Chinese engines ? Good or bad

[Brightstar]

I have recently purchased a 4 hp ancheer Yamaha knock off engine with decent results. Thought I would start this thread to see if anyone is interested in what I found?

[boatpoker]

Once bought a Chinese, Kipor 2000watt generator at half the price of the Honda. It looked identical but for the name plate. Later discovered that it was the exact same unit. Kipor actually manufactured the Honda at that time. I hear Honda got a little p'd off and cut Kipor loose

[RaymondR]

Bought a 3.8hp Parsun outboard and got about 2 years usage out of it before all the elastomers "collapsed" and I had to throw it away.

[clownfishsydney]

I also bought a Parsun, fell apart in under a year, could not be bothered to claim under warranty as I certainly did not want another one.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Brightstar.

Please do elaborate.

[Perna]

Chinese manufacturers have made huge inroads into the small motorbike market which must be the biggest small engine market in the world. Their products here, I would say, are good and cheap.

Many western engine manufacturers source components or whole engines from China and the quality control is as good as or better even than in their own country. So although it's easy to dismiss Chinese goods as cheap rubbish, those days are long long gone.

Chinese small marine engines? No idea ☺

[P3sailor]

Maybe good throw away motors, personally I would waste my money. I've found QA is questionable on many Chinese products. Sometimes you get a good product other times, not so lucky.

[mowerandy]

I have a two year old Hy Fong 6hp outboard with about an hour or so on it. Had to change the impeller after the first five minutes of running when the drive core stripped out of the rubber blades. ten minutes later and the next one went the same way (then I screwed the two bits together with tiny ss grub screws and its still working touch wood).
I use the motor as an aux on a small powerboat, so it lives (covered) on a bracket. All the paint is spitting now, and it looks about thirty years old!
I should also say that I have owned a few Chinese bikes and quads, one of which (an old quad) is bangin along just like the day I bought it more than a decade ago, except that all the plastics have disintegrated of course, since they seems to scrimp on UV buffering additives or something.

[Ramona]

Have a look at Alibaba and see who is actually making some of the big name products. Toyota and Suzuki engines, GM and Ford cylinder heads. In the marine line all those well known inflatables. I noticed even Johnson/Evenrude water pump kits are really cheap from Hong Kong. The Parson might be crap I have no idea but that's more down to the specifications companies are demanding. My Chinese laminated cruising headsail is superb.

[robertk445]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Once bought a Chinese, Kipor 2000watt generator at half the price of the Honda. It looked identical but for the name plate. Later discovered that it was the exact same unit. Kipor actually manufactured the Honda at that time. I hear Honda got a little p'd off and cut Kipor loose

My Kopor crashed and company went belly up in us

[travellerw]

No idea about marine engines..... but I owned a company that imported, QCed and resold a brand of Chinese generators. The engines used in our units were the same motors used in a very big brand (they are blue). That company speced and purchased the same motors as our Chinese manufacturer. In fact, people used to buy parts for their "blue brand" from us as we were 1/2 the price.

The motors were amazing. We had one motor go 10,000 hours while running a scale at an agregate weigh station. We replaced the camshaft and last we heard it did another 5000 hours.

We have seen that same motor used in everything from snowblowers to rototillers.

[Compass790]

Originally Posted by Perna

Chinese manufacturers have made huge inroads into the small motorbike market which must be the biggest small engine market in the world. Their products here, I would say, are good and cheap.

Many western engine manufacturers source components or whole engines from China and the quality control is as good as or better even than in their own country. So although it's easy to dismiss Chinese goods as cheap rubbish, those days are long long gone.

Chinese small marine engines? No idea ☺

In my experience those days are not long gone. Parsuns are just terrible. Had one that would leak fuel from new. Agent fixed it, lasted about 1 hr & same problem re-occured. I get various products from China & it's a lottery, some good some ok, some very poor. Often it's just one part in the system thats substandard. For example these battery chargers i used to import had crap cooling fans in them. Chargers worked very well except fans got very noisy after about a month. I would say Japanese manufactured goods are much more to be relied on but unfortunately they cost a lot more. I dont have experience with chinese marine diesels though. I have been tempted but I'll let others be the guinea pigs on those.

[kmacdonald]

I might try one of those rice burners on a lawn mower but not a boat engine.

[Lepke]

Many engines for many manufacturers are built in China because of cheap labor. I know of several US and Japanese brands now made in China. It really doesn't matter if it's a Chinese brand because they stole the technology to do it right.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Perna

Chinese manufacturers have made huge inroads into the small motorbike market which must be the biggest small engine market in the world. Their products here, I would say, are good and cheap.

Many western engine manufacturers source components or whole engines from China and the quality control is as good as or better even than in their own country. So although it's easy to dismiss Chinese goods as cheap rubbish, those days are long long gone.

Chinese small marine engines? No idea ☺

While there are good Chinese products out there and I think market pressure will force the Chinese to improve their QC in general...I can assure those days are not long gone. Here in Central America we get plenty of Chinese junk (and stuff from other makets that wasnt up to QC standards, so they sent it here!).