brother and i first got in to Jims Mowing back in the mid 90's we used Honda mowers and they were bullet proof.
We had 3 territories and often knocked off 20 jobs a day, 6 days a week from Liverpool to Campbelltown.
Quite a lot of our jobs were first cuts and the stuff we pushed those Honda's through was rediculous, never let us down.
Only issue we ever had was with the self drive mechanism and that was due to treatment not design.
When i returned to SA i worked with a mate who had a Jims franchise, same thing, Honda first and foremost, Briggs only came out if i knocked the edges off before he got to the back yard.
I ended up buying the franchise from him and stuck with the tried and proven, never let me down.
Only thing i could complain about the briggs was that they got smokey early on.
This was all 10+ years ago, im sure the modern stuff would be better.

**DFB FGXR6** · 16-07-2015, 05:48 PM

Briggs got a bit of a bad reputation many many years ago about bad reliability troubles and scared many people off.
They honed their engines over time, keeping them simple in the process and are now quite reliable now. In some ways what they did was kinda like what Ford did with the Inline 6, tinkered and improved over many years until it is now an excellent engine.
Like the Ford Inline 6, the Briggs side valve engines are now being phased out for OHV models. The 148cc and 158cc versions are gone and have been replaced with smaller OHV engines. I suppose the 190cc engines will be next.