Sirocco Jerry
Active member
So many ask.. "What's reliable in small gasoline engines ?"..
I have meticulously watched the faults and failure that have come through our service dept. over the past 30 years,
and I have to say, the way these engines are treated for a living, is the BIGGEST concern of all,
you wouldn't believe how often I see these engines abused to an early death..
people would rather lie, than to tell the truth, about the frequency of oil-changes,
but that aside for the moment..
I have sold Briggs v-twins over the others for better than averge reliability, and low-cost repairs,
ever since Hondas started failing at exhaust bolts breaking out on GX390's
..and Honda denied ALL the warrantee claims at face value.
..That cost me about $5000 in warrantee work over about 2 years, on engines that were less than a year old.
Subaru came in with good price and good quality, but they've "burned the bridge"
with CRAZY-expensive parts pricing, as well as Sh!t 'fer service skills.
..So if I'm going to take sides right now, in public..
I'm pushing Kohler for what I've seen and not seen in our own service dept.,
and for what I saw and heard at the Kohler factory..
They do testing that insures success.
I went to Kohler's factory in October.. what an eye-opener..
I imagined an assmbly-line neat 'n clean with efficiency etc,
But let me tell you.. they are driven to produce the finest quality possible..
After 3 years "on a mission to modernize"..
they claim to have a first-year-failure-rate on only .06% .. not 6% .. but 6/100ths of a percent !
..a phenominally low rate, but you should see their process proceedures and especially the "test room"..
all digital computerized, ..like a car manufacturer.. seriously..
every engine is completely tested and tuned.
As far as I'm concerned..
Kohler is absolutely "king", due to long-term company "backbone" for service,
general quality of product, factory upgrades in process-proceedures, competitive parts cost,
..and ALLways great customer-service.
I like to say "the jobsite tells you what it needs"..
..Well, I'm convinced..
You need beefy, meticulously tested, abuseably-"oversized" engine system.. preferrably a Kohler
..and use this formula..
GPM x PSI x .ooo7 = engine HPcontinuous .. add 15% just so a gas engine can run (without bogging) at sea-level,
or.. add 20% for reliability to 80degr.F,
or.. add 30% .. " " " 100 degr.F
..and add 5% for every 1000ft above sea-level.
AND ! .. Run that engine with a real BMP-style set of "Process-Proceedures" that make the BEST opportunity for
.. Long-Term-Low-Cost.
I have meticulously watched the faults and failure that have come through our service dept. over the past 30 years,
and I have to say, the way these engines are treated for a living, is the BIGGEST concern of all,
you wouldn't believe how often I see these engines abused to an early death..
people would rather lie, than to tell the truth, about the frequency of oil-changes,
but that aside for the moment..
I have sold Briggs v-twins over the others for better than averge reliability, and low-cost repairs,
ever since Hondas started failing at exhaust bolts breaking out on GX390's
..and Honda denied ALL the warrantee claims at face value.
..That cost me about $5000 in warrantee work over about 2 years, on engines that were less than a year old.
Subaru came in with good price and good quality, but they've "burned the bridge"
with CRAZY-expensive parts pricing, as well as Sh!t 'fer service skills.
..So if I'm going to take sides right now, in public..
I'm pushing Kohler for what I've seen and not seen in our own service dept.,
and for what I saw and heard at the Kohler factory..
They do testing that insures success.
I went to Kohler's factory in October.. what an eye-opener..
I imagined an assmbly-line neat 'n clean with efficiency etc,
But let me tell you.. they are driven to produce the finest quality possible..
After 3 years "on a mission to modernize"..
they claim to have a first-year-failure-rate on only .06% .. not 6% .. but 6/100ths of a percent !
..a phenominally low rate, but you should see their process proceedures and especially the "test room"..
all digital computerized, ..like a car manufacturer.. seriously..
every engine is completely tested and tuned.
As far as I'm concerned..
Kohler is absolutely "king", due to long-term company "backbone" for service,
general quality of product, factory upgrades in process-proceedures, competitive parts cost,
..and ALLways great customer-service.
I like to say "the jobsite tells you what it needs"..
..Well, I'm convinced..
You need beefy, meticulously tested, abuseably-"oversized" engine system.. preferrably a Kohler
..and use this formula..
GPM x PSI x .ooo7 = engine HPcontinuous .. add 15% just so a gas engine can run (without bogging) at sea-level,
or.. add 20% for reliability to 80degr.F,
or.. add 30% .. " " " 100 degr.F
..and add 5% for every 1000ft above sea-level.
AND ! .. Run that engine with a real BMP-style set of "Process-Proceedures" that make the BEST opportunity for
.. Long-Term-Low-Cost.
