Hi All,
Thanks aldot and grumpy for your positive comments. I agree with you grumpy, this repowered Viking should last many years, and yes I will follow the regular B&S maintenance recommendations as I did with the original Quantum XTL55 for the last 14 years. In reference to your age comment grumpy I should outlast the motor as I am still in my thirties.
I thought I would take the opportunity to provide my thoughts of this engine after its first 5 hours of use.
Over the years I have used many mowers from Victa 18 toe cutters, Victa Corvette 70 series, B&S powered Rovers, Masports and offcourse the Viking. I usually prefer to use a B&S Quantum I/C powered L head Masport or the Viking pre repowering. Now that I have repowered the Old Viking with this B&S OHV I/C 190cc engine I can report that nothing else that I have ever used comes close to this new engine in terms of power and torque.
This new engine is amazing, after using it for about 2 hours, I found an area of Kokuya grass about 70 meters square, that was around 30cm tall it was wet from the overnight air and had a heavy matting of grass 5cm from root level from being cut 3 weeks prior. I know that this section of the property can be killer on mowers causing frequent stalls. With the new engine I simply put it up to full revs and left the height adjuster at normal height. I was able to cut this section of grass as fast as I could walk with the engine revs only dropping by about 5% under load, I have never before been able to use a mower that will cut grass that thick without any issues. Remember that this is also a 21 inch cut and therefore is even more remarkable from a power to cut ratio perspective.
In another part of the property my brother and I started mowing at the same time, I was using the repowered Viking, the brother was using a Masport 600i with a B&S Quantum I/C engine, we both started with a full tank of fuel, I chose to cut the heavier sections of grass and I was able to run 20 minutes longer than my brother on 1 tank of fuel, therefore this engine is good on fuel.
Not that it worries me however this new engine is noisy, it seems to generate a large howl kind of sound and draws a massive about of air past the grill around the starter down into the top of the engine, it draws far more air down into the top of the engine than any of the B&S quantum engines I have used. It does however run very smooth with a nice constant engine note.
A small design issue that I am being carful of is the ground wire, it drops from below the carburettor near the very front of the engine. I am concerned that I could hook and damage it on low branches mowing up close to shrubs in the garden. You can see the wire in my pictures of 5 March. It is also nice to use an engine that never emits any smoke on starting, and that does not have any fumes during use.
In conclusion I am very happy with the re-powered Viking, and I recommend these 850 I/C OHV engines to anybody interested in a solid performing mower.
For anyone interested in doing the same, the model type code is 12Q902-0149-B1.
