$150 Honda Clone vs $600 Honda? Let’s settle this! Fuel Efficiency, Horsepower, Durability, Starting

why spend four to six hundred dollars on a Honda motor when you can buy a knockoff for under 200 and while we're at it let's go ahead and test it Briggs and Stratton as well as a Harbor Freight predator and the first task will run the engines for 48 hours and compare fuel efficiency and oil consumption then we'll see which engine makes the most torque then we'll see which engine is the fastest at dragging a tractor trailer and Cousin Eddie so why spend 400 on a Honda motor where you can buy this knockoff for around 150 and the motor's description it references the GX 160 gasoline engine it claims to make six and a half horsepower just like the Honda motor it even comes painted in the Honda colors of red and white it says the whole machine adopts high quality materials metal cams and forged camshafts there's no extra cost for the dents in the fuel tank according to the instructions fall enough oil before starting the knockoff Honda references a paper filter and unfortunately mine did not come with one the foam filter that did come with the engine is just not going to do a very good job of keeping dirt outside of the engine the engine has the throttle control choke as well as a fuel shut off the engine is advertised as making 6.5 horsepower but on the side of the motor there's a sticker indicating that it makes 7.5 horsepower the Honda clone is made in China and the knockoff Honda comes with a spark plug made by sap before adding fuel and oil the knockoff Honda weighs 27.6 pounds at a price ranging from four to six hundred dollars is this Honda GX200 low vibration from Precision engineered components we're going to test that it claims to be a commercial grade engine designed for most demand and Commercial applications cast iron cylinder sleeve provides longer service life it claims to start easy and run quiet while the knockoff Hunt is rated between six and a half and seven and a half horsepower the genuine Honda is only rated for 5.5 unfortunately there's even damage to the genuine Honda motor and the Honda has a much better air filter system the hunt includes a paper filter as well as a foam cover the genuine Honda motor is made in Thailand and the Honda comes with an NGK spark plug and the genuine Honda is a lot heavier than the knockoff at 34.9 pounds at a price around 150 dollars is this Predator which is sold at Harbor Freight it's a 212 CC overhead valve engine just like the knockoff Honda is supposed to make 6.5 horsepower just like the Honda engine the Predator has a paper filter along with a foam cover the Harbor Freight Predator is made in China it has a cast iron cylinder the withstands wear and abuse the Harbor Freight Predator comes equipped with a torch brand spark plug and the Predator weighs 34.9 pounds which is very close to the same as the Honda at a price of 312 dollars is this Briggs and Stratton durable cast iron sleeve for extended life to 208cc engine is rated for around six and a half horsepower just like the Honda and the Harbor Freight Predator the Briggs and Stratton has a paper filter and a foam cover the Briggs and Stratton is made in China and the Briggs and Stratton comes with a spark plug made by champion and the Briggs and Stratton weighs 32.52 pounds I'll be using the supertech 10w30 full synthetic motor oil and all the engines the oil capacity for the engines is just over half court all the engines have a built-in compression release to make starting the engine an easy process so unfortunately we're not going to get good information from a compression test and it takes 16.5 kilograms or just over 36 pounds to spin over the Honda clone and Honda takes 17.5 kilograms or just about 39 pounds and a predator takes 23.5 kilograms for 52 pounds of peak Force to spin over the engine which is by far the most yet and the Briggs and Stratton takes the least amount of peak Force at 32 pounds so the Brazil Strat disease just to start at 32 pounds of peak Force Honda knockoff 36 Honda 39 and Predator 52 pounds let's go ahead and fasten the Honda and the Honda knock off to a test stand for a side-by-side performance comparison each engine will be driving an alternator the alternator is providing power to a battery and the batteries providing power to a power inverter heat setup will be providing power to a 500 watt halogen light for right at four hours after that I'll run the engines without a load since a lot can go wrong in a 24-hour period I removed the factory fuel tanks and each motor is attached to a fuel cell that holds between six and seven gallons and the empty fuel cell for the Honda weighs right at 16 pounds and the plastic fuel cell for the Honda knockoff weighs 9 pounds I just filled both fuel cells with 87 octane containing 10 ethanol and the fuel cell for the Honda weighs 54 pounds the Honda clones fuel cell weighs 59 pounds the no load RPM is set for 3600 on all four Motors and on the Clone started on the second attempt with the sound meter about three feet from the motor the Honda clone is pretty loud at 94.1 decibels and Honda started on the first attempt and Honda makes less noise than the Honda clone at 91.7 decibels both engines have had a few minutes to warm up and the exhaust sniffer is going nuts with the Honda clone definitely not a clean burning engine a lot less combustible gas is coming from the exhaust on the Honda running under a moderate load the muffler temperature on the Honda is around 430 degrees Fahrenheit and the cylinder head is around 150 and the muffler on the Honda clone is about 130 degrees hotter And the cylinder head is also hotter comparing engine vibration the Honda is around 300 millimeters per second squared and the Honda clone is vibrating way too much for the vibration tester to even measure I'll be surprised if this engine doesn't shake itself apart before 100 hours this engine is way out of balance even for a single cylinder after four hours I removed the belts from the alternators and both engines have had very close to 24 hours of run time so let's go ahead and compare fuel and oil consumption the Honda fuel cell started out at 54 pounds and it now weighs 25 so the Honda used 29 pounds of fuel in 24 hours and the fuel cell for the Honda clone started out at 59 pounds and now it weighs 29 pounds so very close to the same with a small Advantage for the Honda and Honda holds just over half quart of motor oil and I just drained just over half quart of oil from the crankcase I'll go ahead and add fresh motor oil to the engine unfortunately the Honda clone is very low on motor oil there aren't any visible oil leaks so this motor is definitely burning oil oil from the Honda clone is on the left and the Honda is on the right and the Honda clone burned quite a bit of oil I'll go ahead and put in 0.6 liters into the Honda clone the same as the Honda the empty jar weighs 430 grams and the Honda clone weighs 704 grams so that's only 274 grams of oil so the Honda clone burned 178 grams or just over six ounces of motor oil the jar with oil from the Honda weighs 882 so that's 452 grams of oil in the jar I just filled up the Honda fuel cell and is starting off at 54 pounds and the Honda clone is a 60. after running a few hours I went ahead and added a little bit more motor oil to the Honda clone just so it doesn't run out of oil and self-destruct another 24 hours has passed for a total of 48 Hours of run time during the past 24 hours I had to add oil to the Honda clone twice to keep it from running out of oil I did not add any oil to the Honda 24 hours ago the Honda fuel cell weighed 54 pounds and now weighs 26 so that's 28 pounds of fuel in 24 hours the fuel cell for the Honda clone started out at 60 pounds and now it weighs 30. so that's 30 pounds of fuel compared to 28 for the Honda so the Honda is 5 more fuel efficient I'll go ahead and collect oil samples from each of the engines to avoid making a mistake I'll label each of the bottles at the point of collection I'll send the oil to an oil testing lab and they'll measure the oil for wear metal content I received quite a few questions regarding the cost of an oil analysis the cost is right at 35 if you don't need a total Base number analysis or 45 dollars with the TBN and a spark plug from the Honda clone has a lot of carbon deposits from burning oil I did not expect to see that much buildup from a motor with only 50 hours and a spark plug from the Honda is still looking pretty good a side-by-side comparison and there's a huge difference let's kick off the Predator against the Briggs and Stratton the fuel cell for the Briggs and Stratton weighs 56 pounds and the fuel cell for the Predator weighs 60. and the Predator fired up on the first pull and the Predator is a little bit louder than the Honda in the Honda clone at 94.8 decibels also the Predator doesn't burn quite as clean as the Honda Briggs and Stratton also started on the first pull the Briggs and Stratton makes about the same amount of noise as the Predator at 94.4 decibels and Briggs and Stratton is burning a little bit cleaner than the Predator the amount of vibration with the Briggs and Stratton is very close to the same as the Honda and the Predator vibrates a little bit less than the Briggs and Stratton and the Honda and the cylinder heads on both engines are pretty close to the same at around 150 degrees Fahrenheit the hottest spot in the muffler is a little bit cooler for the Briggs and Stratton unfortunately the Briggs and Stratton stalled three times during the four hour test powering up the alternator and halogen light so that'll have to be taken into consideration for the fuel efficiency comparison and the first 24-hour test for both engines is finished and the Briggs and Stratton fuel cell started out of 54 pounds and it now weighs 25. so the Briggs and Stratton used 31 Pounds in 24 hours the most yet and a fuel cell for the Predator started out of 60 pounds and a fuel cell now weighs 31. so 29 pounds of fuel consumption is the same as the Honda I'll go ahead and drain the oil from both engines and put in some fresh oil the Briggs and Stratton of the Predator are not burning oil yet but this is the first 24 hours of the test and I drained out 876 grams for the bridge in Stratton and 886 from the Predator so the Honda Briggs and Stratton and Predator are all within 10 grams of each other the Briggs and Stratton is starting off this time at 56 pounds and the Predator is starting at 59. and both engines started just fine on the first pull and it's been another 24 hours for a total of 48 Hours of run time and the Briggs and stratton's Fuel Cell started out at 56 pounds and it now weighs 28. so that's 28 pounds in 24 hours and the Predator's fuel cell started out with a weight of 59 pounds and it now weighs 32. so 27 pounds in 24 hours is better than the Briggs and Stratton I'll go ahead and collect oil samples to send off to the oil Testing Lab I've already labeled each of the collection containers to avoid a mix-up it'll be very interesting to see the wear metal content for each of the motors we'll go over the results later in the video and a spark plug from the Harbor Freight Predator has quite a bit more carbon buildup compared to the Honda so the Harbor Freight is now burning a small amount of motor oil the Briggs and Stratton spark plug looks just as good as the Honda and the Briggs and Stratton is not yet using oil after running the engines for 48 hours the Harbor Freight Predator used a total of 56 pounds of gasoline the Honda used 57 pounds Briggs and Stratton 59 and Honda Clone 60 pounds of gasoline less test engine performance using a go-kart I'll use a new drive belt with each engine since the testing will cause a lot of wear on the belts let's chain up the go-kart to a tractor and a pair of bottom end performance beginning with the Honda clone and Honda clone which is rated for seven and a half horsepower barely made it to 200 pounds of pulling force and the Honda which is only rated for 5.5 horsepower easily outperformed the Honda clone at 239 pounds and Harbor Freight Predator has a little larger displacement than the Honda but it fell a little short at 233 pounds and the brakes and Stratton only made it to 213 pounds before running out of steam and Cousin Eddie is the mad scientist behind the next two tests after the first practice run Cousin Eddie put down the flag and took his position on the trailer to hold down the lawn tractor with a new drive belt in place the Honda clone pulled a trailer and lawn tractor and Cousin Eddie 25 feet in 4.15 seconds on the first attempt and Cousin Eddie thinks the Honda clone could do better and the Honda clone finished the second pass in 3.95 seconds and the Honda clone finished the third pass in 3.95 seconds for a three pass average at 4.02 and Cousin Eddie has moved to the back of the trailer for a better view of the action and the Honda makes a lot more bottom end torque and easily outperformed the Honda clone at 3.59 seconds on the first run and Honda once again outpaced the Honda alone at 3.54 seconds on the second pass and Honda just made its fastest time yet at 3.44 seconds on the third pass for an average of 3.52 seconds and cousin Eddie's getting tired of standing but he's still in the back of the trailer for The Harbor Freight Predator test and the very affordable Harbor Freight Predator just made the fastest run yet at 3.39 seconds on the first run and cousin Eddie's a bit of a show-off and now he's doing his sideways plank on the tractor seat very impressive core muscle strength with Cousin Eddie and the Predator lost a little bit of speed on the second pass but still did great at 3.44 seconds and the Predator performed close to the same in the third run at 3.59 seconds for a 3-1 average of 3.47 seconds to take the lead from the Honda by 0.05 seconds and Cousin Eddie says it's good luck if he's on the front of the trailer and the Briggs and Stratton struggled on the max torque test and the struggle in this test at 4.1 seconds on the first run Cousin Eddie says he can lay on top of the tractor to help with aerodynamics to help the Briggs and Stratton win and the Briggs and Stratton might be slow but at least it's consistent at 4.1 seconds on the second pass and the Briggs and Stratton made his final pass in four seconds left for an average speed at 4.07 seconds so the Harbor Freight Predator came out on top with the fastest average time of 3.47 seconds Honda was just about as fast as 3.52 Honda clone 4.02 in Briggs and Stratton 4.07 seconds let's get rid of the trailer and test the entire RPM range in the 100 foot run and is 5.31 seconds on the first pass and on the Clone is a little faster this time with the front of the go-kart reaching the finish line and 5.16 seconds and Cousin Eddie insists that he wants in on the action on the third run and the Honda clone made the final pass in 5.47 seconds for the slowest time yet so throwing out the third pass the Honda clone averaged 5.24 seconds on the first two passes and the Honda accelerates noticeably faster than the Honda clone and the Honda finished the first run in 4.91 seconds the fastest time yet and the Honda is a little bit faster in the second run at 4.86 seconds or 0.05 seconds faster than the first pass and the Honda continues outperform the Honda clone on the third run at 4.71 seconds the fastest time yet so on average the Honda is almost a half a second faster and outperformed the Honda on the last test and did not perform the Honda on the first run at 4.76 seconds and the Predator showed very good consistency and maintained very good speed on the second run at 4.76 seconds and the Predator finished the Third Run and right at 4.76 seconds the exact same time as the first two passes and the Briggs and Stratton struggled on the last test and the struggled on this test finishing the first run and 5.42 seconds fortunately the Briggs and Stratton is a little faster on the second run at 5.31 seconds but is still at risk for a last place finish once again and the Briggs and Stratton completed the third pass in 5.31 seconds the same time as the second run so once again the Predator came in on top at 4.76 seconds but the Honda wasn't too far behind at 4.83 the Honda clone averaged 5.24 seconds in the Briggs and Stratton 5.35 seconds and cold weather performance might be a factor in some applications after placing all the engines outside all night the engines are pretty cold at just below freezing fortunately all the engines fired up on the first pull I'll leave a link to the original oil analysis reports in the video description very interesting results on the oil analysis aluminum is a wear metal and the fake Honda has more aluminum in the oil than the other three brands the presence of chromium is an indicator of piston ring wear and the Predator has the most at one part per million however one part per million is a very low number the fake Honda has the lowest amount of iron while the Honda Briggs and Stratton and Predator have 12 13 and 14 parts per million respectively so all of the engines look great with regard to low levels of wear Metals air-cooled engines have a high operating engine temperature and that cause the oil to thin out finally I added a lot of oil to the fake Honda during the test which allowed the fecana to have the freshest oil of all the brands an engine with a lot of blow-by tends to have more insolubles so it makes sense the fake Honda has 0.2 percent insolubles compared to 0.1 percent for the other engines the Honda definitely seems like the best engine but we consider the price and performance the Predator definitely seems to be the best value a big thanks to everyone that supports the channel and allows me to put together these more expensive videos it really helps it makes a huge difference with that being said I'm really looking forward to hearing your future video ideas thanks so much for watching please take care and look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 2,988,045

Keywords: project farm, Fake honda, honda clone, honda vs honda clone, honda vs honda knockoff, honda clone review, honda vs predator, honda vs briggs and Stratton, honda vs briggs & Stratton, briggs & Stratton vs harbor freight predator, small engine review, harbor freight engine review, project farm small engine review, honda horizontal engine review, go kart engine review

Id: vtUtORbNLsA

Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 05 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/loweredd]

Yep! Just watched this about an hour ago. Perfect go cart engine, as he found out.

[u/woohooguy]

The one takeaway from the test that is worth noting, the oil analysis. Blackstone labs noted all the oil from the engines suffered shear and reduced viscosity as a consequence. Maybe it was the oil Todd used, or a consequence of the 24 hour run test, but I would be inclined to use a higher quality synthetic designed for longer oil change intervals.

Mobile 1 extended performance 10w30 is designed to resist degradation and oil shearing. A 5 quart jug is 25 to 30 bucks, will last years with a yearly oil change on a small engine and greatly increase its service life.

[u/Legitimate_Log_2305]

We need a HF log splitter. Or at least a frame for the 6.5.

Edit: looks like one exists. $1,100.

[u/RangosServiceStation]

I've had both predator and honda for gocarts, and both are fine for that. For less ideal conditions like running a generator in the cold, cheap motors have issues at a much higher rate than hondas, IME.

[u/Gamovva]

I put a Predator on my log splitter about 5 years ago and the thing would just run and run. It was $99.00 at the time. I sold the log splitter when I sold the house. Never had a problem with it. Split wood great! Never emptied the tank and always used StABIl in the gas. Worth the money.

[u/TurboTinkle69]

I’ve got a predator on my kids go-kart and it absolutely rocks

[u/wood2010]

Can someone post the TLDR please

[u/lurker-1969]

I bought a log splitter brand new with that Honda motor on it. After 2 tanks of gas the thing had worn the rings out of it. As directed I took it to the authorized Honda repair station and after inspection they claimed it had been overheated and would not warranty it but offered to set me up with a brand new Kohler motor for about $800. "These guys are known for this crap" I just said no thanks, took my splitter and left. I put on a Predator 6.5 HP from Harbor Freight and it works great. I buy the extended warranty as they run good for about 2 years or 20 cords of wood then I replace it with a new motor and a new warranty. They are a BITCH to start when cold backfiring and snapping the recoil. Otherwise a pretty serviceable engine for $129