How many horsepower is a Briggs & Stratton 190cc 675ex Series engine?

Factual Questions
1

It seems as if every time I want to use a lawnmower, I have to get it tuned up. (I exaggerate. In reality, I think they’re hard to start because gas only lasts a few weeks before it ‘goes bad’ unless I remember to put stabiliser in it.) So one of the Craftsman 6.5 hp mowers in getting a tune-up. Since everyone is having their mowers maintained right now, I’ve waited two weeks to get it back and I likely won’t get it back until sometime next week. So I borrowed a mower from the shop.

The SO has said on several occasions that I need to get a self-propelled mower. The yard isn’t exactly level, and the back yard never really dries out in this climate. Turns out, the mower I borrowed was a well-used self-propelled Snapper of 6.5 hp. (I think it used the same Briggs & Stratton engine as the Craftsmans.) I have to admit, I liked it. So I’m browsing self-propelled mowers.

One of these mowers uses a Briggs & Stratton 190cc 675ex Series engine. I wanted to know how many horsepower the engine is, but it’s not in the specs. I went to a website that sells this engine, and it says: Rated Power (HP): Manufacturer no longer rates this engine by HP. Apparently it has 6.75 ft/lbs torque. An online calculator says that 6.75 hp at 2,600 RPM is 3⅓ hp. That seems a little anemic, especially considering that the wet grass in the back yard chokes the mowers with double that. Is the calculator correct?

2

NOTE: I’ve started a thread in IMHO for a mower recommendation. I’m still interested in finding out the horsepower of Briggs & Stratton engines in this thread though.

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3

6.8?

4

The older advertised horsepower numbers were sometimes pretty goofy. B&S settled a big lawsuit a few years ago over misleading horsepower ratings which is why they don’t use HP anymore in their marketing material. I’d guess that the newer mower you’re looking at that’s actually rated at 6.75 HP is probably significantly more powerful than an old mower that’s advertised at 6.5.

5

I was using this calculator, using 6.75 ft./lbs. and 2,600 rpm.

6

Oh, gotcha. The peak HP will be at a much higher engine speed, so it’ll be more than the 3⅓ you calculated. That’s part of what the issue was with the old HP ratings-- they’d rate the engines at higher speeds than they normally actually ran. They also just plain old inflated the numbers sometimes.

If you can figure out the torque rating of the so-called 6.5 HP motors you used, that might help you make a better apples-to-apples comparison.