Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

The Subaru SX30 is only 287cc, but has a few features. I just don't know if they are unique. They include cast iron cylinder liners, a pentroof cross flow combustion chamber, overhead cam with fewer parts and presumably more accurate valve timing (OHC has a stiffer valve train), ball bearings on the crankshaft, and aluminum connecting rods. It doesn't have a balance shaft however with the OHC, ball bearings, and aluminum connecting rods would it needs one?

Any quality engine has ball bearings on the crank, ohv is pretty standard, The high compression ratio is nice. (more power in a smaller bore but mostly for California Pollution requirements) Over-head cam is a way to reduce weight (thin belt drive) Alloy Rod?--- everything has aluminum alloy rods, even the cheap engines... It all seems mostly good marketing of standard features of quality engines.. Honda, Robins, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and the high dollar Briggs Friiy

I haven't had one apart. The other snow blowers being considered all have the 342cc top of the line Briggs. Are you saying that Briggs also has a ball bearing crank and aluminium rods?

Briggs gives no data on their engines. No power curve. No compression ratio. No idea of combuston chamber layout.

Subaru has what looks like a relatively high end setup. Sophisticated combustion chamber. High air flow. High compression. Low reciprocating weight.

Of course, so far, no one who has used both.

    Briggs had in thier I/c class cast iron bores,    also in their  Vangard  line (made by Mitsubishi),   All the I/C Briggs had ball bearings in on the rod...

...but of course the cheap Quantum, Max and other lines of Briggs did not., they're the mass produced engines for store sold home units (light duty)....

It all comes down to what you pay for the unit,  the more you pay the better the unit... 

 If you buy a quality unit , it will be made to last...

A  5 hp Honda will run 4-6 hours a day at a job site and be beat up and need rebuild in about 5 years if it is took care of...

A 5 hp Max  or Quantum Briggs will do the same job for about a year and then should be thrown away or scraped for parts...

BUT both will make 5HP and do the job / and get it done....  It's just what doo you need it to do?

Friiy