# briggs and stratton engines better than others?



## Scott15 (Nov 11, 2004)

I am looking at getting a snapper with a briggs intek. Is it worth it?


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

yeah......... get it. a snapper is the best you can get. i had one made around 20 years ago with a briggs ten horse. ran until the welded on deck fell off. been well used and abused, flipped over, lit on fire and went through outside weather. briggs is the best you can get. easy to work on also


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## bbnissan (Nov 7, 2004)

I have to agree with bugman under one condition....you pay the extra money to get the I/C engine. I/C stands for industrial and commercial and it's a much better engine than the regular B&S engines. It has a cast iron cylinder sleeve, some have bronze or copper crankshaft bearings (instead of using the housing for the bearing), and they have a full metal camshaft (instead of a plastic gear and lobes).

The main reason i would get the I/C engine is because it wears alot better than a regular consumer grade engine. I have seen the I/C engine go 10+ years and will still look like a brand new engine if you tear it down. In fact, I tore down a 12 year old B&S I/C engine on a Snapper about a month ago to replace a blown sump gasket.....the engine still had what looked like a brand new cross hatch pattern in the cylinder. I wish I would have taken a picture of it because nobody ever believes me.

Another reason I like the I/C engine is that they are easy to rebuild. Since the cylinder has a cast iron sleeve instead of aluminum bore, it usually doesn't wear that much so rebuilding the engine is usually just a matter of lightly honing the cylinder and installing new rings. My dad owns a snapper push mower that is 18 years old...it use to have a 4hp B&S I/C engine on it, but he had me replace it with a newer 6hp B&S I/C engine because he didn't think the old engine was worth rebuilding (it had started to burn a small amount of oil). Well, I took the old 4hp engine to the shop I work at, tore it down and cleaned it up. After a light cylinder hone, a new set of rings, lapping and grinding the valves, and rebuilding the carb, the engine was like brand new. I was able to throw the old engine on an old deck and sell it for $100 (I only had about $20 in parts in it).


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

yes so true on the i/c. i've got a 12hp version. the only thing it will do is burn oil when filled to much, which it doesn't have a dipstick. been through three owners and well used. needs a carb rebuild due to a sticky butterfly but no other problem. no wear on the bore.


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## Scott15 (Nov 11, 2004)

the model is a rp217017bv. could I get that model but request a different engine? If so, I would rather get a kawasaki like the one on a cub cadet. Anyway, If I get this snapper the way it is, I could just change the engine out in a couple of years. Or I could just get the commercial one with a 5 hp kawasaki with full pressure lube. I will be using it as a light commercial mower for my neighborhood yards I cut.


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## bbnissan (Nov 7, 2004)

Personally I would stay away from the Kawasaki engine even if you are going to use it for commercial purposes. The Kawasaki is a good engine with lots of power, but their parts are usually hard to find and they are extremely over priced. I would still take the B&S I/C engine over the Kawasaki because the quality of both engines is about the same, but the B&S engine is easier to find parts for and the parts are much cheaper. Also, there are more shops with certified B&S technicians than there are shops with Kawasaki technicians (I am certified for both but rarely work on the Kawasaki).

Just to give you an idea of the price differences.....

The carb kit for a Walbro carb on a 12hp B&S engine runs around $20. A similar kit for a Kawasaki with a Nikki carb is about $50-$60. The needle alone on that Nikki carb runs around $15 while a Walbro needle can be had for less than $6. But carb kits aren't the only thing that is more expensive...the air filters are almost double what a B&S air filter costs and the oil filter is almost double the price even though it's the exact same oil filter!


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

john deere is the best but the cheapest one they sell is around one grand. but snappers, murrays, and toros follow close behind, (very close) just not with a good warranty like john deere.all will last for the same amount of years. and all use briggs for most of there equipment. an alluminum block will be more subseptible to wear and cold starting. ind. comm. is your best bet. all my equipment is briggs. one 3.5hp murray, one 6.0hp sears craftsman, one murray eight rider that was made in 82 still running, and of course my 12 horse rider and a small ohv 6.0hp sears craftsman generator, and one five horse go-cart. and bunches more.(much more)


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## Scott15 (Nov 11, 2004)

Do they have any new snapper models with briggs I/C engines? I see that the new ones don't have them though. Is the intek with ohv better than a briggs I/C side valve? Or do they make a briggs i/c ohv?


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

ohv engines run cooler than your side valve engine and they are a little smaller. side valves are easier to work on than ohv engines and alot easier to clean the combustion chamber as well. yes they do make ohv i/c engines. but to me side valves are alot easier to deal with and are sometimes cheaper than ohv's but ohv's run a little stronger. but i'd go with a side valve engine they can be more dependable.


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## Scott15 (Nov 11, 2004)

Thanks. I had a yard-man with a tecumseh 7 hp ohv. It was heavy and the muffler was defective. It got discolored more more I used it. I was happy with my other yard-man that had a 6.5 hp side valve tecumseh. It's lighter and more powerful! If I get a snapper with a briggs side valve I would want to get a I/C engine. The standard briggs quantum engine from what I hear from a lot of people is trash. Is it true? I had a snapper with a honda ohc. It didn't have any power and I returned it. I pissed off the dealer and my dad and the guy under him almost got in a fight.


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

no quantum's run good. my 6.0 push mower is a quantum engine. it has run no problem for two and a half years. to me hondas are crap. tecumsehs don't really run so well but briggs has been making engines way before honda was even thought of. they run good. if you ever see a white painted briggs. it was made probablly 20 years ago.


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## roperdude91 (Nov 10, 2004)

Scott15 said:


> Thanks. I had a yard-man with a tecumseh 7 hp ohv. It was heavy and the muffler was defective. It got discolored more more I used it. I was happy with my other yard-man that had a 6.5 hp side valve tecumseh. It's lighter and more powerful! If I get a snapper with a briggs side valve I would want to get a I/C engine. The standard briggs quantum engine from what I hear from a lot of people is trash. Is it true? I had a snapper with a honda ohc. It didn't have any power and I returned it. I pissed off the dealer and my dad and the guy under him almost got in a fight.



jeezus scott, ti tell ya about this site and you say a quantum is trash?
i have 3 quantums, 2 running, one in need of a simple recoil fix, they all have alot of hours, they are all over 10 years old, the newest briggs i have is a 1993  

they hold up good, get a briggs quantum i/c it'll last ya for quite a while with proper mantinence


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## roperdude91 (Nov 10, 2004)

bugman said:


> no quantum's run good. my 6.0 push mower is a quantum engine. it has run no problem for two and a half years. to me hondas are crap. tecumsehs don't really run so well but briggs has been making engines way before honda was even thought of. they run good. if you ever see a white painted briggs. it was made probablly 20 years ago.



hondas arent crap, their gc residential series is crap though, mine fouls plugs, uses oil like it does gas, and fouls plugs after one mowing  

scott, do you by any chance remember the thread from early this year on garden web?


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

haha thats what i mean by crap. you have to buy the expensive one to even get any use out of them :jest: hondas


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## Scott15 (Nov 11, 2004)

I had a snapper P215517HC. talk about CRAP! It was the worst snapper made! The mower itself was good. But the honda engine was worthless. What about their commercial engines on the commercial snappers? I really want a mulch deck not a hi-vac. Bugman, Roper a.k.a. piranahfurynut and I used to be on a site called gardenweb.com. The guys on the lawn mower forum thought honda ohcs were gold. And that quantums were crap. Do they have it backwards! I cut a grass where it had high augestine. That thing couldn't cut the grass! I had to let my 200.00 dollar yard-man handle it.


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

all hondas are crap. like i said i have a 6.0 hp craftsman briggs quantum now. i used this push mower for a one acre yard for two years through wet high thick grass. kept on going no stopping. still runs like new. it's a mulcher to. all honda wants to do is get into our way of grass cutting by comming up with ohc's and crap. i bet you 50 bucks a briggs will outdo any honda. yes they do have it backwards....


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## xr4sam (Dec 9, 1999)

Get a Snapper. I have a 35-year-old frame with a relatively new engine on it, and until the orignal engine (updraft carb) was replaced, I never had a bit of trouble with it. It was originally my grandmother's lawnmower, and she decided that after 20-some years, it "needed" a new engine.

I HATE the side-draft carb on this Briggs I/C. If I could find another old Briggs with the updraft carb, I'd swap it back in a heartbeat! For some reason, the choke on these engines will quit working, making it a real pain in the keister to get started. At least the old ones, you could choke with a finger while you pulled with the other hand! This thing...Grrrr...


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

yeah i had a ten horse rear engine snapper. never a problem until it fell apart from staying outside all the time but the engine was the old white painted engine and was all original except for one front tire. lasted for around 20 years


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## Scott15 (Nov 11, 2004)

Snapper rear engine riders are the best! I think I might get one in a couple of years.


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