A step up for Briggs & Stratton: company adds 27 hp liquid-cooled V-twin to Vanguard commercial line; first B&S-designed liquid-cooled engine - Gasoli

For most of its nearly 90 year history, Briggs & Stratton has been known as a manufacturer of air-cooled engines for commercial and consumer applications. About a decade ago, the company made its first foray into the liquid-cooled engine markets with its Briggs & Stratton Daihatsu joint venture, which gave B&S the marketing rights to a line of premium three-cylinder liquid-cooled diesel, gasoline and natural gas engines.

It was fair to note that since the B&SD operation was strictly a sales arrangement, Briggs & Stratton itself was still essentially an air-cooled engine manufacturer. But the times, they are a changin', as the Wauwatosa, Wis.-based engine manufacturer recently unveiled a new liquid-cooled aluminum block V-twin engine. The Vanguard 2/LC engine is the first B&S-designed liquid-cooled engine and is yet another step in the evolution of Briggs & Stratton's commercial engine activities and one which Phil Cappitelli, vice president and general manager of the Vanguard commercial business, said "allows us to give our customers what we believe is the broadest product offering available in the marketplace, not only with the number of engine models we offer; but also with the different levels of value we can provide.

"We started talking about something like this six or seven years ago, but because of what the market was really looking for at that time, it never got out of the concept phase," added Cappitelli. "We looked at it again about three years ago and what drove us toward that was the fact that this is an industry where bigger is better. This engine will fit into that bigger is better category The launch version of the 2/LC will carry a rating of 27 hp at 3600 rpm, with a peak torque of 40 lb.ft. at 2000 rpm and an overall displacement of 752 cc (0.72 L). "You look at our engines and you see there is some overlap," Cappitelli said. "But what we offer customers is the ability to differentiate among their own products and to have a step-up series of offerings. This gives them many of the benefits of liquid-cooled, but provides a more affordable alternative than the three--cylinder liquid-cooled, which are really high-end engines.

"We believe this puts us in a very favorable light compared to some of our competitors who may have twin air-cooled engines and maybe twin liquid-cooled, but then not a three-cylinder liquid-cooled."

While the liquid-cooled engines incorporate much of the same technology as the air-cooled V-twins, there are significant differences, primarily in the area of the cylinder block. "This is a bigger engine than the existing air-cooled V-twins," said Rick Geisheker, principal engineer for Vanguard V-twins. "It's a physically larger block with water jacketing all around.

"It's hard to meet durability and reliability goals when an engine is pushed to the limit, so this engine has a new footprint. Everything is bigger and huskier, all the bearing sizes have been increased, the gear centers are increased, oil capacity is up. The envelope of the engine is up, but it's going into markets where that is not as critical."

The 2/LC engine is a 90[degrees]V engine with a bore and stroke of 81 mm x 73 mm. It incorporates a die cast aluminum block with cast iron cylinder sleeves for added durability, die cast aluminum pistons and connecting rods and cast steel crankshaft. "All of the bearings, the gasket clamp joints, etc., are designed for much higher loads," Geisheker noted.

The block incorporates a full 3600 cooling jacket engineered to reduce engine temperature evenly "Although it is our engine, our design and our design control, we did get some design input from our friends at Daihatsu Motor Corp. They have long experience with liquid-cooled engines--they manufacture our 3/LC engines--and they were able to make some suggestions that were beneficial.

"When we say this is a clean sheet of paper design, there are obviously some things we've been very successful with since we introduced the first air--cooled V-twin in 1988 that we incorporated," said Geisheker. "But there were also some things we had an opportunity to change. For example, there is greatly increased oil capacity on this engine (2.4 L) and consequently, we run a race cool oil temperature and we expect to get extremely long bearing life out of this engine because of that.

"From an overall standpoint, the main difference between the liquid-cooled and air-cooled engine is that you're running pretty much at a constant temperature. The temperature is controlled by a thermostat, much like an automotive system. Air-cooled engines are much more subject to the environment and the ambient conditions, whereas the liquid-cooled engines run at a constant temperature."

In testing, the 2/LC engines have demonstrated a 40 percent increase in lifespan over their air-cooled equivalents, the company said.

The 2/LC engines incorporate Briggs & Stratton's Magnetron electronic ignition system, mechanical governors and commercial grade, solenoid shift starters. Other key features to the 2/LC engines include full pressure lubrication system with a spin-on oil filter; integral or remote-mounted radiator; and Donaldson two-stage centrifugal air cleaner