Yes and no - they are known as "throw away engines", but I've seen some that were over thirty years old and still running. Some you couldn't tell were B&S due to the oil and dust covering being an inch thick...rich. wrote: briggs engines are just shite & always have been
OTOH, I have a Honda mower that is a PITA. It has an automatic choke on it that rarely lets the engine run properly before I've half-filled the box and it eats spark plugs and air filters! I had a Victa before that, with a two stroke Kirky Lausen engine (a badge-engineered Aspera/Tecumesh engine) that always started on the first pull (until the recoil kept tightening up) and, while a bit noisy, it cut grass as soon as it was running - I could shut the manual choke off by the time I'd got four or five yards to the lawn. I won't mention the Villiers engine on the rotavator - it was a second hand machine when Father bought it in about 1963 and it will usually start easily if the points are clean and the timing hasn't slipped!