OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines Hard to start Intek

I have a customers Briggs & Stratton Intek Pro 305 10 HP engine that is fitted to a pressure washer that has been hard to start since new.

The engine details are as follows:

Model: 205332
Type: 0314B1
Code: 090107YD

It was purchased new in 2009 and has only done 33.4 hours since it was purchased, so hasn't done much work.

When I try to start it with a known working spark plug, it has good compression but has no 'kick' even though the inline spark tester shows a spark whilst under compression. It also makes no difference using Aerostart. After a few dozen swift pulls it will kick back and snatch the starter rope out of your hand but still won't start. Occasionally it will start in under six pulls but is even worse if you try to restart it when it is warm.

I've tried removing the pressure washer pump incase it was causing a drag but it makes no difference.

I also checked the valve clearances which were a long way off the factory spec but hardly made a difference.

This seems to point to a decompression problem as once it runs it doesn't run rough as though the ignition timing was out of spec.

Of course it is now out of warranty, so my options are to pull it apart to see what is wrong, putting an electric starter on, or just replacing it with a rebuilt Mitsubishi made Vanguard engine.

Has anyone had trouble with model Briggs & Stratton engine before?

Hi LRT,

Have you checked the flywheel key? It could be damaged.

Yes no damage to the key.

Some photos:

Problem is LRT, once you start pulling it down the labour costs very quickly add up and it is probably cheaper in the long run to just put a Chonda on it for a couple of hundred dollars. Makes it very hard to justify repairing something, just replace it

Yes, sadly that is the case. The owner doesn't want a Chonda and would still prefer to either get this one going or replace it with a secondhand Vanguard.

You said that you have good compression. What is it? It should be around 65-70 psi even with the decomp active, 120+psi with it disabled. If below 65 psi I would be suspecting either worn cylinder and a bad valve. I had one generator here that was low hours that the cylinder was worn out and ovaled. When I honed to the oversized .020" the oval didn't clear until .019".

Because it runs once started it should eliminate the ignition and fuel as being the problem. All left is compression problems.

I only used the B&S leak down tool (P#19545) with the piston locked at TDC. It indicated low leakage of around 20%.

For a picture of the tool, see: https://tinytach.com/specialty-engine-tools

I'm away until early next week, so will put the compression gauge on next week and let you know.

It's a shame such a new motor is so useless. I wish it was still under warranty as the valve clearances were way off spec. I wonder what else is wrong!

I too have found the 12 cu inch Inteks wear oval rapidly and don't last like the old Japanese Vanguard engines. I have a 2007 127332 CP550 water pump with 4,000 hours on the meter due to be bored out to 20 thou whereas a 1998 Mitsubishi Vanguard has done nearly 30,000 hours on a water transfer pump and when I de-coked it two years ago, the cross hatch in the bore was still clearly visible! Both motors are owned by the same owner and also receive scheduled maintenance.

You get very annoyed when a manufacturer starts building rubbish pieces of equipment and using a reputable name brand on it. The thing is with the Chondas, they are cheap, you know they are cheap and you get what you pay for. Personally I find they are not that bad, run them till they stop and throw them away

That Briggs engine looks awfully like a chonda, doesn't it

You're not wrong. The new black Vanguard engines that are made in the Briggs & Stratton Chongquing plant with 'Transport Guard' have a carby that closely resembles the Keihin carby on the Honda GX's.

I'm considering looking at Kohler engines now as Briggs & Stratton are no longer what they used to be. The small Kohler engines are just rebadged Yamaha's though.

It is the same with Makita power tools. The ones sold at Bunnings are not the same as the regular ones and wear out quickly if used on a daily basis.

Also, Stihl are marketing small chainsaws that are made in Mexico. These are only designed for weekend use.

I wish these companies would market the cheap tools under another brand as it ruins their reputation.

He may as well just explain that fitting a chonda is like fitting an oem

Yes but at a fraction of the cost of a Briggs

Sad but true!

Yes. At least the OEM should adhere to more stringent quality control standards.

The interesting thing is I've operated a grain auger a few years back with the later all black Vanguard version of the same engine and it starts easily.

Not really, because they are made in the loncin factory(I think) with the same materials, so you may as well get a chonda and put the Briggs shroud on it, and tell him it is oem. (Bloody auto correct)

Honda did the same thing with those rubbish OHC models, I bought 2 of them new many years ago and they were impossible to start without starter fluid. As a result I will never buy another Honda product, once bitten twice shy. Sooner go with a Chonda, at least you are not paying top dollar for a name and that is all they are now

These el cheapo engines used in high stress applications like this are a leg out of bed waiting to happen. I already know of one Chonda in a pressure wash that has done it.

According to the 2016 Briggs & Stratton update seminar, all the horizontal single cylinder engines are made in Briggs & Stratton's BLTE Bai Li Tong plant in Chongquing, China. This includes the current 'all black' Vanguard range. (The Vanguard range was originally built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan)

The Vanguard V twins are still made in Japan by Daihatsu except for the 810 EFI, which is made in Auburn, USA.

Some clips from the update seminar in relation to the new cheap CR series engine:



Note the qualification life of the CR!



The CR range has Honda written all over it !!


Here is a clip from The History of Briggs & Stratton (MS8751)

Compare the Briggs & Stratton CR to Honda GP160...

I haven't had much to do with the little vertical shaft Honda engines. (Most home owners around here use John Deere ride-ons or Chonda push mowers.) The clapped out GXV160 I keep running for a customer usually needs a new spark plug every few weeks to enable it to start and burns oil like anything.

Otherwise, the main problem I've noticed with the Honda GX's is they nearly all flood the sump if the fuel tap is left on and tend to burn heaps of oil when they hit 5,000 hours.

However, they are easy to start, unlike the Briggs & Stratton engines with the Vacu & Pulsa jet carbies! This is why most farmers down here went to Honda's. Why wear yourself out trying to start a Briggs when you can buy a Honda with a proper carby that will start easily!

After my little rant about these Hondas, I put one of them up on the bench to see if I could see what was going on with them as I had already fitted a new carby to this one a few months ago. I had just pushed them aside for years but thought a new carb might help. Anyway on close inspection I was able to see that the choke was only closing about half way, so with a bit of bending and pushing on the choke arm and bending another part of the throttle control out of the way the choke now fully closes and it started without aerostart. I will see if it will now start from cold in a couple of days. Fingers crossed

That's interesting. Did those engines come with Keihin carbies like the GX's?

NormK,

Chokes are something that gets overlooked by techs if they get in a rut or are inexperience in this area. As for chokes that is something that gives me problems enough that I always check when starting problem arise.

Some equipment even modified chokes vanes are needed to operate properly. Tecumseh engines here were ones that required holes to soldered or blazed up to increase choking. I right now have a generator that refuses to start when it is 40F or below that I need to pull the vane and seal one of the two holes and that one is a Nikki single barrel carburetor. I had 650 Subaru engine on UTV that I had to seal one the holes up on too.

Now it was different story on a leaf blower I work on a couple years ago. Initially I started with a bad main nozzle check valve. So I replaced the carburetor with the OEM supplied replacement (not an aftermarket). Well the carburetor flooded the engine on the very first hit. When comparing the old to new I notice quite bit in the choke vanes so I tried the old vane. I couldn't even start the engine on full choke but at least it didn't flood the engine. So when I knew I had problem with the vane I started enlarging the new vane's air bleed hole. When I got halfway between the two original hole sizes it started working perfectly. One only the customer has since was that his daughter backed over the blower. Luckily she only broke the carburetor intake mount.

Just shows that sometimes we got to modify an equipment setup to get to work as. It just like the way I got re-jet carburetors to stop them from surging even after the engine are warm up.

Like this horrid Honda I take it?

Mowerfreak, going by the spider webs on the muffler I would say very similar but earlier models and from memory they were about 148cc . I would have to check but if that is one of your mowers I could explain what I ended up doing. Another thing that put me right off the Hondas with these was that very quickly the pull start would rip its way out of the top and this was not helped by the hard starting. I cured that problem by fitting an eye bolt to the hold down stud beside the pull handle and now it has a guide to run through. Some companies spend years building a good reputation and then seem happy to trash it trying to exploit their brand name. I guess it is because the original founding members of these companies have pride in their product but once they have departed the scene the bean counters take control and pride is not in their make up, it is all about how can we make the quickest dollar

A mate of mine was given it and what does he do with it? Leaves it sitting in the open for months like other mowers he has acquired. He chooses to use a cheap Chonda powered lawnkeeper to do other people's lawns than attempt to get this going.
The person who let him have it paid about $700 new and it's not that oldand is alloy based in perfct condition. No matter how much Iwarn him to put it undercover he sys he has no room, so it is perishing slowly like his shocking Pope mower that was in excellent running condition when he found it years ago, now faded and seized from sitting in the open for years on end.

Funny thing is he is good at repairing stuff, just doesn't care about preventing problems in the first place.

Sounds like old mate has a bad blind spot there!

But I've struck the same thing in the past too; one small engine mech who worked in our family OPE business was much the same.

Brilliant at small engine, farm machinery and milking machine diagnostics and repairs. But treated his own gear like Poo, especially his car!

That is good information Norm. I had a Honda motor with OHC on a water pump and had the same problem. All of a sudden it became very hard to start, even though there was a good spark. After a few months went by it would not start at all. I gave up on it in the end and sold it off for spare parts. I suspect my motor may have had the same problem that you described.

Yep, my mate doesn't take care of his cars at all but has managed to do some major repairs when needed just to get it back on the road. Changes from reverse to drive and vice versa while still rolling, stuff like that.
Used to also top up his oil with discarded engine oil from the local garage, rather than use fresh oil. Doesn't do that now, thank goodness.