What is this engine???

[dennis]

I am working on a Craftsman Model 247.377300 mower. It has an MTD 5X65RU engine on it. What the heck is that????? Any idea who makes that engine?

[KE4AVB]

MTD claims to manufacture it. And MTD has making their own engines for over 10 yrs now.

Auto choke, recoil, with long PTO end, US 50 complaint 65mm cylinder bore.

X = vertical engine same as the P designation.

Use the MTD "769_03354A P61,P65,P70 Vertical Engine SM" in the downloads for most engine work on the 65mm engine.

[bgsengine]

They are quite similar to the Subaru models, which themselves are basically Honda Clones - once the Honda patent on those designs expired, everybody and their brother was cloning their own branded engines - many come from the same factory in China on the same assembly line and materials, with the difference between brands being quality control and design specifications.

You can usually find compatible parts from Honda or Subaru engines that will fit up or "will work" on many of those cloned engines..
However more and more MTD (Stanley Black & Decker) is exercising greater control over the quality controls and engineering details, so that much of the stuff that used to be able to be swapped between many clones will no longer work suitably, even if they look virtually identical - which makes it very hard to be 100% sure of getting the correct part even when you order genuine MTD parts (they may not even realize they had unique parts that they never had in stock to begin with)

As well, Briggs and Kohler both have "entry level" consumer model engines (Usually the horizontal shaft universal industrial engines like Harbor Freight's Predator engines) that are built all from the same factory in China to their own quality control specs.

[dennis]

Thanks for the good information, guys. Oh for the "good ol' days"!