ride on mower engine repairs

[Jules]

Hi all, I've just picked up an older McCulloch ride on mower thats in good condition, with a B&S Intek engine thats blown (suspect conrod, it ran low on oil). Its value is only in a cheap repair since replacement B&S is around $1800 +!!
so a short engine would be a possibility however, I cant find much on line wrt serious engine parts and am wavering on replacing it with a cheap chinese engine for around $600, so I thought I'd just checkin with you guys and see what you think, you may well have faced a similar situation 

[muskrat]

G'day Jules.
I have fitted a few Jono&Jhono motors to ride ons and pushies. Knowing the shaft size & length is most important. https://www.chainsawspares.com.au/16hp-vertical-shaft-mower-engine-replace-briggs-st
You may be better off finding an "old fashion" mower shop for a s/hand B&S motor.
I no longer work in the mower shop.
Cheers

[Jules]

Hi Musky, thanks for the quick feedback, coincidentally I've just been looking at the Jono and Jono engines, so your thoughts are timely!
They say they have been selling them for a decade or so and support them with parts etc, so they seem to have established a good rep - what was your experiences with the engines like?
there are other engines online which appear to be very similar/same but branded differently of course and a bit cheaper, any thoughts/experiences on those??
Researching online for B&S base parts doesn't throw up much other than whats out there are wanting silly money for an unknown quality, hence the look into Chinese equivalent, particularly as the reliability/durability of the Intek engine does seem a little questionable wrt how well its maintained/looked after.....
So have you "retired" then or just fed up with working on all the crap that people throw at you wrt mowers etc, my experiences just with neighbours and small engines is horrifying so cant imagine the crap that comes into shops!! cheers

[Jules]

PS I just clicked your link and its the 16HP engine which should be ok, they do a 17.5hp engine for virtually the same price, any thoughts/experience with either one?? cheers

[muskrat]

G'day Jules.
The only problem is making 100% on shaft size & length. Had a couple (owner supplied) that cost a motzer to modify the shaft. As they say on the site the exhaust may (will) have to be modified. The 16HP is strong enough for flat of gently sloping blocks, the 17.5 if your block runs mountain goats LOL.
Cheers
I left due to the boss's son being a fat lazy spoilt brat. He'd spend all day on the phone (facebook) and do bugger all work. If something didn't work I'd get the blame. Too old to put up with that.
At the moment I'm at Total Tools Bathurst. Easy work but the computer system is doing my head in. See how long I last.

[terryg]

Surely you blokes down under should be parking and forgetting mowers until next spring.

Here in the UK it’s time for the annual ritual to get the mowers going.

Clearing blocked jets and a bit of welding on the cheap chinese chassis have served to give our push along (formerly power drive but no longer) yet another lease of life.  Oddly, the engine sounds really sweet - so way too soon to send to the scrappy.

I’m happier dealing with the mower than painting and decorating, which she’s got me on now!

[muskrat]

G'day Terry.
Grass (weeds in my case) will be growing for another two months yet even in Victoria. Gotta do mine on Tuesday.
Rode the A7 out to Hartley yesterday to get a new primer bulb & diaphragm for my B&S pushie.
Cheers

[BagONails]

I'm kicking myself for letting my 30 year old Masport  (kiwi brand) with 5HP Tecumseh 2 stroke, push along mower overheat. I didn't realise quickly enough that the cooling duct intake was completely blocked with straw and chaff (hacking down foot high bone dry Kikuyu) and it was a hot day (36 in the shade). Poor old thing got a bit hot and squeaky.

Engines in bits now, semi seized on the piston. Rings were stuck in just one place so freed them carefully with a Stanley knife and cleaned them up. Cleaned up the piston with some assiduous filing and wet and dry. 'Honed' the combined head and barrel with my fingertips and some wet and dry to remove any traces of Aluminium. Fingers crossed she'll be good as new again once she goes back together with a smear of Loctite 515. No signs of wear otherwise #gutted!

It wouldn't normally be worth it on a small rotary but these mowers are a solid old unit, has a cast aluminium deck so worth saving I think and a replacement engine is $500...

[Rex]

Rode the A7 out to Hartley yesterday to get a new primer bulb & diaphragm for my B&S pushie.
Cheers

I only get a season out of a primer bulb. Bloody ethanol..

[muskrat]

G'day Rex.
6 years old and this is the first. But I do run 98 boosted to 105 and Castrol R in everything ( 2 stroke whipper snipper, 4 stroke edger, A7 & A10, rHonda and XT) but the HD. No ethanol here unless it's mixed with Pepsi Max!
Cheers

[BagONails]

Poor old Tecumseh has had it, got it back together but suffering terminal sounding deep seated knocking noises although it started and revved up OK so was happy I'd got it back together correctly. Anyhoo decided I still wanted to save the deck and had another look on Ebay and went for one of these

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/222503644174

That's a hundred quid in real money!

Sooo cheap if it fails I'll put it down as a good learning experience

Had to muck about a bit to fit it as the Tecumseh was mounted to the deck with an adaptor, luckily it meant the deck was made to suit a B&S motor which this Chonda engine emulates.  The crank length and diameter were different so I cut the O/Dia 25mm crank end off the old engine, bored it out to fit the new O/D 22mm one and make it slightly longer, cut a 5mm key way in it then made a custom key stepped to suit the new engines 5mm keyway down to 4.8mm to fit the old blade arm and 6.7mm tall to be a snug fit all round. The new Chinese crank had the correct 3/8 UNF thread up the guts so I could still re use the old mounting bolt for the blade.

Then I had to drill out the 8mm threaded mounting holes in the engine, tap these 3/8 UNC and fit the engine to the deck with the original mounting bolts.

Filled to 0.6L capacity with SAE 30, pulled the plug out and wanged it over a few times on the pull cord just to fling some oil around then added fuel. It started second pull and settled down to a nice even fast tickover on the auto choke. Very happy after I was initially startled by the awful rattling/tizzing noise which turned out to be the grass catcher sprung flap which makes a noise when the catcher isn't there...I'd never noticed before so I reckon the new motor must be pretty damn quiet!  6.5 Chinese horses just raring to go. I'll ditch the oil and refill after a few hours running and see what comes out! 

Actually very impressed with the quality but remains to be seen how it goes over time. Initial impressions very good, quiet and grunty little work horse. Amazing value for money and sold through a reputable Aus wholesaler under their own brand name. My Googling threw up these guys as the most likely manufacturers. Quite a reasonable looking operation and another shining example of why there is no way that Trump's tariffs are going to bring back volume manufacturing to the USA.  I really don't know how they do it for the money...

 https://www.yantocn.com/four-stroke-gasoline-engine/rv200-2-gasoline-65hp-single-cylinder-lawn-mower-petrol-motor-vertical-shaft-machinery-lawn-mower-engine.html

[Jules]

'morning Ian, thanks for the feedback on the DMC (?) supplied engine - sounds like you did a similar "repair" (bodge!) to what I did on an old rideon tractor years back that had seized. Its still going ok but knocking quite badly on the big end because I had to file all the old white metal off it to get the new shells etc around it cost me about $250 in parts back then, but its been doing the hauling job ok that I needed. Now I've picked up this much newer rideon mower and roughly costed replacement B&S parts (poor availability though) and its ridiculous, hence the look into these cheap chinese replacements...
Did you buy through DMC? were they good to deal with? any concerns with replacement/service parts and "warranty"??
Their engines seem to be the same ones as Jono and Jono sell down here in Victoria, that Musky alluded to but theirs are around $100-150 dearer..
How did you find Yanto, are they shown in the manual as supplier ie did you confirm them as the manufacturer? their facilities on their website look quite clean and professional... cheers

[BagONails]

'morning Ian, thanks for the feedback on the DMC (?) supplied engine - sounds like you did a similar "repair" (bodge!) to what I did on an old rideon tractor years back that had seized. Its still going ok but knocking quite badly on the big end because I had to file all the old white metal off it to get the new shells etc around it cost me about $250 in parts back then, but its been doing the hauling job ok that I needed. Now I've picked up this much newer rideon mower and roughly costed replacement B&S parts (poor availability though) and its ridiculous, hence the look into these cheap chinese replacements...
Did you buy through DMC? were they good to deal with? any concerns with replacement/service parts and "warranty"??
Their engines seem to be the same ones as Jono and Jono sell down here in Victoria, that Musky alluded to but theirs are around $100-150 dearer..
How did you find Yanto, are they shown in the manual as supplier ie did you confirm them as the manufacturer? their facilities on their website look quite clean and professional... cheers

Hi Jules, Please don't take this as any kind of recommendation as I don't have history with the new engine yet but all I can say is on first impressions this unit is very good value and even at twice the price I'd still be happy with it.  It is accurately made and nicely finished. They have made significant investment in pressure die casting tooling etc. to produce huge volumes of good quality engine cases etc. These engines are not the least bit 'rough' maybe not quite as nice as a Honda but not far short. As I say the proof of the pudding is in the eating so its early days yet but for what I paid if it lasts more than one or two mows of our block down south it will have paid for itself so to be honest warranty didn't enter into my thinking too much. The benefit of DMC being Australian though is they know the Australian Consumer Laws and I doubt they'd put their name on a piece of junk.

I found DMC on Ebay and they have a web site too - I've never dealt with them before but I would again. The engine arrived from Melbourne in about 5 -6 days. It looked like it was in its original factory fresh packaging in a sealed polythene bag, robust Poly trays above and below and all strapped together inside a very substantial cardboard box with professional looking print and photos of the contents all over. It came with a handbook, which as Chinese books go is actually pretty good and tells me in bold black type "YOU WILL BE KILLED or SERIOUSLY HURT if you don't follow instructions!" Whoa...No worries. Who am I to argue?!   It also gives the valve clearances so that's handy...

I could see that DMC was a sizeable operation that has been going for a few years and they had put their branding on the unit so that tells me they must be pretty happy with them. As you say when you look on Ebay they all look like the same unit which is entirely possible. I decided it wasn't worth paying the extra for the J & J one as they were so similar.   I Googled the engine model code 'RV200-2 General Gas Engine' as described in the handbook and that threw up Shanghai Yanto Industry Co Ltd.  They sell direct on Alibaba and if you buy 300+ units they only cost $76 US ea. subject to today's tariff in your location of course... If you check the photos you can see the Yanto/Alibaba/DMC are all the same pics! You can see the mouldings and castings are all identical too but there is no manufacturer's ID in the book as you'd expect cos its got DMC on the engine cover!

Check out the DMC range, they have some bigger units also on special at the moment and if you are spending a larger sum on a bigger engine why not give them a call and have a chat, I would.

[Joolstacho]

How's about an almost new complete 50bhp Suzi GS 500 twin motor? That'd get the lawn down quick wouldn't it!
(Free to a good home).

[Colsbeeza]

My Rideon is no end of maintenance. I've got 1350 hours on the JD 110 - it is 23 years old, so deck was off for about the 10th time. Always welding cracks etc. Last weekend I had to straighten the deck as a crack had canted the idler pulley about 40 deg, so belted it down and welded the crack. put new blades and belt whilst at it. I haven't won any prizes for my welding skills. Cannot kill the Kohler motor though which is why I persist. Now runs like a beauty!
Col