OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Honda Engines GCV160 bogging down

I inherited a Victa Mustang 19" push mower with a GCV160 motor. It is in good condition but i'm not sure how many hours it has on it. It was my parent's mower and only used to mow their 600m2 residential block. I don't have any experience with this motor. When I mow slightly longer grass (say 2") or damp grass I find that it bogs down and hesitates for a second before blowing a couple of puffs of black smoke and revving back up. I would have thought that it would be powerful enough to handle this kind of load easily. My old 80's model Briggs powered Rover 200ES used to do this but that seems expected and was hoping the Honda would be a big improvement. When i first got it I changed the oil and adjusted the valves as per factory specs. This quietened the motor down a bit but didn't help with the bogging/hesitation.

Is this normal for these engines? Could it be as simple as a weak governor spring or something?

Any advice appreciated.

When the time comes, i'm wondering if replacing it with a GXV160 would be the way to go. They appear to have 5hp vs 4.4hp for the GCV and are only about $100 more. Still $500 is a lot to spend on a used mower if I don't need to.

P.s. The other annoying thing with this mower is that it leaves a trail of grass clippings along the right hand side of the track. I have to overlap each run by almost half in order to pick this up in the catcher. Seems like there is some issue with the design of the deck. Guessing there isn't much I can do about this but I expected more from a mower that retails for about $1000.

It is all in the title GCV160 is a domestic motor where the GXV160 is the commercial motor

Sounds like it's running rich. Remove/replace the air filter and see if the problem persists. replace the spark plug while you're at it.

I had a brand new GXV160 motor delivered here last night from Hendersons Mowers but just so you are aware before you think of going down that path as far as I know they only are suited the the mowers with the blade clutch. They have a shorter crank so not suited to fit on any other body without extending the blade boss down to get the cutting height correct. I have done one some time ago but I wouldn't bother doing it again and people wonder why I dislike working on Honda mowers, the GXV160 is a beautiful motor but Honda do so much godawful stuff on the mowers

Thanks Norm that is good to know. I've ordered a new air filter and will change the plug and see if that helps.

I feel the same. I've had the GSV190 (V instead of C denotes cast iron bore) and the GXV160.

Both were supremely smooth running and excellent on fuel. Sadly, they were bolted to sub-par mowers. The GXV160 is also a very heavy engine but seems to lack the ultimate torque you would expect on a commercial engine. This is why so many contractors have them running waaay higher than standard, attempting to counter the lack of grunt with speed...................which doesn't always work.

Some will question this, but if you are going to put a new engine on it, I would strongly urge you to look at the Briggs 850 instead. Victa did and still do fit that engine on the alloy Mustang chassis.

Having run the GXV160 and the 850 side by side, that 190cc Briggs will easily grunt through stuff that has the 163cc Honda gasping for air. And contrary to what you might think, the Briggs is considerably quieter running, Honda tend to scrimp on muffler size for some reason. In some cases, these 850's also have oil pump instead of splash lubrication, and an external oil filter. It also has the cast iron bore like the Honda.

But its the torque numbers that says it all..................

850-Series - 6HP / 11.5 Nm / 13kg

GXV160 - 5HP / 9.6 Nm / 14.3kg