HF Predator Engine

motoman said:

The current state of US employment is a radical change from one or two decades ago.

(off rant) Let's hear more results from the go cart race guys. That would give a good look at reliability. I watch bike mag tests of Chinese product. It lags but none I can remember fails during journalist testing.

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I am going to get out of the political part of this because in my mine we live in the best country in the world USA so cry how the Chinese are going to take over all you want, which ISN"T going to happen.

Now back to the Predator engine. The only thing I do know about the engine is. I have a friend that races go carts that buys Predator engines for his racing. He takes the governor out of them and he said that he can get two racing seasons out of a engine. Now that is running the engine to its extreme RPMs. He never wins anything but does it only for his own pleasure/ entertainment and its a cheap engine to destroy.

reynoldston said:

The good thing about the cost of the Predator engine is you can buy 2 1/2 engines for the price of one another brand. I have to say never bought or worked on a Predator engine so don't know very much about them. I have worked on the Chinese ATV,s and are they under powered junk.

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Loncin motor is on the side of the predator engine, you might notice this name on a Chinese ATV.

On the political side, some people are too lazy to work or want to cherry pick their job along with the hours they want to work.

It would be good for those of us who are a bit too detail oriented to know from the race guys what fails on these overworked engines..? I have seen that the two stroke cart guys can be very detailed with exh gas temp monitors etc, etc, but those 2 stroke race engines have had decades of development in chainsaws and in carts, right?

motoman said:

It would be good for those of us who are a bit too detail oriented to know from the race guys what fails on these overworked engines..? I have seen that the two stroke cart guys can be very detailed with exh gas temp monitors etc, etc, but those 2 stroke race engines have had decades of development in chainsaws and in carts, right?

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There are two type of people out there. The person that just wants to be out there with no plan on winning and just puts a stock engine in there go cart for the fun of it. Then there are the ones that will go all out to win. My family is into tractor pulling and we do win, but also spend a lot of time and money modifying the tractors so we do win. When we are done with a tractor it will never be any good to work on a farm again. All it needs is to make one or two short pulls on a Sunday afternoon and even at that we have had the rods hanging out of the side of the block.

Mikel1 said:

I bought one so I will see how long it will last. Only use this tiller a few times a year for deer feedplots, where the Kubota tractor can't get to.

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Well I got to try it out for the first time, performed well. Used it to till up a spot for an above ground swimming pool.

nick9882 said:

So buy what?? A Briggs?? And you think none of Briggs parts are made in China?? You should do you research. Buy the HF engine. It a good engine and parts are readily available for it. We run them on a couple pieces of commercial equipment and they do just fine.

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Where can you get parts in the US? That is my worry about these engines, not being able to find needed parts.

Are they knock off Hondas? I have a tiller I bought at a yard sale with a 6 HP HF motor. The dogs broke in the starter recoil. I found Honda part that fit been using it for 5 years since.

RDA.Lawns said:

Are they knock off Hondas? I have a tiller I bought at a yard sale with a 6 HP HF motor. The dogs broke in the starter recoil. I found Honda part that fit been using it for 5 years since.

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And that is the prime reason why they are so cheap.

Not only did they STEAL some one elses had hard design work & expensive developement they then bludge like a filthy parrasite on the company they STOLE from to provide all of the very expensive after sales services for their illigitmate engines.
We like to whine like the 4 year old who did not get a lolly bought for him at the checkout about the price of parts.
However no one ever bothers to take into consideration the astronomical cost of maintaining & updating parts listings, stocking them in warehouses knowing full well they might be in there for the next 20 years accumulating massive storeage & warehousing costs then distribution to the retailer who also needs to make a profit.

These filthy scumbags do not do any of this relying on the good will of Honda to cover the LOSS they make selling parts for an engine they never made to the thieving morons who are undercutting their reasonable retail sales.
Even worse, if you went to your friendly Honda dealer and got asked for an engine number or they would not sell you parts you would scream your heads off as if some one was removing your testicles with a blunt knife.
However, Honda is not obliged to supply parts to fix engines that were STOLEN from them, and would be perfectly within their rights to do so, but no one would see it that way.
How the importers get away with this makes one wonder who in your government is on the take,
Down here a wholesaler has to prove they have adequate parts supplies and maintian them for a prescribed number of years before the importation of any engine can happen and AFAIK the same (or similar ) applies in the USA. ( we copy most of this from California )

If I bumped into most of you in the street and offered you an engine you knew was stolen from your neighbour, most of you would decline, no matter how cheap the engine was but the said same people will happily buy an engine that they know was STOLEN from a company.

Now if Honda decided that it was going to exit the USA small engine market because sales had dropped to an unsustainable level caused by of all the cheap foreign knock offs and only supply spare to owners who had registered products each & every one of you would be furious thinking Honda was doing you wrong when all the time you are aiding & abeting crimes against Honda.
Or can all of your morals be bought off for a few hundred dollars ?

Wow relax. I get what your saying. I wouldn't rush out to buy one myself. I do agree with you . I buy almost everything new from the same local dealer . Im big a good service after the sale and local . Would I run out for a replacement motor to harbour freight. No id go to my local Kubota dealer where I have a account they know me by first name when I walk in the door. I've purchased over 6 new mowers from them and almost every piece of outdoor power equipment I own from.I know i could beat their price if I shopped around but not the level of service. Your other point I guess the theory of free commerce so long as it passes epa carb compliance they don't care unless its going to California they have their own standard. Its crazy but its got to a point who cares about repairs or parts . Chunk it and buy a new one as cheap as I can mentality.

I expect that the patents for these Honda engines have expired and they are free to use by other companies. Honda, along with all other companies, use designs covered by expired patents all of the time. Patents only last about 20 years and it used to be less. All complex products (engines, cars, electronics, etc) are built using designs that was once covered by many expired patents. If patents never expired, we would not be able to afford anything since the licensing fees would be too expensive. We may not like that another company copied an entire engine design, but if the patents are expired, it is legal.