OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Honda Engines Honda G200: Hole in crankcase

Hi all,

I have just purchased a new Honda G200. I wanted the GX120, but had sold out. I have noticed a hole in the crankcase.

It appears the hole is where a spare bolt hole is. I should take it back, but I have just spent today installing it on my mower. It doesn't appear it will cause any oil loss, but its a new engine and it should be free from defects.

Its not what you expect from Honda, but then again this engine was made in India.

What's everyones opinion on this? Take it back or leave it and hope nothing else fails?

Are you sure its not just a locating dowel/pin hole on the case? that's what it looks lie to me....

Agree, looking at it now, it most likely is a locating pin rathar than a spare bolt hole. However, I would still like everyones opinion in this.

I'll also call up Honda and get their advice.

Ditto, i'd go with the locating pin theory, but you'd expect a bit more from Honda.

That is a dowel hole, not a bolt hole. Note that it is much lower and does not have a flat surface for the bolt to seat on. Note also that it is very close to a bolt. The hole is intended to have just a thin "flash" of metal closing it off for appearance purposes.

I agree with bigted that Honda, as a premium brand, should have done better - but those side valve engines are their cheap line of products. Frankly, I would not consider it to be equivalent to a GX120 - I hope it was a whole lot cheaper, and even then I would not have bought it for a mower. They may have a mission doing jobs where they will be permanently dirty and neglected, in a farm shed in the most remote paddock, and only fired up occasionally, but to me, that is about it.

Thanks Grumpy.

I paid $299 with a 2 year commercial warranty. Im aware of the differences between the GX120 and this one. My grandad had a few of the G200's and were bulletproof. Honda started remaking them due to demand. Although I'm sure they are not manufactured like they used to be.....as my engine proves it.

My data only go to 2010, but at that point the G200 had only ever been made in Japan. By then pretty much all of the GXV160 engines were coming from China, and quite a few others were either China or Thailand. Hence there should not have been any difficulty about product quality with your Japanese engine.

The first series of Honda side valve mower engines (designated with a G followed by a 2 digit number which was not the engine size) were very similar to Briggs engines, though perhaps a bit better and at a higher price. In the late 1980s they were replaced by the series similar to yours, and by then I think they were distinctly better than Briggs. However in the early 1980s the OHV Hondas were introduced, leaving the side valve engines confined to a market niche. Hence I can understand your grandfather's position. The side valve engine would probably stand up to serious neglect a bit better than the OHV ones, and the OHC ones may be a bit marginal for reliability even if not neglected.

It's probably a personal thing: if I'm going to be using an engine hands-on, hearing it the whole time, I would much rather have one that fires every shot - which means OHV, OHC, DOV, or something along those lines. Most people, on the other hand, wouldn't care in the slightest as long as it didn't stop or emit mysterious clanks, thuds, or clouds of opaque gas.

Just an update. Honda have said that the hole in the crankcase should have been cleaned up at the factory. They assure me that the engine will still operate as it was designed to do.

They offered to clean up the hole, though I passed.

What I don't agree is that it should not have been there in the first place. The other G200 engines I have seen don't have a hole. I believe it's a fault in the casting process.

Being a dowel hole, it can't cause an oil leak. Sometimes dowel holes are blind like yours are supposed to be, and sometimes they are drilled and reamed all the way through. I don't much like blind holes because they are way too difficult to clean out when you overhaul the engine.

I suppose one could argue that all the engines should be the same, rather than some of them having the hole partly broken through like yours. Personally I would trim it into a normal round hole with a hand-held countersink tool, which seems to be what your Honda dealer wants to do. In other words, I'd prefer to see a better standard of quality control in the factory, but it is a purely cosmetic fault which I would class as trivial. I suppose even Japanese-made Hondas have those occasionally on very old models made with very old tooling.