Where's the Platinum?

motoman

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If anyone knows please itemize the improvements Briggs made to produce the PLATINUM series of engines. Or is it just badge engineering and market speak to overcome "INTEK?" thanks
 

Elias40

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If anyone knows please itemize the improvements Briggs made to produce the PLATINUM series of engines. Or is it just badge engineering and market speak to overcome "INTEK?" thanks

From Briggs & Stratton:

The Craftsman Exclusive 725ex Platinum Series engines provide easier starting, more durability, and lower emissions. These engines provide the power needed for high-performance mowing. Featuring Smooth Start (Craftsman Exclusive) Two advanced engine features combine to give you an easier starting engine the Most Reliable Starting (MRS) Spark Plug and the Advanced Ignition Coil. ReadyStartョ No priming. No choking. Just pull for power.


Briggs & Stratton has been down quite a few rough roads for about the last 15 years. Some of the problems they have are ego related and other problems related to EPA and it's impossibilities imposed on manufacturers to comply with the whims from the NWO. They too will soon transplant to China to get away from under the tax burden along with the EPA's impossible regulations. A few other much larger engine manufacturers have already left to other countries for the same reason(s).
 

motoman

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Elias,I was hoping someone would say that head finning had been redesigned , all journals micro polished, better oil flow to cool valve guides,improved cowling and fan...stuff like that . Or is it just badge engineering after all? If BS sends a drawing package to China the Chinese will eventually get the hang and produce overheating , self destructing Inteks. We will soon see how well they build Volvo which is a fairly good car. I wish Honda would start making riders again.
 

Elias40

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Elias,I was hoping someone would say that head finning had been redesigned , all journals micro polished, better oil flow to cool valve guides,improved cowling and fan...stuff like that . Or is it just badge engineering after all? If BS sends a drawing package to China the Chinese will eventually get the hang and produce overheating , self destructing Inteks. We will soon see how well they build Volvo which is a fairly good car. I wish Honda would start making riders again.


No. I think B&S is losing their shirt trying to comply with EPA. There is only so much you can do with carburetion.

They should have followed car manufacturers, as the EPA was picking on them, copied some of their designs, as they were in cahoots with GM back in the sixties. It would only be a matter of time before EPA would swoop in, and demand changes- sort of catching them off-guard.

And OHV is not the end of it. Liquid cooling would be the next requirement, as the emissions would still be out of par with fuel injection.

I myself am a fan of compression based ignited (diesel) engines. Much simpler and easier to please EPA as emissions are almost zero.

In the meantime, the consumer is throwing all the blame back on B&S, when actually it is the committee of 500 causing all of our problems.

About 10 years ago, I sent an e-mail to B&S inquiring them about coming out with a gas injected engine. Their reply: NO! we have no intentions of producing such nonsense.

In the time since, Honda has come up with a single cylinder gas fuel injected engine from what I have read.
 

ILENGINE

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EFI and liquid cooling would improve efficiency and longevity, but are not cost effective on consumer products which is were the majority of the market is. My understand is Briggs has stopped producing there diesel engines, because they can't meet tier 4 requirements. Kohler has met the requirement according to my Kohler distributor, without DEF. but that could change in the future.

The box store shoppers are not willing to pay the price increase required to upgrade the engines to what they should be. Just adding the charcoal canister evaporative system increased the price of riders about $120.

Most of the small engines on the market are still carb fueled systems mainly because EFI is a big price increase, which is no big deal for commercial lawn cutters, but the consumer market is so cut throat, EFI may not be viable for several more years, or until the EFI system is cost effective.
 

Elias40

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ILENGINE,

Most of what you have posted makes absolute sense.

Another curve that needs to be thrown in, is that EPA want's to make them complicated enough to where the average tinkerer wouldn't be able to repair/modify the equipment.

Like where we are at today with even the cheapest made car on the market. Most people have no idea of what makes them tick.
 

DPDISXR4Ti

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From Briggs & Stratton:
The Craftsman Exclusive 725ex Platinum Series engines provide easier starting, more durability, and lower emissions. These engines provide the power needed for high-performance mowing. Featuring Smooth Start (Craftsman Exclusive) Two advanced engine features combine to give you an easier starting engine the Most Reliable Starting (MRS) Spark Plug and the Advanced Ignition Coil. ReadyStartョ No priming. No choking. Just pull for power.

Digging up this old thread because I had the same question... i.e. What is the difference between the Platinum, Gold, and Silver 190CC B&S engines? Is there anything that makes the Platinum a more durable, long-lasting engine, or is it all just marketing fluff, "easy start" junk as mentioned above?
 

motoman

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Since starting this old thread I have learned nothing from the manufacturer, but some by experience. My experiences have been buying a DYT 4000 in 2004 down to buying a Husqvarna with a second Intek 24 in it only couple years ago.

This forum contains lots of my complaints with the major weakness in the DYT 4000, that of severe overheating which I believe caused the exhaust guide to move and resulted in two teardowns, but ONLY replacement of the head. So to this day that engine is producing 40 psi oil pressure, good power , burns no oil (does leak) , and starts up with choke in 30F. The heat I refer to is a summer running oil temp of 280F with moderate work, rising to 290-300F with heavy mowing. Although some have suggested this machine is not typical I can only report what the installed oil temp gauge tells me.

After trying in vain to buy a Husqvarna with the locker AND a Kawasaki I was forced (long story) to buy that machine with another Intek, but this time the endurance model engine. I did this because I had seen in this forum that Kaw also had problems.

The "impressions" thread of my experience with the new Husqvarna appears in the Husq forum here. Suffice that it runs much cooler such that I have not installed an oil cooler, only the oil temp gauge.

Edit for short (suppressed?) memory :DYT 4000 also had to replace the cam which was not a cam any more, just a journal
 
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bertsmobile1

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Digging up this old thread because I had the same question... i.e. What is the difference between the Platinum, Gold, and Silver 190CC B&S engines? Is there anything that makes the Platinum a more durable, long-lasting engine, or is it all just marketing fluff, "easy start" junk as mentioned above?

All you need to do is get the engine numbers of a Platinum , Gold & Silver engine.
Then download the parts books for each engine.
Go through them and find the same part with different part numbers.
These are the parts that have been modified,

Briggs already have a factory in China, we get the Chinese B &S engines on a lot of walk behind mowers down here.
Kohler, Honda & Stihl all have factories in China & despite all the rhetoric of President Trumph all of those companies will eventually do the bulk of their manfacturing in China.
WE get a lot of ride ons fitted with Chinese Courage engines.
You can not change peoples base instinct for GREED with legislation.
We call it "market pressure" but it is raw greed because I want every thing and I don't want to pay for any of it.
And the past 60 years of advertisements have fanned this base instinct to the point that it has become first nature.
Given this cultural charasteristic of the USA market place no local plant can survive and none will in the long term.
Then on top of this are idologistic driven groups like the EPA needing cheap & easy "wins" for the enviroment thus legislating petrol powered lawn equipment out of the market.
While the net result from enforcing "clean" legislations on things like mowers make almost no difference, it looks like they are doing something.
 

motoman

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Bert, PN changes are something pretty common , but what has changed on the parts, if that is known? The only thing I ever saw advertised by Intek was chromed valve stems and micro polished crank journals, hardly major improvements. One forum member stated he knows people in a stateside assembly plant where more careful assembly is done. No one has ever explained to me why some Inteks run cooler than others.

BTW I read Australia has produced its last motor car. The Holden was a good mod to the GM it seemed.
 
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