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Richie


Bring On The White Stuff

Location: Long Island, New York
Joined: Dec 12, 2003
Points: 562

Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Original Message   Jan 24, 2005 3:47 pm
Recently I installed a tach/hour meter on my Toro 828 LXE and found theat the maximum operating governed engine speed was 3,300 RPM spiking to 3,330 RPM's.  I actually felt it was running a bit slowly but decided to use it, as is,  immediately after it stopped snowing on Sunday.  Well, we had about a foot of snow on the driveway with some 18" drifts, and the EOD was about 21", thanks to the snow plows.  The machine handled it perfectly until I got to the  EOD.  While blowing through it, the Tecumseh engine wanted to stall.  Nobody can tell me this is normal on a high end snowblower like this.  It was 15 degrees and it was freshly plowed loose snow.  If it had been wet, I would have been able to look past it.

With all the research I've done in the last 24 hours, I am nearly convinced that the governed RPM set by the manufacurer may have much to do with the horse power rating they give them.  The Tecumseh 9hp-11hp Snowking engines all vary greatly in governed RPM, as low as 3,350 up to 3,700 on the 11hp OHV version.  When I see that the Tecumseh 9hp is 318cc's and the 11hp is also 318cc's, where are they getting these horse power ratings from. Making an engine OHV gives you that much more power?

Well, I wasn't able to find the governed operating RPM for my Tec 8hp L-head engine, and given the wide margin of RPM's on their engines, I decided to raise the operating speed of mine to what I felt it should be.  Initially I raised it to 3,600 as it was suggested to me to do, but I felt this was too fast by the way it sounded.  So I then reduced it to 3,400 spiking to 3,430.  Roughly 80-100 RPM's higher than what it was. 

The result of this, I took it out into the street to the 28" high, five foot across snow drifts left on the side of the street from the snowplows.  These drifts are 8" higher than my auger housing.  The sun was out and the snow was nice and moist, perfect for making snowballs.  I raised the throttle to operating RPM, put it in 1st gear and off I sent it into the drift.  The chute started to toss the snow some 40 feet across the road and you could now hear the engine under a load.  The difference this time is that the engine was maintained speed and not a hint of it wanting to stall.  In fact, the tires actually broke loose and I started pushing it into the drift to the point it began tunneling.  The entire time the engine didn't faulter for a second and I actually felt I had a 10 hp engine on this great machine.

What a difference a very small increase in governed engine RPM makes.  At one point on Sunday I was upset with myself for not shelling out the extra money for Toro's top of the line 11 hp OHV version for over $1,600.00.  Well, after how this experiment worked out, now I feel I just saved myself over $400.00 because this snowblower can go through anything now.

Richie
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ChrisS


Appreciate what you have already been blessed with.


Joined: Sep 16, 2002
Points: 2793

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #50   Jan 27, 2005 9:15 pm
Marty if you can remember what it was titled I can find it.....

Let me know and I will go get it and copy it here....

C

Honda 928TA, Ariens 924 STE, Toro single stage S-620, 95 Jeep Wrangler with a 6 foot Fisher Plow, many shovels, one 14 year old boy.  Craftsman 01 1000 LTX pimp Gold LT 20hp Briggs OHV V-twin.  Tough as it is ugly.
Richie


Bring On The White Stuff

Location: Long Island, New York
Joined: Dec 12, 2003
Points: 562

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #51   Jan 28, 2005 10:04 am
Hi folks,

This is a quote from a friend who deals with Tecumseh engines.  He too has been trying to get a few questions answered for me and spoke with a Tecumseh rep yeserday.  Below is what he was told by a different tech than I spoke with.  

Richie this is straight from Tecumseh engineers. There is no difference between a 8 thru 11 hp Tecumseh snowblower carb . The difference is in the intakes and valves. But there is no difference in the carbs. Don.

Richie
Richie


Bring On The White Stuff

Location: Long Island, New York
Joined: Dec 12, 2003
Points: 562

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #52   Jan 29, 2005 2:18 pm
I got tired of getting different answers from different Techs at Tecumseh, so I did the research on my own to find the difference, at least comparing the differences between an 8 or 9 hp L-head to a 10 hp L-head.

Everything is the same on an 8-10, including carburetor, jetting, head, crank, exhaust valve, intake valve, cam shaft.  The difference is that the piston and connecting rod are different.  I was also told from a mechanic that works on these engines that the Tecumseh 11 hp OHV engine uses a new cheaper type of carburetor.  So, is it really worth the extra money for a 10 hp L-head, that is up to the buyer.  Is it worth the extra money for the 11 hp OHV engine, I'd always prefer an OHV over an L-head.  Just depends on how deep your pockets are.

Richie
Marshall


As Long As There Are Tests, There Will Be Prayer In Public Schools. ;- )

Joined: Sep 16, 2002
Points: 7730

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #53   Jan 29, 2005 2:38 pm
Hey Richie,

Thanks for you input and hard work looking for this info.

How are we suppose to know which is correct?
Richie


Bring On The White Stuff

Location: Long Island, New York
Joined: Dec 12, 2003
Points: 562

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #54   Jan 29, 2005 3:00 pm
Marshall wrote:
Hey Richie,

Thanks for you input and hard work looking for this info.

How are we suppose to know which is correct?

Hi there Marshall,

That's another great valid question.  How I determined all of this is that I got a look at all the part numbers for the engines in question.  I made a list of all the possible reasons for increased horse power which include all the components listed above in my evaluation of all of this.  The part numbers where exact for all except for what I mentioned as different.  What else is there to use except for the actual part exploded views for each type of engine?  So I have to look at this as solved. 

What I don't know is what the cost is, if say, you wanted to rebuild or modify your 8 or 9 and decided to make it a 10 hp.  Off the top of my head I've have to say if you are doing the work yourself, the price difference must be negligible.  SnowRemover (Chris) may be able to shed some light on that fact.

The one thing I have done is get my hands on a brand new reverted EPA carburetor for my snowblower.  Visually it is an absolute duplicate to the one on my machine now including the exact governor bracket, and as mentioned, is brand new never used.  The difference is that it has the rich/lean adjustment screws installed, and fully tested.  So I won't have any more of these rough running issues.  I'll even have the option of being able to adjust the carb for given temperatures.  I'm sure these snowblowers may run differently if the temperature is 15 degrees as opposed to 28 degrees.  I should have it in my hands by Tuesday or Wednesday.  Thanks Marc for your assistance with the new carburetor



Richie
Marshall


As Long As There Are Tests, There Will Be Prayer In Public Schools. ;- )

Joined: Sep 16, 2002
Points: 7730

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #55   Jan 29, 2005 3:06 pm
Ah, Ok. I missed the part where you looked at every part and part number. I would say that is pretty detailed and would have to hold water. LOL 

Did you mean Snowshoveler Chris?


Good work Richie, thanks for taking the time to do it and post your results here. Hope you get a Blizzard as a reward.
Richie


Bring On The White Stuff

Location: Long Island, New York
Joined: Dec 12, 2003
Points: 562

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #56   Jan 29, 2005 3:10 pm
Marshall wrote:

Did you mean Snowshoveler Chris?




Yes, I meant Snowshoveler (Chris) I missed that typo.

Richie
18Degrees


Joined: Jan 19, 2005
Points: 111

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #57   Jan 30, 2005 9:52 am
Richie,

       thanks for all your long work in research.                                             18 degrees

18 Degree driveway - 928 Honda track drive - Fertilizer spreader for dispensing salt
AJace


I have an Ariens 926 Pro because I like Orange



Location: Near Gettysburg
Joined:
Points: 969

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #58   Jan 30, 2005 4:05 pm
Wow, there had to be something more to it.  Thanks Richie for your love of research and information on this topic.  It's just great. 

Ariens 926 DLE Professional; Toro S200; Craftsman LT1000, Echo ES-230;

Richie


Bring On The White Stuff

Location: Long Island, New York
Joined: Dec 12, 2003
Points: 562

Re: Tecumseh Engine Horse Power Rating Discovery
Reply #59   Jan 30, 2005 4:10 pm
You are all very welcome, thank you.

Richie
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