Plastic Camshaft?

[Old Bob]

What do you run? oh wait we already know. There are no US made engines that are street legal that even come close to Honda quality.The Briggs is the biggest POS going, low on power, big on cam gear breakage.

"A lot of guys on the other forums have experienced failure, especially with the Honda and Kawasaki engines."

There is only one other MB forum.Kawi doesn't even make a four stroke engine that is small enough to be street legal.

 

[Steve Best]

Hmmm, I've busted rods on a lot of American made V8 iron.
Pushing an engine hard, you will find the weak points.
Run it outside its design parameters and novel things will happen.

Hondas are great engines but Briggs is a wonderful design for most of the places where it is used.
Who wants a $380 lawn mower? I loved Lawn Boys, light, simple, but where did they go?
A $150 Briggs powered mower has the right motor, as proved by evolutionary design and consumer choice.

Plastic cams? Evolutionary design in action.
Made them out of ground and hardened steel for 100 years, someone discovered you could lighten the valves and springs on low rpm engines and use powdered metal to cut costs in half. Someone obviously continued that thinking to look at new high quality plastics. The result? We can buy 4 stroke appliances for less than 4 hours pay.

Now, can I take that engine and double its rpm and power output and expect no problems? I don't think so.
Is it a poor engine? Not for what it was designed to do.

Steve

 

[CrazyDan]

Well i don't like my plastic cam...i just popped the clutch side of the crankcase open (found tiny pieces of plastic in my oil last oil change). Wasn't hard finding the source...not many plastic parts inside. My cam lobe is worn about 1mm and has quite a few small holes near the peak (think: swiss cheese). I want a metal cam . The engine is a year old hs 144f 1g. I've done an oil change every couple weeks...i ride it 10-50 miles a day...

 

[Old Bob]

its not the plastic cam design Honda developed, its the bad quality of the HS144, over revving on a MB etc

Honda doesn't have trouble with its plastic cams...

 

[CrazyDan]

Think the honda cam would swap right over?

 

[CrazyDan]

Well I bought a honda gxh50 cam, supplier said it will fit in the clones. Looks to be a much higher quality. Not sure what the lobe is made of, but from the pics it almost looks like there is a bearing and a thin sheet of metal wrapped around the lobe. Can't wait for it to arrive so I can get my lost power back.
Honda cam:

Huasheng cam:

I have the newer huasheng with the electronically limited 6800 rpm, not really over-revving there considering my older one screamed above 8k rpm. Tore that motor down and the cam lobe has less pits meaning less air bubbles in the mold, and its only worn down the back end of the lobe, but deeper than my current thats maybe .7mm deep but covers the entire lobe and has tons of pitting...oh boy do I hope the honda version lasts, cost almost $22 vs $8 after tax and shipping.

 

[gary55]

Well I bought a honda gxh50 cam, supplier said it will fit in the clones. Looks to be a much higher quality. Not sure what the lobe is made of, but from the pics it almost looks like there is a bearing and a thin sheet of metal wrapped around the lobe. Can't wait for it to arrive so i can get my lost power back.

I have the newer huasheng with the electrically limited 6800 rpm, not really over-revving there considering my older one screamed above 8k rpm. Tore that motor down and the cam lobe has less pits meaning less air bubbles in the mold, and its only worn down the back end of the lobe, but deeper than my current thats maybe .7mm deep but covers the entire lobe and has tons of pitting...oh boy do i hope the honda version lasts, cost almost $22 vs $8 after tax and shipping.

who did you order it from? I am anxious to here your results when you get it. I haven't split the case on a 4 stroke yet so bear with me if the questions are dumb. To do so do you need a gasket kit or seals? I should probably just check you tube for a tutorial.

 

[CrazyDan]

I used liquid gasket on it, works great. Got the honda cam from ebay, last of 20 . It can be found elsewhere I'm sure.

 

[butre]

I knew it wasn't a Honda part.
That cam is from an engine size that's not legal to run on a MB.
So why bother with it here, this a MB forum.
Moral of the story is that you are second guessing companies with an engineering dept that better funded than you are.

maybe in your state. around here you can run a supercharged big block so long as you got pedals.

 

[Old Bob]

Lobe is sintered metal.