Clamshell a 50 hour wonder?

[CR888]

My Honda mower with the commercial GXV engine (I think its GXV the newer model from the GX) has a few hours on it. I'm quite sure the motor will be the longest lasting component on the mower. Well over 150 blade changes, 2 sets of wheels, 4 sets of bushes, a handle bar 4 fabric catchers, 1 throttle cable, 1 carb gasket kit, several pull cords & 3 starter assemblies. The alloy deck is getting thin in certain parts and has a couple of holes where its worn through. But the engine has never missed a beat, probably 20-30 oil changes in the last 4-5 years but its used commercially a homeowner may possinly never actually wear one out. I change the oil roughly every 2-3 months, only run fresh e-free gas (no older than 2weeks) and clean the air filter after every day its used. I think every part could get replaced at least once before it gives up the ghost. Those Hondas while heavy, are good.

 

[Conquistador3]

My Honda mower with the commercial GXV engine (I think its GXV the newer model from the GX) has a few hours on it. I'm quite sure the motor will be the longest lasting component on the mower. Well over 150 blade changes, 2 sets of wheels, 4 sets of bushes, a handle bar 4 fabric catchers, 1 throttle cable, 1 carb gasket kit, several pull cords & 3 starter assemblies. The alloy deck is getting thin in certain parts and has a couple of holes where its worn through. But the engine has never missed a beat, probably 20-30 oil changes in the last 4-5 years but its used commercially a homeowner may possinly never actually wear one out. I change the oil roughly every 2-3 months, only run fresh e-free gas (no older than 2weeks) and clean the air filter after every day its used. I think every part could get replaced at least once before it gives up the ghost. Those Hondas while heavy, are good.

V in a Honda engine means vertical shaft. See GXV160, GCV135 etc. Used in lawnmowers, lawn tractors, sweepers etc.
GX means pro-grade and GC consumer grade.

Honda engines have always been expensive to start with but the latest dual compliance pro-grade stuff is rabidly so. Blame that inflation that officially doesn't exist.
To counter this and the enormous quantity of GX160/200 clones from China (often with silly power claims) Honda introduced the GP series, which are basically cheapened-out GX's, as well as horizontal shaft GC's based on the GCV135 family.

You can probably get a used deck from a local repair shop to put your engine on. They always have big piles of them. Many manufacturers use the same deck for three different engines: Honda, B&S and Chicom. Guess which one is not worth fixing as soon as warranty runs out?

 

[CR888]

I learned something there being the 'V' stands for vertical shaft. I know the homeowner/cheaper grade GCV's, I think from memory they put out a little more power mine is 5.5hp 163cc I think. I thought the older model was 5hp & had different carb, filter etc. Yeah I can buy an AM deck pretty cheap, my mower retails here at a Honda dealer for $1099au its a HRU-196 (19" commercial non-self propelled). There pretty popular among the lawn care outfits. But I see lightly used ones on eBay go for under $400. Often these near new mowers have done less work than mine would do in a few weeks/month. So at some point I'll probably just buy another and retire mine as a spare. It owes me nothing has paid itself over but I kinda want to keep it around as its been well maintained and the motor runs honestly as good as new. I've tried a few AM parts with poor success, they just don't last in a commercial environment, often I ain't mowing residential nice pretty lawns, i'm using it to suck up leaves, bark and god knows what on rural properties so it sucks up a lot of sand that wears the deck. Here she is...

 

[Conquistador3]

I learned something there being the 'V' stands for vertical shaft. I know the homeowner/cheaper grade GCV's, I think from memory they put out a little more power mine is 5.5hp 163cc I think. I thought the older model was 5hp & had different carb, filter etc. Yeah I can buy an AM deck pretty cheap, my mower retails here at a Honda dealer for $1099au its a HRU-196 (19" commercial non-self propelled). There pretty popular among the lawn care outfits. But I see lightly used ones on eBay go for under $400. Often these near new mowers have done less work than mine would do in a few weeks/month. So at some point I'll probably just buy another and retire mine as a spare. It owes me nothing has paid itself over but I kinda want to keep it around as its been well maintained and the motor runs honestly as good as new. I've tried a few AM parts with poor success, they just don't last in a commercial environment, often I ain't mowing residential nice pretty lawns, i'm using it to suck up leaves, bark and god knows what on rural properties so it sucks up a lot of sand that wears the deck. Here she is...View attachment 676288

I have to ask... why the air scoop? Wouldn't an oil bath oil filter be a better choice in dusty environments? Or is it the prototype of an Aussie amphibious warfare lawnmower?

 

[CR888]

I have to ask... why the air scoop? Wouldn't an oil bath oil filter be a better choice in dusty environments? Or is it the prototype of an Aussie amphibious warfare lawnmower?

Haha...Its just the way they come, my older Aussie made Victa has a snorkel going along the handle too. I suppose its a better place to breather air being cleaner & less dusty. Its pretty dry here, I think many mowers suck up more sand, dirt & dust than grass. All the commercial Hondas seem to have them. I like the nice big oval auto style pleated air filter, they come with a foam pre-filter that fits over it. But they do the job, nothing ever really gett past the filter. I bought 5 and rotate them every six months or so.

 

[Conquistador3]

Haha...Its just the way they come, my older Aussie made Victa has a snorkel going along the handle too. I suppose its a better place to breather air being cleaner & less dusty. Its pretty dry here, I think many mowers suck up more sand, dirt & dust than grass. All the commercial Hondas seem to have them. I like the nice big oval auto style pleated air filter, they come with a foam pre-filter that fits over it. But they do the job, nothing ever really gett past the filter. I bought 5 and rotate them every six months or so.

That's the strange thing. Older Honda GXV's I see here, not to mention the GX's used on tillers, all have oil bath air filters and we haven't got the dust you must have Down Under.
But I agree on foam prefilters. They work really well, even on leafblowers.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

If you want to better understand the lifespan of a 50 hour machine then look into handheld leaf blowers. They get the kind of run time that puts 50 hour machines into the ground. I rarely see one through my shop that hasn't lost all compression from the end of the lifespan. Chainsaws get far less time at wide open throttle which doesn't expose the low quality parts as soon. Don't let the saw overheat and the rings will last quite a while.

What I see come in our shop that is a saw killer is running the chain till it'd probably cut better if put on backward.

Most often is on the cheaper saws, owner doesn't know better or doesn't care. Saw isn't used enough for them to tell that it's not cutting right I guess.

 

[LegDeLimber]

The worst place to have an air filter inlet is above the right front wheel.
A great deal of the dirt and dust gets tossed out there by the blade.
Did ya ever notice how that wheel is usually the one that wears out first?
Left rear wheel often seems to wear out next... second dirty spot from blade tossed dirt.

Some mowers can get a bit too nose light with the cylinder towards the rear (especially when bagging) so keep that in mind IF you decide to rotate the engine mounting positon.
I normally re-drilled the deck holes and turned Briggs engines to have the cylinder facing the rear when possible (some grass catchers won't fit with a rear facing cylinder).
I have a rear bagger, 21" push mower, that won't clear the rear cyl engine and it clogs a dry element air filter in just a few hours, if used in totally dry leaves.
I'm talking about a missfire from overly rich running kind of clogged, that no amount of tapping and blowing out will solve.

When I checked on the B&S snorkel kit it was just a bit over the cost of three filter elements, so it was a no-brainer to buy it.
I could bag for the most of the season on a single filter element, after installing the remote intake.
if you add a pre-filter screen to the snorkel, I usually could get an entire season (including leave bagging) on a single filter.
Sigh, I have a yard full of willow oaks, pecan & crepe myrtles.
Lots of dusty joy some years.

Another tidbit is the corrugated hose snaps nicely into the bottom/outlet hole of a B&S 5099 filter kit. the foam element can be washed and reinstalled.
The extra foam filter kit is about the price of a dry element, so one washing and it's paid for itself.
https://www.amazon.com/Briggs-Stratton-5099K-Filter-Upgrade/dp/B001NJ0BKQ
For some reason the remote intake kit isn't coming up in my google search, sorry.
Briggs seems to be going to those "no oil change" engines, so you may want to get your flathead/L head kit bits before they disappear?