OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines Reengine Honda or Briggs & Stratton

Hi from Sydney,

I'm new to the forum and little mechanical knowledge, so would appreciate it very much if you can give me a helping hand.

I'm seeking to replace the engine but really don't know what to get and where to get it from. Some dimensions:

shaft diameter is 14mm and length 80mm/3", vertical.
Blade about 18" / 455mm
pattern on the chassis is 8" / 203mm .








Thanks,

Sally

I would just chuck another power torque back on there

Hi V8chewie, welcome to Outdoorking. Thanks for starting out by posting pictures of your mower, so we all know what the subject is. I notice that your mower up to now has had a 2 stroke engine, of a type which I personally consider to be garbage, but of course there are others with different opinions, which helps make Outdoorking a diverse place. You haven't told us why you are considering changing from a, to put it politely, colloquial 2 stroke, to a global 4 stroke. While the 4 strokes have the advantage of running much better on much less fuel, they have the disadvantage of not being suitable for operating on extreme slopes. If you happen to need to operate on steep slopes, it might be better to consider a good 2 stroke instead of a bad one. There are several Japanese ones that are good quality.

If your objective is to convert your mower into a smoother, more economical, less smelly machine that doesn't eat spark plugs all the time, and has a carburetor that actually works reliably, either of the brands you named (Briggs, or Honda) can fulfill that mission easily. Essentially, if you are talking about a top of the line Honda (which means a pushrod OHV one) those engines provide the benefits more fulsomely but tend to cost quite a bit more. The oldest Hondas are side valve and only slightly better than Briggs engines, and the cheapest new Hondas are OHC and are designed for a short life during which they run almost as well as the OHV ones.

Unless you specifically want a new engine, you should be able to find a decent second-hand Briggs engine very cheaply indeed, but you will need to make some basic checks on its condition. Second-hand Hondas are less common, and more often than not have been run by a mowing contractor until signs of deterioration arose. I take it you are not interested in overhauling an engine, so you should probably only consider a Honda if you are able to verify its history and condition.

Bear in mind that your Powertorque engine uses a different blade boss and blade plate compared with a Briggs, so you would have to acquire those parts as well as an engine. You also currently have a snorkel-type air intake, and that would have to be adapted to fit a Briggs. On top of those considerations, Briggs engines commonly come with two different output shaft lengths, one of which suits Victa bases like yours, and the other fits Rovers and most other brands.

If you are looking for more information on all this, we will need to know more about your requirements and expectations from this project.

Hi Nathan,

that's an idea but where to source it from. Also, experience from the dead engine which I took great care of and still seized on me, I probably want to go the more reliable route for a longer lasting mower.

Hi Grumpy,

Thanks for welcoming me here. I appreciate your very informative reply and you don't sound grumpy at all
That's because I really don't know much about mowers and engines. You certainly have opened up this empty can a bit..

You're quite right. I suppose my aim is to put a good, new engine that's going to last me years, easy to start, smooth, powerful and not too fiddly to install. So, going on your advice, maybe a 4 stroke Honda OHV/OHC depending on fitment and price.

It's getting clearer then, Sally. First, as I understand it that Victa base has two sets of mounting holes (the various types of engines are each held down by 4 bolts), one of which is "standard" and therefore will work for international engines such as Briggs and Honda, and the other is non-standard but fits Powertorque. Two of the holes are the same for both engines, so there are six holes in the base. I'm sure someone will tell me, probably pretty vehemently, if I'm wrong. All that means you can mount the various models of Briggs and Honda engine on the base you have. There is an issue to be checked, however. As I said in the previous post, you will need to buy a blade boss and blade plate to suit the new engine you choose, because the Powertorque blade boss is on a taper while the other engines use a parallel shaft. Victa made and makes lots of mowers with Briggs engines (Victa is owned by Briggs, so that should not be surprising), and I believe from time to time has made some with Honda engines. The engine output shafts for Briggs and Honda engines are of different sizes, so you'd have to verify that you can get a Victa blade boss to suit a Honda engine. You can't use a blade boss made for a Honda mower, because the matching Honda blade plate will not suit your Victa base.

You have now said you intend to fit a new engine, not a second-hand one. The next question is how much power you will need. We will have to work in "advertised power" which is a fictitious number for mower engines. The issue is, whether you might sometimes want to attack something fairly challenging, such as foot-high kikuyu, or you are confident that you will only be trimming the grass. The type of base you have is pretty much limited to say a foot of grass: to cut really messy stuff you'd use a utility base, not a catcher base. Even to cut a foot of a relatively tough breed of grass, you'd probably be lifting the front wheels off the ground and shoving the mower into the stuff a foot at a time. For the foot-high kind of work, you would want a more powerful engine than for the trimming approach.

In Honda engines, the OHV models are described as "commercial" and the OHC ones are called "residential", to indicate how long they should be expected to last. Honda's model numbers work like this. All of them begin with G, which just means Honda. Next comes a letter that is X for OHV and C or S for OHC. After that is V meaning vertical crankshaft, suitable for a rotary mower such as yours. Finally there is the engine capacity in cubic centimeters. So, looking at the commercial models GXV120 is an OHV engine of 120 cc, and it has 4 advertised horsepower. The most common type is probably the GXV160, which is 160 cc and 5.5 advertised horsepower. In the residential engines that are commonly available in Australia, there is the GCV160 at 5.5 advertised horsepower, and the GSV190 at 6.5 advertised horsepower.

I think that is about as far as I can get until we find out whether there is a Victa blade boss to suit the standard 25 mm Honda output shaft (called a "Power Take Off" or PTO in the trade).

Good luck with finding a honda for the base with the correct crankshaft length, those 2 strokes are great (others will always bag them out.) The only reason it will seize apart from a manufacturing defect is from a lack of oil in the fuel.

A briggs and stratton from a victa will fit easily, and you dont have to adapt the snorkel, overall though a lot of secondhand motors with enough horsepower are pretty well worn out by now, you will need a spacer plate even for the victa sized crankshaft as well as the blade boss, throttle cable, blade bolt and washer is also propietary to the victa as well.

Where to find a second hand motor? I generally find atleast one or 2 a week just driving around, either in somones garbage pile, scrap pile or at the tip when I do my weekly run.

A new motor of either type could be sourced from a mower shop, thats a briggs/honda dealer.

Joe, can you tell us the crankshaft extension (PTO) length for the Victa base? Is it the 2 & 3/4" version like this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Genuine-...pt=AU_Lawnmowers&hash=item3ccde0cda7

I think the other common length is the 3 & 5/32" version like this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Brand-ne...mowerAccessories&hash=item43bb066a11

You said she needs spacer plate, throttle cable, blade boss, blade plate bolt and blade plate washer. Her blade plate and blades from the Powertorque are presumably OK.

2 inches, bear in mind these are the new age chinese briggs motors we are looking at here, and yes the blade plate itself is interchangable...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Briggs-S...mowerAccessories&hash=item232a10464d

Thanks soooooo much Grumpy, Joe.

Very very technical and extremely informative indeed and am very grateful. I'll head down the local dealership for a better chat now that I'm more equipped !

Just packing up for a trip away early tomorrow so have to go now.

Cheers

Have a nice trip, Sally. I didn't find anyone selling new Hondas on ebay, but your dealer will be able to tell you whether he can get a Honda with a 2" long PTO. He probably can't get one with a 3/4" diameter PTO, and if so he'd have to get a 25mm bore Victa blade boss to suit the engine. I think you'll find it costs twice as much as those ebay prices for a new Briggs, though.