Is a GXV140 worth fixing?

[bwdbrn1]

I picked up a couple of mowers the other day for a good price. Two Honda HRM215s. One has a two speed transmission, and the other a hydrostatic. Guy was giving them up because they had issues he didn't want to deal with. Both mowers have the GXV140 engine. Along with them came a third GXV140 "parts" engine the guy said had a knocking rod.

Long story short, I couldn't get the blade holder off of the shaft, and it had to come off to get the engine apart to see what was going on inside. Anyway, I took it to a guy I worked for and had him cut the blade holder off with his acetylene torch. Well, in the process he managed to cut half of the p.t.o. end of the shaft off, obviously making the crankshaft useless in the process.

Once I got inside, I found the connecting rod bolts had loosened up and backed out nearly 1/2", and the bearing surfaces of the con rod were pretty messed up.

My question then, is this engine worth the time, effort and money it would take to replace the stuff needed to get it running again? It's a Honda GXV140, which is one of their commercial grade engines.

 

[Turf & tree]

Absolutely , it is a fine engine and should still give out plenty of good years. Honda is number one in my book.

 

[robert@honda]

The biggest factor to tip your decision is your time. If you consider fixing up old engines fun or a hobby, then you're only "out the cost" of parts. On the other hand, if you value your time, and recognize the time and cost of parts to do all the repairs would exceed the cost of a new engine, then there's your answer.

As others have said, the GX-series is one tough motor, and can be rebuilt with instantly available Honda parts. No doubt there's some satisfaction in taking a motor others deemed "dead" and bringing it back to a productive life. Fewer I can recall to be a better candidate for such effort than an old GX engine.

"Time is a terrible waste of money"

​

-Oscar Wilde

Caveat: I work for Honda, but the preceding was my opinion alone.

 

[bwdbrn1]

Oscar was a pretty smart fellow. Having worked on other small engines, I am aware that Honda is pretty darn proud of their stuff, but I am partial to the brand. I do get a lot of satisfaction from making things work that others can't, or don't want to. I like to tinker, and my garage shows it. The two HRM215s I recently got are good examples. Previous owner said the transmissions didn't work. Turned out they worked fine, once the pinions were installed correctly. A little cleaning up, new filters, plugs and oil, and they're pretty much good to go. That one with the new deck that you did the research for me on, Robert, is probably going to get a few more new parts, and fresh paint on the handles before I'm done too. The GXV140 in question would probably be purring along just fine, had the oil level been kept up, but I suspect it wasn't, and it started to shake itself apart.