The long and the short of it becomes this: a consumer can't hardly walk up to the shelf and decide if he or she should pick a red can opener or a blue one. Everything we buy is so feature intensive. Think about the last car you bought. Mowers are much the same. You can compare engines, deck construction, how the wheels are attached, what bearings they have in them until your eyes spin. Honda builds a wonderful mower. Actually Honda did more for the american mower industry than just about anyone. Think back, you had basic "L HEad" aluminum bore for 4 cycle engines. Which I may add, if used under proper conditions and maintained as they should- would last plus 1000 hours. (From Briggs service school years ago) Obviously, the average WPM doesn't. Honda changed the world with the overhead valve engine later to introduce the OHC engines that the competion put off as a "cheaper engine". The OHC engine lasted and performed well. I mention this because any of the mower engines that you are considering are great performing, easy starting engines with superb track records. What the variable is and valid concern seems to be is lubrication. From a track record of the Sears you had, I wonder if that should be as big of issue. Who can really say which is best for you and your cutting environment? Technically, I can point out many things. Operationally, sometimes they make a differance- sometimes they don't. The heaviest aluminum deck, the most sleek plastic housing as well as steel decks all can and do fail when conditions are right. If you were my brother asking for guidance, I would tell you to go with what feels good to you. After all, you will be spending lots of time with the your mower. Big things for me are how solid things remain after they have been in use foor a while. Visit the back end of the dealership- put your hand on a machine ask to run an older unit. ARe things cracked, wheels wobble? Consider how the drive control may be an asset to you and your environment. A big part of this is the selling /servicing dealer and what they offer you as a consumer now and in the years to come. I'm sorry if this seems like a rant on my part. I have been in the buisness a long time. I have also built relationships with real people like you and gotten to know the equipment well. I can share with you very cool things I've learned on QOC (Quality of cut) both in school and in the field. But that is another rant. I wish you luck on your descision. Your Echo purchase shows you care about the quality of your tools. I believe more people should research this type of investment like yourself, by talking to folks who have 1st hand experience, rather than be swayed by the new feature or buzzword that actually turns out making the purchace a less than positive one.

Please help! The shift lever on my unit has come completely loose! A broken pin came out of one of the holes holding the shift lever to the shifter. Does anyone know what that is called? I really need my tiller up and running but can't get it into any gear - it won't even roll on its own. Is there an easier fix than trying to find a pin or has anyone had luck with replacement pins? The earlier post from adnaw52 is asking the same question. When I search this message board on Google it appears that a pbuckner answered the question but the reply isn't on this thread or in the cached version. Anyone have that information? (Or know why someones helpful post would be deleted?) Thank you, thank you, for any insight!

I used Castrol GTX SAE 30, but I average about 30 hours per season. Synth would be better if you use it more. Otherwise, I cannot see it, unless you are in a really hot area. As far as the Briggs ELS, I had one of those mis-designed air-filter covers with the yellow flip-up handles. I found numerous threads on this problem, and then found one where a person was able to retrofit the engine with a new style intake elbow, blower housing, and screw down air filter. So, I emailed Briggs asking for the correct part numbers to do the retrofit. I wanted to purchase them and make sure my engine didn't fail. Well, they were so impressed with my trying to prevent the failure, that they sent the parts at no cost (considering the engine was a 2003 and I was going to purchase the parts). A couple of shipments and quirks to get the correct parts, and I completed the retrofit in less than 1 hour. Saved me about $120 in costs to purchase. I cannot complain about their customer service. That was about the best I have ever had.

Walt, thanks for all the info you have provided. It has been a great help. I think it was you that said my adjusting the valve on the briggs engine in my wifes gilson was the worst case of shade tree mechanicing you had ever heard of. Probably. Except, I was repairing cars (and tractors) since I was 10. I didn't know service manuals existed. I had no feeler gauges or torque wrenches. My mentor was my dad who preferred to drive horses to tractors. He never worked on his cars, but always took them to a mechanic. I Put the wrong head on a 41 chev when I was 11 years old. It took me an hour to remove it and put a different one on and adjust the valves. Anyway, you have told me several times that retorqueing the head won't work. And I have changed several headgaskets that were bad (just as you described). However, I had a new experience with a '75 VW rabbit. It was running badly, so I did a compression check. I had given up on tuneing worn out engines, which is why I always did a compression check. Sure enough, the compression on the center two cylinders was low and the same. I screwed in my air hose adapter, and the air from one cylinder squirted out the other. Sure proof the the gasket was leaking between the two cylinders. On changeing the gasket, I found the egr pipe had rusted and fallen off leaveing a large hole in the intake manifold. Pluging this and the car ran much better, of course. Now back to that head gasket. I inspected that rabbit gasket as well as I could and it was perfect. I concluded that it only leaked when cold and when hot, expansion sealed the leak. Therefore, retorqeing the head bolts would have fixed that one. My grand daughter had a chevy cavailer which was running bad. When I checked compression, some readings were rather low. So I retorqued the head bolts. The compression came up and the engine ran much better. Conclusion: If caught early, retorqeing can seal the headgasket and it is much easier than replaceing the gasket (If I replaced the gasket, I would also make sure the head was flat, probably by rubbing it on some emery paper). Also, new gaskets must be tougher than the old ones were. And did you know that coke cans are .004 to .005 inch thick on the center of their sides? So I left the intake in that range. The exhaust is under .010, and probably .008 (it could have been as low as .007). I'm sure you have seen these gaps quite wide. Intake would have been .015 to .020 and exhaust in the .020 to .025 range before my adjusting. As to her engine numbers, she used the numbers she had showed the guy to pull up a parts diagram of her engine on the briggs site (mod-287707, type-022501, code-970311ZD). She kept asking why the head gasket in the book (and in her hand) didn't look like the one on the briggs site. So I made up a story about 'L' being the cumbustion chamber shape of a valve-in block (What's a valve, what's a block). Girls!!! If I was doing a repair for money, I would do a complete job. A customer wants a working repair. Not a maybe. And doesn't want to pay extra for a second try at fixing it. I would always replace a bad starter, not change the drive gear and/or brushes. Probably replace the short block on an engine that is smokeing or useing oil. Kids are fun! But I try not to help. A little advice when they are stuck, usualy with a science lesson. Oh, In your bolt numbering scheme, I didn't know which bolt was to be number one (I now think you meant top center). On the other hand, I kinda don't believe it matters if you go around several times and take each bolt up just a small amount. So I used the sequence in the 'L' head manual, skipping the bolt under the exhaust which was still hidden and of course the one that was removed for the push rod galley. Oh, I was asking if they retorqued the flywheel nut. What a couple of stooges!! JerryO