Is my Briggs engine good, reliable, or safe?

[StreakerKart]

http://youtu.be/9xewCTxxjFg

 

[Denny]

Yes, No and maybe. Now that we got that out of the way, what specifically do you want to know about them?

Denny

 

[StreakerKart]

If they last long, fragile in any way, built properly, easy to maintain, and I want to know if sometime it may explode. (Joke)

 

[Poboy kartman]

Easy to maintain....keep the oil changed and it will last many years....Briggs and Stratton. 5 hp engines are like vanilla ice cream.....nobody ever claims it's their favorite.....but somehow both are the most popular....and not without good reason.....

 

[StreakerKart]

That makes me feel much better thank you! I was just roaming the Internet and was curious and a little scared ( don't judge me) that they were not very good and needed replacing.

 

[DeathMachine]

I like them better than Tecumseh.

I've worn them out, but never had one die violently.

 

[Poboy kartman]

I like them better than Tecumseh.

I've worn them out, but never had one die violently.

You didn't try hard enough! !!! Remove the governor and the oil and run it all day.....

 

[DeathMachine]

You didn't try hard enough! !!! Remove the governor and the oil and run it all day.....

I did that accidentally with my first kart.

Well, I removed the governor on purpose.

All that happened was it locked up. No boom.

 

[Denny]

B&S 5 hp engines are like anvils in stock form. You can beat on them all day. Even if you remove the vane governor and don't beat it like a rented mule it will still last some time. Like Poorboy said it's our dirty little secret we all like them. Shhhhh, don't tell nobody or well kick you out of the club.


Denny

 

[mckutzy]

From what we hear, they also can have a little more performance with a carb from a Honda clone. Check out the Bronda thread(I'm sorry I have drawn a complete blank who built it here).

 

[OzFab]

That would be Gran... oops, I mean KartFab...

Here's the thread in question...

There's an old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Having said that, think about this little tidbit: The 5hp B&S engine architecture didn't change AT ALL for at least 4 decades; engines that were built in the 1950's were still being built in the 90's with, mostly, interchangable parts...

Now, what does that say about the reliability of those engines...

 

[StreakerKart]

Thank you all, so I am going to go over this in my personal language,
With care they are bulletproof, to some people Briggs better than Tecumseh,
It is easy to maintain, it will NOT explode, and the Honda carb is good. Thank you all for this good info! Another question, how many cc's does my Briggs have?

 

[Poboy kartman]

Should be 206 cc.....

 

[OzFab]

to some people Briggs better than Tecumseh

That comes down to personal choice; me personally, apart from one with a dead coil, the only issues I've ever had with Tecumseh were carb issues but, guess what, the only issues I've ever had with B&S were... you guessed it, carb issues

...but I still prefer B&S

 

[Rear engine 86]

I had a white 1979 plain bearing, "cool" bore 5hp flatty on my T-35 Rupp kart back in highschool with no govenor and I spun that thing up so many times way past 3600 rpms and she never blew! Now I did run 15w-40 diesel engine oil and always had it changed. Great engines but the stock tank/carb setup is lacking for kart and mnibike use.