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Tecumseh motor

A

Aaron in IL

Member
I have a Tecumseh tiller and it runs fine until it gets under load, then it just blows a solid cloud of blue smoke. Is this a cracked ring? If so I would like to rebuild it this winter, but I"m not sure what the deal is here. any help?
 
It could be just a worn ring, but, a cracked ring is possible. If you rebuild it, check the cylinder wall for scoring. That's an obvious one, if the rings are cracked. Also check the piston ring grooves well for wear. What you are looking for is called, a "Shoulder". It will be a small shoulder on the top and bottom of the ring groove What is the compression of this engine? In my opinion, if you need a new piston get one. If you need a new block, get another engine. That's my opinion, and if you have lots of extra blocks, you may want to just change the block, but again, that's my opinion.
about half way down the page is a pic of shouldering
 
Not knowing how antiquated your iron is, I will assume the worst. Oil-bath air cleaner overfilled or dirty? Other than that, there's not much else to it.It just sounds tired. Right now, if it's not smoking all the time, only when it gets hot, you might be right on the edge of the wear cycle to where you can just get away with a set of rings. When they get really bad, they start slobbering oil out the breather,due to excessive blow-by. At this point, you really ought to bore it if you want to do a nice job. If you have a breather tube hooked to the carb, the oil might be getting in that way. But, here again, the reason the oil is getting that far is because it can't drain out of the valve chamber fast enough, due to the blow-by. Fritz
 
AAaron, if it's an aluminum block engine you may have trouble getting new rings to seal if it needs new rings. Reason is that Tecumseh anodized the bore to make it hard enough to last for a while. Once you have worn out a set of ring honing the bore may take out the rest material and you may be down to bare aluminum. About 2 hours of hard running can see it burning oil again. That's why Briggs and Honda are using steel sleeves in their engines. You can have a good shop bore it and install a sleeve but you may wind up having more into the engine than it's worth.

Rick
 
I have no idea what a "Tecumseh" tiller is since it is a make of engine, not machine.

When Troy Built "Horse" and Ariens "Rocket" used 6-7 horse Tecumseh engines they were usually with cast iron blocks and special HD main bearings. If your engine is like that it might be worth fixing.

If you've got an aluminum engine with sleeve bearings - anything over an easy fix probably isn't worth it. You can buy a brand new, overhead valve, ball bearing mains, cast-iron sleeve 7 horse engine for $200.

Some cheap tillers use engines with the camshafts sticking out of the blocks for an extra reverse belt-drive. If so, they are tougher to find.

Rings rarely break in these engines. Pistons wear and aluminum cylinder walls wear out.
 
Before becoming committed to this rebuild, be aware that Techumseh went out of business a year or so ago. Some dealers still have parts on the shelf, but some of these parts have gone astronomical in price. There were 3 grades of Tech engines. The lowest has the aluminum block with nitrited bore (common of Sears stuff).. don't bother putting $$ into this piece of junk. Then there was the aluminum block with steel cylinder liner and pressed valve seats. The steel cylinder liner could be successfully honed and new rings fitted, but usually a new piston and conn rod were needed also. Finally the really tough engine was full cast iron (used in the 70's on Troy built tillers). These could be bored and honed and live on for more decades. In all these engines (and most other brands as well), there is no replacable bearing shell on the conn rod bearing. That wear had to be taken care of by replacing the conn rod.

Briggs has made an engine for replacement on these Troy built tillers. But with any replacement engine you need to be aware that the extreme angle the engine is put while doing the deep tilling can starve the crankshaft for oil. Troy had a series of Techumseh engines packed with the standard oil dip stick, and most of them seized up (mine included). Their specs called for a different dipstick calling for more oil in the crankcase. Then the engine could survive.

Good Luck with your project.

Paul in MN
 
(quoted from post at 09:07:17 11/22/11) Before becoming committed to this rebuild, be aware that Techumseh went out of business a year or so ago. Some dealers still have parts on the shelf, but some of these parts have gone astronomical in price. There were 3 grades of Tech engines. The lowest has the aluminum block with nitrited bore (common of Sears stuff).. don't bother putting $$ into this piece of junk. Then there was the aluminum block with steel cylinder liner and pressed valve seats. The steel cylinder liner could be successfully honed and new rings fitted, but usually a new piston and conn rod were needed also. Finally the really tough engine was full cast iron (used in the 70's on Troy built tillers). These could be bored and honed and live on for more decades. In all these engines (and most other brands as well), there is no replacable bearing shell on the conn rod bearing. That wear had to be taken care of by replacing the conn rod.



Briggs has made an engine for replacement on these Troy built tillers. But with any replacement engine you need to be aware that the extreme angle the engine is put while doing the deep tilling can starve the crankshaft for oil. Troy had a series of Techumseh engines packed with the standard oil dip stick, and most of them seized up (mine included). Their specs called for a different dipstick calling for more oil in the crankcase. Then the engine could survive.

Good Luck with your project.

Paul in MN
Click to expand...

Paul I think the last of the cast iron ones were made in the early 70's as the H engine......that wasn't even their design but one they inherited when they bought out Laughton (spell???) in the early 60's. I've never cared for Tecunseh much but it a shame that they closed their doors without finding a buyer.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 10:28:50 11/22/11)
(quoted from post at 09:07:17 11/22/11) Before becoming committed to this rebuild, be aware that Techumseh went out of business a year or so ago. Some dealers still have parts on the shelf, but some of these parts have gone astronomical in price. There were 3 grades of Tech engines. The lowest has the aluminum block with nitrited bore (common of Sears stuff).. don't bother putting $$ into this piece of junk. Then there was the aluminum block with steel cylinder liner and pressed valve seats. The steel cylinder liner could be successfully honed and new rings fitted, but usually a new piston and conn rod were needed also. Finally the really tough engine was full cast iron (used in the 70's on Troy built tillers). These could be bored and honed and live on for more decades. In all these engines (and most other brands as well), there is no replacable bearing shell on the conn rod bearing. That wear had to be taken care of by replacing the conn rod.



Briggs has made an engine for replacement on these Troy built tillers. But with any replacement engine you need to be aware that the extreme angle the engine is put while doing the deep tilling can starve the crankshaft for oil. Troy had a series of Techumseh engines packed with the standard oil dip stick, and most of them seized up (mine included). Their specs called for a different dipstick calling for more oil in the crankcase. Then the engine could survive.

Good Luck with your project.

Paul in MN
Click to expand...

Paul I think the last of the cast iron ones were made in the early 70's as the H engine......that wasn't even their design but one they inherited when they bought out Laughton (spell???) in the early 60's. I've never cared for Tecunseh much but it a shame that they closed their doors without finding a buyer.

Rick
Click to expand...

Was recently told by an equipment dealer that Tecumseh has been taken over by a new operator and is slowly ramping up production and service. I guess we'll soon see.
 
tecumsah has been gone for years . if new owner bought name it'll end up like homelite or Mccullah, in name only . cheap machines
 
H is for "horizontal shaft" aluminum block.
HH is for "heavy duty cast-iron block."
HHM is for "heavy duty cast-iron block medium frame."

Tecumseh owned the Lauson name since the middle 50s, along with Power Products and Peerless.

Husqvarna now has the Peerless name and Platinum Equity owns the Tecumseh name.

Tecumseh had cast-iron engines on the market at least into the late 80s.
 
Keeps the skeeters away, don't it? Gotta do the same exact thing on my JD 5/24 tiller.
They are usually a Tecumseh HH special, with an extra camshaft pully stickin' out, for reverse.
Carefull taking the head off and side cover, saving the gaskets, you can just stick a set of rings in there. All the purists will hate us, but I've done it on more than one small engine.
Only thing I would cut is the ridge at the top if necessary. Retorque the head after a few thermal cycles.
 
You may find it's cheaper to just replace the motor. If the cylinder walls are aluminum and scratched up, my guess is the motor is junk. Take the spark plug out and look inside.

It may be possible you have too much oil in it.

Harbor freight sells a small motor for around $100 on sale.

I've seen Briggs go for around $160. Shop around on the internet.

You may also go to the garden trator sight on YT and ask their opinion.

You may buy a complete tiller at a yard sale or craig'slist for less money than the price of a motor.

I have a 2500 psi pressure washer. Replaced the pump on it once. If it blows another pump, I'll save that 6.5 hp briggs for a tiller.

My advice is shop around and try to find another motor.

George
 
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