Im a Golf Course Superintendent/and the mechanic since were a small course,and I guess I take good care of my stuff because I rarely have a failure,even with my 20 plus yr old equipment...I cant afford new engines and machines,so its cheaper to maintain the ones we have.I am running mostly air cooled small engines 25hp and below,and I get 3000-5000hrs out of OHV Kohler Commands,Briggs Vanguards,and Diahatsu /Cushman engines easily and these things are worked hard...The shame is the Ventrac 31 Gas Daihatsu/Briggs should run 10000-15000 hrs if maintained with no problem..Ive never seen the design to life specs on a Ventrac spec 950 gas,but the 3600RPM genset version has a 20,000-40,000 hr life expectancy..so no reason to think the ventrac couldnt hit the low side of that number at least,depending on how it was run,and maintained....
I was going to repower with a Briggs diesel since they are plentiful,but have never seen a 26.5 diesel or a 3 1turbo diesel with more than 2000 hrs...im not saying they arent out there,but the few i know of have had one form of castastrophic engine failure between 500-2000 hrs..usually throwing a rod or engine runaway from injection pump issues...so im reluctant to go diesel...I have a perfect running kubota d1105e 28hp ,but its 2" too long to fit..or its be in there ,as kubotas are great diesels...