# Tecumseh engines?



## rcpilot1972 (Apr 19, 2005)

I was wondering how Tecumseh engines hold up in the long run compared to Briggs? I have owned several Briggs but never a Tecumseh, my dad had a Tecumseh 3hp on a push mower that started everytime with no problems. Someone told me at a partshouse the Tecumsehs or bad about slinging rods, most of the locals around here are telling me to stay away from them. But I keep thinking back to my dads push mower with his Tecumseh, my cousin had one on his gocart that gave hime great service too. Are parts hard to get? People say that they are hard to work on too.


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## bbnissan (Nov 7, 2004)

Personally, I call them "To sucky" engines rather than Tecumseh because they are inferior to a Briggs IMHO. I have never found a Tecumseh that I wanted to work on...they are always a royal pain to work on because stuff is always hard to get to or the motor is just really tempermental about specs.

Another reason I don't like them is because the blocks are made from really poor castings. I didn't realize how bad they were until I was breaking up engine blocks to feed into my foundry furnace. You can hit a Tecumseh with one good wack from a 4lb sledge and shatter it to pieces. If you try this with the same size Briggs or Kohler engine, you have to hit it about 3 or 4 times to even get a crack started. The rods in the engines are the same way...poor castings that are full of tiny cracks and voids (cut one in half with a hacksaw then lighlty coat the surface with acid and you'll see what I'm talking about) which is why they are known for breaking all the time.

Just put it this way...I sell used lawn equipment from time to time to put a little extra cash in my pocket. I will not sell a piece of equipment with a Tecumseh on it because I do not want it to come back in a week because the engine blew up. I will only sell a piece of equipment if it has a Briggs, Kohler, or Honda engine on it. Also, I will not even attempt to rebuild a Tecumseh engine because it's completely pointless (even just re-ringing one). On the other hand, I will rebuild just about any Briggs engine as long as the block is still in one piece. I have rebuilt many Briggs engines where the rod was broken or the crank was seized because it was ran without oil. The blocks are duarble enough that you can bore out the cylinders to remove scoring, and bore the journals and press in bushings to repair the journal bearings.


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## rcpilot1972 (Apr 19, 2005)

WOW, Thanks for the info, im proud you let me know about all this on the Tecumseh I didnt have a clue they are made as cheap as they are. Ill stick with Briggs.


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

yes stick with briggs, a long time ago my mother bought one with a 3.75hp tec. lasted all of 2 years before it blew sky high, taken care of now. and in those 2 years it had lots of tiny repairs done to it. i'm going on now since 2000 a 3.5hp briggs pushmower, no problems yet and i used to use it on my own big yard and other people yards(my yard took 4 hours straight sometimes to finish), all i own is briggs and everyone of em still start good. i have two very old riding mowers made way back when on one and the one i have now was used commercially some, used hard and i'm the third owner!! and its pretty much as good as it was new. of course it was a briggs I/C. bbnissan is right, if you find yourself a junk tec. sling at it slightly with hammer, it'll shatter in no time, a briggs will take many hits to get a crack going, and even then it'll just want to deform till it does break. i've seen briggs engines still running, spewing oil, rings shot to hell and valves bent and they still would run.


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