Firewood on a Hakki Pilkie 1x37

[Hilltop366]

Probably too late now if your buddy is gone with the compression tester but usually you will get better readings with a warmed up engine, sometimes you will get completely different readings after the engine has warmed up.

My brother use to drive a truck weekly to Toronto for years hauling seafood up and often produce back so he would have to get the trailer washed out before returning, the pressure washer guys tried the knockoff Honda and said they lasted about 1/3 as long as the real ones so the switched back as the knockoff ones died. This would have been 10 years ago but I don't think things have changed much.

I was looking at a v twin Honda at the surplus centre a while back that seemed like a ok deal but between the exchange rate, shipping and customs broker fees it was more than I was willing to spend. there might still be some left. 

[Spike60]

Sorry that you ended up with one, but this is one of those motors that make the statistics what they are. The intended application and where these motors are going to live are things to consider before buying one. When measuring them with the premium Honda yardstick, they will always come up short. And in a commercial or high use application, the disappointment can arrive fairly soon.

Dealing with that disappointment via warranty could prove to be an even more frustrating experience. It's easy to write warranty in the catelog or on the box, but who is in place, and where, to provide warranty service? Even shops that are willing to work on these things are unlikely to be set up to process warranty claims on them. And there's no place to order parts. The 2 big aftermarket players in the industry, Rotary and Stens, don't support these engines, because it's a moving target. Too many sources of engines and the investment to support them all makes no business sense at all.

Didn't want this to end up being a lecture, but these pitfalls are real when buying these products. Unfortunately nobody ever talks about them until something breaks, and then the customer starts to feel very much alone when it becomes apparent that there's no support network in place to help him. Maintaining those networks that exist for the OEM engine brands is part of the cost of those engines.

I get that sometimes prices on these motors are so good that it can be worth the gamble. But just understand that it IS a gamble and be prepared that it might not work out in the end.

[hedgerow]

If you end up stuck with the engine. I would pull that valve cover on the head with the low compression and check the head bolt torque and the valve lash and if that's all good I would pull that head and take a look at the valves maybe it burning a exhaust valve and you could just replace that. 

[GRANITEstateMP]

Thanks for the feedback. We did 3 more cord on it this am, popping and fartin away : It isn't horrible, but it's not great either. I started digging into a replacement Honda for the unit, looks like it'll be close to $1900 once I add a muffler. I'm between a GX630RHQZB3 and a GX630RHQZE, if anybody has any input on those units or one similar, that be great!

I guess I'll go do another cord of wood... It's a beautiful day, be nice to go float in the lake for an hour or two, but I'm gonna be needin a new engine soon >:( better go make a little $$$

[Corley5]

Have you checked http://www.smallenginewarehouse.com/  ???

[GRANITEstateMP]

Corley, you Sir are a gentleman and a scholar! Thanks for the link!  I'm pretty sure there price (shipped) is within dollars of one of the larger suppliers that I'd rather not use. There muffler are $30ish cheaper too!  I got to get out my cash reserve envelope and see if I can afford to get the new unit coming now or later.  Pretty sure the Honda GX630RHQZ3 IS gonna be my go to unit. Still looking at a few others too

[GRANITEstateMP]

Oh man, now I've goon down a work hole!  Any feedback on the 35up Vanguard motors?  I'd love to have the extra HP, but I don't want to throw money away on a junk !ptor, again!

[Hilltop366]

Unrelated to your last question and more about your popping engine.... I had a B&S v twin in a lawn tractor that would run poorly on one cylinder and I looked at valve issues but it ended up to be some tiny O rings in the carb that swell up over time and cause the problem, replaced the o rings and all was well.

[hedgerow]

Have you looked at Kohler engines I have a 25 Hp with 1,000 hours on it and a 40 Hp big block that has 500 hours on it both have only needed general maintenance. I have a couple older Briggs V twin 20 Hp that have been good engines. I do have a buddy that him and his son run a lawn service as a second job and bought some zero turns a few years ago with the big block Briggs in them and I think so far they have been good engines. They went from Kohler's to the Briggs. 

[GRANITEstateMP]

Thanks for all the help and replys  guys!  Pretty sure I'm gonna just replace the Pred with a Honda (like it had before).  I'm looking at the Pres as a 1 year trial, that didn't work out. I haven't done all the math yet, but I'm pretty sure we've pushed about 100 cord through that motor between last year and this year, so it cost about $8 a cord for the Pres "rental". Lesson learned, save up front, but loose in the long run.  The repower to a higher hp motor might have been nice, but not at the added expense, or the time to adapt that onto the pto that I want to take on right now. Guess I'll go grease equipment before I need to go to my real job!

[GRANITEstateMP]

Well, we got another 3 cord done in he HOT July heat this weekend. 1, off the splitter, and 2 more thorough the processor.  The Pred is still fartin and spittin, but I had a long talk with it the other day and told it that it'd be in everyone's best interest of it'd just keep chugging away. So far, so good  ;D

[Spike60]

Is that thing running on mostly one cylinder and still putting out some wood? It's almost fun with something like that, wondering how long she'll go before it lets loose. As long as you got a plan in place. Of course most of you guys probably already heard that Briggs filed for chapter 11 this week. They've already got a buyer from what I've read.

[cutterboy]

 The Pres is still fartin and spittin, but I had a long talk with it the other day and told it that it'd be in everyone's best interest of it'd just keep chugging away. So far, so good  ;D

I've had talks like that with most of the equipment I run. Sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't. :D :D

[GRANITEstateMP]

We're still plugging along. We got 3 more cord done today, 2 on the processor, 1 combo of the skid steer splitter and my hydraulic splitter.

Here is my buddy dropping off a load of small diameter poles


 
With that little Freightliner, and rear mount loader, he can load direct onto the deck ;D,



 
Now we got something to work with!



 

Most of this wood was smallish diameter, but it worked up quick!  We did 2 cord of 22in long, into his dump trailer, in just under an hour and a half! We were happy.

We did 1 more cord of 22in wood into my dump trailer.  It was mostly big ugly logs. We presplit with tarp Blue Diamond, then did the final split on my old American splitter. The sun came on strong about 1/4 of the way into the cord. When we were done, there was 4 soaked and smelly guys! 

The Pred. motor ran well today, not much farting and poppin! I got to check my tally sheet, but that should mean we're at 98 or 99 cord for the year. Gonna drop this one, clean up the door yard, then go float in the lake!  I really hope we get some rain soon, it's bad dry here.

[Spike60]

Good pics and thanks for sharing. Looking at the time of your post, I figure you guys got an early start. Had the same weather over here. Crazy how quick the heat came on yesterday. Went from 62° to 90° from 7:00 to 1:00. Had some wood chores I wanted to do myself, though nothing urgent. But as the temp went up, the ambition went down. By 11:00 it was tme to find another project.

[Old Greenhorn]

Man, 99 cord is a lot of wood! My 10 cord is kicking my butt with just a single wedge splitter. I hauled and dropped 7 loads of logs in the previous 4 days, not to get bucking. Nice work. Yeah it was hot here yesterday too, just unloading the dump trailer and wrangling the logs into a working pile had me pretty moist. I am not far from Spike. I don't know which is worse, the heat, or the city folks on the local roads not understanding the weight and stopping distance of a fully loaded trailer. ;D

[mike_belben]

Have you checked your valve lash?  Theres a fair chance that its too tight and the cam is burping out a bit of your compression stroke.   It will cause what you describe.  


I wouldnt spring for that new motor yet.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Spike, we had the logs unloaded and the processor singing by 7:50.  The processor stuff went MINT! The "hand" stuff went ok, but the sun come out and that killed our groove! We were done around 11, then slung a good bit of bull!

Mr. Greenhorn,  it's a good charge of wood, but I got great help too.  Those cords you do by yourself would whoop me! The stuff we do by hand is usually bigger or ugly (kinda like me), but we have the tractor and grapple to move them, and set them onto my little brow, then roll into the splitter. That helps save the old back! The addition of the skid steer splitter has made that even nicer, we can now quarter those big chunks before putting them on the brow.

 I got a guy that starts sweating BEFORE we start wood, he was DONE, by the end of yesterday!

All potential drivers should have to ride for at least 1 hour in a loaded dump truck or tractor trailer before getting a license. Maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't pull out in front of one, OR worse, stop for a dag-gum squirrel while in front of one (happend to me a few months ago, I used a lot of 4 letter words while braking that truck)!

Mike, when we pulled the v/c we checked lash. Can't remember the numbers, but the "good" cylinder and the bad was close on lash, not sooo much on compression :(.  Hoping to keep limping her on a bit longer

[jmur1]

Low compression is a bad sign.  Only last ditch Hail Mary try might be to add some transmission oil (dextron 2) to the engine oil (a small amount for a short running time).  A sticky valve or ring would be your hope for that.  The popping could be a sticky valve.  If the blowby of the cylinder can be felt out the oil plug or crank vent- probably rings.  I dont recommend the miracle oil treatments on small engines - have tried them and found catastrophic results! 

It would be interesting to try..sounds like you guys have run your equipment for some good hours!

jmur1

[Corley5]

I got a few more hours out of the last GX670 on my Block Buster by adding Sea Foam to the engine oil.  It prolonged the inevitable.  The effect was noticeable immediately.  The engine did suffer catastrophic failure eventually ;) ;D   I'd never used Sea Foam in a crank case only as a fuel additive.  The local small engine guy recommended it.   

[mike_belben]

Well you guys jinxed me.  My shiny gx390 coughed spurted and quit today just shy of a cord.  Pulled the bowl and verified clean fuel, good needle and float etc. Definitely fueling related as it will only run -just barely- on full choke all of a sudden. 

 It was like my angel walked up, shot an arrow through it and said 'just build the dang processor already moron.'

[GRANITEstateMP]

Sorry Mike, didn't mean to give ya any of my small engine luck :-\  While getting lunch at the only store we have here in town (they do make a real good sam-ich), one of the guys was telling me about resighting a gun he had done some work on. He's got a 100yard range, his SuperSplit is about 10yards off the side of the range... When he went to check his target, well, it was blank.  The splitter has a real nice grouping on it, mostly on/in the Honda He wasn't impressed with himself

[mike_belben]

ive wanted to shoot most of my junk many times!

[Hilltop366]

jmur1's sticky valve is a possible cause, I wonder about trying a tank of mixed gas through it to see if it helps?

[GRANITEstateMP]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll give a Seafoam tank a shot first, that's easy enough, maybe a tad of ATF after that as a lube? But, I got to try and make it through this weekend's "away game" first. Gonna move the processor and support equipment tonight, try and get a cord done between organizing Sat, and go full steam Sunday... I hope