The engine accounts for around 1/4 the cost of your industrial floor sweeper or floor scrubber. Reliability and longevity of the engine greatly impacts the quality of your machine. Kubota manufactures a truly industrial strength engine that lasts longer and requires less maintenance.
Engine Attribute | Advance with Kubota | Competitors | Advantage |
Engine Valve Timing Mechanism – Coordination of motion of pistons and valves | Internally geared camshaft. Lubricated and protected from dirt and designed for the life of the engine. | External timing belt. Exposed to dirty application conditions that can compromise belt life. Periodic replacement is required, or there is a risk of catastrophic failure. | Higher reliability and uptime. Reduced maintenance. No risk of catastrophic damage to valves due to timing belt failure. Designed to run reliably in tough industrial applications. |
Potential for Pistons to Contact Valves – Interference Design | Due to internal lubricated camshaft gears have minimal risk of valve train timing failure. | If timing belt slips or breaks, extensive damage to the valves, cylinder head, pistons, crankshaft, and bearings may occur, resulting in expensive repairs. | Virtually no risk of unplanned and expensive engine down time and repair due to timing issues. |
Engine Head and Block Material | Cast iron block and head with comparable thermal expansion rates reducing stress on head gaskets and cylinder head bolts. | Cast iron block with aluminum cylinder head have differing thermal expansion rates, placing greater stress on the head gasket. | A Kubota design cast iron cylinder head mated to the cast iron cylinder block is better suited to industrial applications for long-term durability. Whereas typical automotive based engine designs are optimized for higher maximum power output, reduced weight, and minimal production cost (aluminum head/cast iron block). Kubota’s use of common materials between the cylinder head and block reduces stresses in the gasketed joints resulting in long-life. This minimizes the likelihood of random head gasket failures and associated downtime in high hour usage applications. |
Crankshaft Bearings and Cylinder Block | High capacity crankshaft bearings and cylinder block designed for diesel engine loads for long life. | Crankshaft bearings and block optimized for lighter duty automotive usage of gasoline. | Kubota main bearings are more heavy duty in design since they are based on the diesel platform; this provides greater reliability and longer life. More rigid engine structure on engine block (since borrowed from diesel) results in less radiated noise and vibration. |
Parts and Service Availability | World renowned for their reliability and for their parts and service network when needed. | Limited support network, but does not carry the same reliability nor service access reputation. | Well established quality reputation and service network to stand behind their products. |