OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Idle Chatter Nice blow out on a Victa V40

I sold this mower yesterday. I thought it was in excellent condition. I started it for the chap (started first pull)and demonstrated its power for him. He went away very happy but called me that afternoon saying the mower exploded and a part just missed his leg. He brought it back today and I gave him a refund,lol. Check out the blast area.

Hello Sparker

Well, you acted in good faith and the buyer got his money back.

It will be interesting to hear from the experts as to the cause.
There appears to be no loss-of-lube signs on the journal.

There are two breaks. Which occurred first and why?

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Jack

Is that the Tecumseh engine ? I had one do exactly the same except the broken part didn't fly through the crankcase. Yes plenty of oil present, bad batch of rods perhaps.

Paul, con rods get tired and there is no history on how these motors have been treated in the past. Some years ago I was putting an Enfield motor together for a friend and I said to him, "this con rod has done 120,000ks I think we should replace it as this is its 5th rebuild" His reply was "because it has done 120,000ks I think this rod is a good one" 5,000ks later the motor threw the rod out through the side of the case

Very true Norm, when you consider how many units are produced the number of failures is probably extremely low.

No. It's a chonda.It was the conrod that broke. Maybe we should start a collection of these photos.

Unfortunately I have seen a fair few of V40 Victa�s with these problems. Unless they are in exceptionally good condition with very little use I won�t pick them up from the local recycle yard. The Sanli mowers also fall into this boat unless they are close to brand new.

I have however found the Rover Chonda�s and the Pope Chonda�s to be quite reliable. They also come on more robust bases.

Last summer I had 2 Chonda�s poke legs out the block which frustrated me considerably as they didn�t have rod knocks and all run considerably well after being serviced. Everything on these engines was set to GXV140 specifications.

Key items to check on these chondas before refurbishment

1) Make sure they have not been over-revving. Easy checked via the linkages.
2) Check condition of the bottom seal (they seem to chew out easily and loose oil quickly)
3) Make sure the oil has no metal flakes � sign of engine damage (excessive wear).
4) Make sure the oil is full before you take on the refurbishment. These engines don�t seem to tolerate low oil levels unlike the trusty old Briggs engines.
5) Check the blade boss � I have found quite a few with cracks.
6) Check compression

I�d be curious how others assess chonda�s to minimize the chance of this type of issue. For me if the mower passes these initial tests I�ll get to work on them otherwise they are parts only.

This problem has never happened to me with a Briggs, Tecumseh or Genuine Honda Engine before!

Cheers

Jaffa

first thing we would ask customer if we sold a good serviced mower to and and it blew up is do you have a steep block
four stroke no good conrod have no oil even if if it full of oil
people don't now this

There does seem to be one fairly common exception to this - the Briggs Sprint/Classic 35 and 375 series won't tolerate low oil levels, and will then 'put a leg out of bed'.

I think this one WAS over-revving at full throttle. I was interested in your comment about how you can check this from the linkages. I come across a few of these at the recycle centre and I've always been attracted to them because people still think Victa is a quality brand and it makes them easier to sell and also because they're easy starting. What's the best way to check for this over-revving problem?

Gadge I should have been a little clearer with my comments.

To clarify � I was confirming I had never had an engine blowout happen on a mower which I had serviced/ refurbished that was either a Briggs, Tecumseh or Honda etc. My comments were more in relation to my experience with second hand mowers and wasn�t meant to be a generalization about all engines.

Apologies if it came across the wrong way.

Yes I have seen a fair amount of Briggs engines with holes in the block so your comments are more than valid. I was just referring to getting mowers returned due to catastrophic failure like sparkers. Over the last few years I have only had 2 Chonda�s returned and that�s what I find interesting. No other genuine brands have had this problem from my experience with the exception of course when people run them out of oil.

I am very careful about what mowers people buy to ensure they are well suited to their proposed use. I will only sell 2 strokes to people with steep/ uneven blocks to avoid the issues raised by freebird. By following this principle I rarely get if any complaints!

Jaffa so what does the future hold for people with steep blocks, is there anybody still making a 2 stroke mower?

Well Norm, they will have to go for recoed 2-strokes, when production of the PowerTorque engine ceases soonish.

Victa doesn't even assemble them - it's outsourced to Century Engineering in Adelaide. Century were quoted back in January, as saying that the number employed on that production line was down from 30 or so to 3...

For the moment, Victa list one domestic, and four commercial 2-stroke models.

Norm, I am not sure what the future holds.

Surprising I still sell a lot of Power Torques and the occasional Victa Full Crank.

I am also a fan of the Suzuki 2 Strokes however they don't appear to much in the ACT.

I have a pile of Victa 2 stroke motors stacked in a corner, I was only keeping them because sometimes I might need to scavenge a part, maybe I will give them a bit more respect now

I get a lot of "I don't want to be mixing fuel" when I show people a 2 stroke mower. My own mower is an old Victa 2 stroke that I've had for about 20 years or more. The silly thing is they still have to mix fuel for their trimmer. Normally, I find Victa 2 strokes are easily fixed if you have the parts but they can be very cantankerous if things are not exactly right especially with air leaks.

Sparker, I assume the days of service stations selling premixed 2 stroke fuel is long gone, I haven't looked for years. I think BP used to sell BP zoom, they would fill your container from a 44 gal drum of it. Probably low demand and OH&S killed that off. I worked in a service station as a kid and we always had people bringing in their mower can for 2 stroke fuel, we just mixed it for them as it was a Mobil servo and I don't think premix was around then. We had 1/2 pint,1 pint and 1 quart oil bottles back then,all stacked up on nice display racks, remember those

I'd say it was probably declining demand that killed off BP Zoom. A bit like kero - nearly every servo had a drum of that at one time, and the fuel depots would have a dedicated kero pump. Try to find bulk lighting kero now...

Mower shops used to sell BP Zoom 25 too, back in the day. We used to top up the drum according to dipstick readings - the aluminium dipstick was marked with the volumes of Zoom Concentrate and Regular petrol to add. It wasn't delivered ready-mixed, at least in country areas.

There was also a Zoom 50 [50:1 mix] for outboard engines, sold at BP servos and marinas. That version was still available up to the early '00s.

Curiously, pre-packed 2-stroke fuel mix is readily available in other countries - the US [e.g. Trufuel] and UK [e.g. Aspen, Stihl], for instance. In the US, the major hardware chains like Ace Hardware, Lowes, Walmart stock it. It's pretty exy though - US$5-8 for a US Quart tin.

The driver there seems to be, that it's difficult to get ethanol-free fuel from the pump, in many localities. And these canned premixes are based on 'alkylate petrol', which has much longer shelf life than current pump petrols - it's more like Avgas.

You guys must be as old as I am.

Sparker, back in those days when I worked at the servo that is what it was, a service station, we washed the windscreen, checked the tyres,checked the oil and the peace de resistance was we also pumped your fuel, took the money and returned the change to you and you didn't have to get out of your car.

Aluminium alloy has a very low fatigue life.
Thus even if the engine was used exactly according to the manual and service better than by the book there is a finite number of timed the rod can go back & forth till it goes bang and that is regardless of what it is fitted to.
Vertical shaft mowers are built to a cost, the cheaper the better, because they buying public is mechanically ignorant, economically ignorant and cheap.

Add to that modern design & testing tools then you can engineer engines that all will fail between 500 & 550 hours.
That is about 10 years.
The Ford mentality is very strong ( made just good enough to outlast warranty ) and Ryobi has become the master of this.
Jo public buys a tool and it works reliably and well for 5 to 10 years then goes bang and you will happily go back to the store & buy another one.
If you want to know the mechanism of failure then you will need to post some better photos with clearer focus ( phone cameras are not good enough ) and close up on all of the fracture surfaces.

As for all you zoom heads, it died because 2 stroke oils get a lot better and in particular became self dispersing.
Profit margins at service stations has not changed in real terms for decades.
When real petrol was 3 shillings a gallon we were making a 6 p profit on it. (about 15%)
Now it is $ 5 / gallon and we are making 30� gross profit (about 5 %)

The greedy selfish buying public decided that saving lolly bar each week on their fuel bill was better value than having their vehicle properly looked after and providing entry level employment to some one else's children.

Rovert, I must be older than you, I was pumping gas at 2 & sixpence a gallon. As for the rest of your response, don't you understand that is all covered by the word "progress" or in the words of one of our infamous leaders "moving forward"

naw, fuel was cheaper in Mexico.

And once upon a time it was cheaper to live in Mexico, but not anymore, they are now predicting 10 million people in Melb in less than 25 years

norm it not progress our industry all sold out by forward thinking polition free trade no turner stanly sidchome acl repco gone victa going this not progress well all shafted. people buying cheap imported junk insteat. masters selling mower $150
rubbish stupid people buy den throw away 3 months later. it have no blade disc just 16 inch bar blade motor have no torque is junk.
old lady at servo cant check oil tyres ect big business don't care they make more profit
10 million people in melb only good for big business building apartments and units. this not progress crowded roades grid locked no parking mower shops all closing now cheap junk not worth fix
say masters mower $150 mower stop
need fix new pull coard and sevice oil blade spark plug filter quote $120 not worth fix throw away
the writing on the wall what happerning here our standard living going down people no readin this look holden ford no jops
our children wonnt enjoy life we had sorry not progress we going backwards

Freebird, our politicians are paid very good money to steer our country in the right direction and to ensure that there is employment for everybody, are you saying this is not happening?

norm most poly is criminal turnbul hide mony offshore to not pay tax. the selling as out to china and other place with free trade soom we make not one thing
how can I by from china didgtle radio for $9.99 free post ebay yet for me I cant post it from frankston to dandyong for $9.99 . some thing wrong here Australia post give china cheaper rate than me they other side world our government joke
norm you try pull my leg again you know they poly no good
I like to flog them cat 9 tails they traitors

Trying not to be too political but both sides have effectivly destroyed the country by sticking their bibs in without any thought of the consequences.
One side will support anything that will replace unionised workers for no other reason that to starve the other side of it's funds base.
So if that means 2,000,000 out of work due to the closure of the auto industry well that is great news.

The other side actively prevents industry modernising and kept industry running at unprofitable industrial revolution manning levels.
Tomogo Aluminium is the perfect example, forbidden to make anything that was profitable and also to to employ 400 more workers than needed then bought off with free electricity.
Thus management refuses to spend money on modernising with high productivity machinery.

Both of them like sucking in money from overseas because that makes for a "beautiful set of numbers" to quote from Costello, today ,however in the long term the overseas money takes back all it spent 100 fold.
The idiot simple way to look at it is buying an investment property ( which they all have by the bucket load ) .
Do you do it to improve the life of the tenants ? street ? suburb? or do you do it to suck as much as you can for your investment then flog it off at a profit whenever you need some quick cash.

Neither of them will support any Australian technology till it has been sold to a foreign country so no one locally makes a cent except the original inventor if they have not been bankrupted first or in may cases killed themselves because they ended up destroying the lives of all who supported them.
Memtech is the perfect example, the inventors travelled the country trying to sell their 21st century sewerage treatment plants but not 1 single federal governement would commit to install one. They went to every state , every local council that had a sewerage plant till eventually they were bankrupt and sold the technology to a German company and now we have 76 of them working and another 200 to be built, by an Amercian company who pays royalties back to the Germans so no Aussies get any benefit other than cleaner water.

Merv robbed Victa to build the Air Cruiser & Tourer and modified them to meet defence department requirements .
How many did we buy ?
92, but only after Merv was broke and sold the project off to Hamilton Hangers in NZ at a loss who by the way also jacked up the price.

Against advice the Howard government plonked the new airport at Badggerys Creek where it will be a disaster in place of Goulburn where it should have gone for no other reason than to prop up the escallation of Sydney real estate prices which having peaked after the destructive "housing grants" was starting to decline and too many over leveraged landlords ( liberal party donators ? ) might have needed to sell off a couple of properties at insuficient profits to support their lifestyle.
So in place of a new airport at Goulburn which would have made the Sydney -Goulburn-Canberra light rail viable and allowed Goulburn to take overflow from Canberra Airport, it is being built in the Sydney basin where there is already insufficient infrastructure to support the current population let alone the 250,000 extra houses slated for the west, and it will be closed due to fog about 20 days a year.

Then they make a big song and danace about sham "decentralisation" by moving a couple of dozen public servants from Sydney CBD to Parramatta CBD.