Honda HS8285 Seized

[lefty]

Model HS8285
Serial: SZAK-2035774

Engine: GC04-3471241

The owner inadvertently ran this machine for several minutes this morning until it started smoking and then stalled. He then tried to start it again several times with the electric start with no luck. The unfortunate part is that there wasn't a drop of oil in it when he did it. The drain plug was nowhere to be found. I learned this while I was picking it up for a service this morning. I told him he's likely to have done some damage bud I'd take it home to ascertain how much.

My question is, is it worth me even attempting to get into it to see what's up? I pulled it over gently by hand to see how things moved. It wasn't locked up but was very difficult to pull and it felt sluggish and chunky. Such a shame. He said he changed the oil at the end of last season. My guess is, he did it on the lawn and didn't realize the oil he was putting in was running out the other side.

Thank you.

[RoyM]

I did that with dads lawnmower, he wasn't impressed. Fortunately I didn't try to start it. Is he willing to pay you to tear it down and assess the damage? If the crank can be cleaned up maybe a rod, rings and gaskets are all you need.

[Skywatcher]

Hi Lefty

Just did a search on that machine and it appears to be a top of the line machine. The crankshaft has ball bearings on both ends, so unless the camshaft bushings are damaged, there shouldn't be any damage to the block. The engine likely has the cast iron cylinder liner which will stand up to quite a bit of abuse before getting too badly damaged. As Roy says, if the crankshaft doesn't appear to be overheated and cleans up with emery tape (there will probably be some metal transfer from the aluminum conn rod to the iron crankshaft), the engine should be salvageable with new connecting rod, a new set of piston rings and new gaskets. Therefore, I would say definitely worth getting the engine onto the bench for a tear down to assess the damage. . Best of luck,

Sky

[bgsengine]

Yup, what they said, but first before digging too far into it, also line up a price comparison to re-powering the unit with a new engine (if at all possible to find one that fits in there) - So, you'd have 2 quotes to offer- a repair/rebuild, and a re-power . I'd estimate high on a repair/rebuild, and always I'll include a replacement crankshaft (which for Hondas, I seem to recall were not that expensive?) even if I think I can clean up the old galled crank (lot of damage can hide underneath that aluminum transfer, which by the way I usually removed with Muriatic Acid) At the very least in meantime also be sure to inspect the piston, rings and bore carefully before finalizing (they can still get real hot and deform under overheating during a lack of oil event)

[KE4AVB]

Side note on the Muriactic Acid. Use it only in a well ventilated area as it produce toxic fumes even when it just left open exposed the moisture in the air. It also can can collateral damage if you are not careful to keep thing out of the immediate area. This I found out the hard way recently as some my tools rusted from being exposed to the vapors.

[RoyM]

The stuff is nasty for sure. One thing to note is the engines on Honda equipment are are built to ISO metric standards so an SAE replacement utility engine will not be a plug and play exercize even if another Honda. It will likely be easier and cheaper to rebuild.

[lefty]

Thanks for all the info. I just realized that I had a typo in the subject line of the post. Had a 5 instead of an S at the end of the model. I've gone ahead and corrected it.

[lefty]

I'm almost ready to dig into this. One of the options I wanted to give the owner was a repower with the same honda engine, or at least what was available if the exact engine is not available. I want to be sure about what I'm looking at. Looks like this is a GSX240. Is that all I need to know?

I've pinned down some of the details regarding the options on the machine. I think I have a WAS, wheel, American, starter. I think that's what those letters signify and appear to be the options on the machine I have. What's throwing me a bit is that my model is an HS828S. I'm only finding HS828's when I look it up.

I guess the W is for wheel, A is for American and S is for a starter. My engine is GC04-3471241.

[RoyM]

You are not going to find a direct replacement engine, it was built specically for that application.

[KE4AVB]

Serial say it is a GX240K1 and WKA is listed as a type number used.

Yes it going to be a little hard to find this one. Kinda an odd crankshaft PTO end. The crankshaft is PN 13310-ZE2-631 which is superseded to 13310-ZH9-631.