SmilinSam Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 MPH, To try and answer the question you brought up in a earlier post-"how do I know my engine I found was a 16hp?" My books show the : 10HP Model# 243431 12HP Model# 300421 13HP Model# 302431 14HP Model# 302431 15HP Model# 325431 16HP Model# 326431 I don't know what books the person you mentioned has, but all my Briggs books show the 14HP being a model #302431 type#0144-01. I also have a 14 HP in a 3414H that has the same number. According to what I have seen here the 14HP is not even in the same displacement as the 15 and 16hp. A question I have had for a while is how do they get three different horsepowers out of essentially the same block?? IE: 12hp, 13hp, and 14hp. Maybe someone around here can enlighten us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill_Wells Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 I'm guessing here, but most of the time, it's with different pistons & bigger carbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutch Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 Whoever rates the power, RATES the power. It may have looked like 12 last year. This year it looks like 13. Measure on a cool rainy day...... it's 14. Little larger carb jet...... it's 15. Look at the puller crowd getting 20, 30, 40 with trick carb, hot cam, higher compression, port & relieve, larger valves...... God knows what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatRarick Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 Briggs told me that carburetion, valve timing, valve lift and duration, and maximum governed RPM, are all altered to achieve certain hp ratings. I have a 32 cubic inch 14 horse here. It is a 320431. I have also been told, due to volume discount pricing, some companies will purchase all 12 hp engines. They will get a better price on 6000 12 hp engines, than they will on 2000 each of 10, 11, and 12hp. They simply mark them smaller than what they actually are. Sometimes it's just a marketing gimmick. Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 Hi, The first 2 digits of the Briggs model number indicate the displacment of the engine. Ex the 10 hp 24xxxx is a 24 cu in engine. The 30xxxx family is 30 cu in. and the 32xxxx is a 32 cu in. The Briggs 12. and 16 hp engines in the 5212.5 and 5216 use the same short block, the only difference is the carb, and I don't remember, possibly the heads. I believe this is true in several of the Vangards also. I am aware of 1 Kohler CH single that is a 15 and a 16 same engine. One OEM wanted a 15 hp to not compete with a different engine 16 hp. So they bought enough to get their own spec # and call it a 15. Same engine as the 16. This is called marketing. Some of the Toro tractors a few years ago came out as 17 or 18 hp, the only thing they did was to turn the governor down a little as it was the same engine that was in their 20. If you bought one all you had to do is turn the governor up to 3600 and you had a 20. I am sure this was a more cost effective method of having an 18 and 20 than ordering and stocking two separate engines. Sears buys engines from Kohler and has their own method of computing horsepower and the same engine [in some cases]in Sears is rated a half or one hp higher than Kohler rates them. They told us this at service school. We have a horsepower race in mowers just like cars. Once you can maintain the blade tip speed under load and propel the tractor everything beyond is immaterial. Good luck, Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 This reminds me of an IBM computer example. About 1992, we were doing a project for IBM and toured their mainframe manufacturing plant. They built the "planar board" -- IBM's name for a motherboard -- of their biggest 9000 series mainframes to the "top of the line" specs. Then, they performed "microsurgery" on it with a laser, cutting connections in the 36 substrate layers, giving it a lobotomy to match whatever "class" machine it was going in. Then, once a customer bought one, they offered a "generous" upgrade trade-in on the old board (these boards could cost more than $75,000 new at that time). When the old board got back to the plant, they took the same lasers and repaired the circuits that had been severed, then sold it as a "refurbished, top-of-the line" board.... This was both clever marketing and clever manufacturing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted March 6, 2002 Share Posted March 6, 2002 Thanks for the input Sam, might have to dig in the snow with daylight and get the #'s off them two gilsons. Can't find where I wrote them down but I'm sure they were both 32 cuin also, one called 14 and one 16. Have to agree with those saying it the hp game. solution, gotta find a dyno..MPH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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