5 Different Tools Harbor Freight's Predator 212cc Engine Can Power In Your Garage

In all likelihood, you've got at least one gas-powered tool stashed in your garage or tool shed somewhere. Even if you prefer to use battery-powered tools, there is a certain level of convenience and power that comes with a good combustion engine. The only downside is that in the event the engine on one of your tools fails completely, your first assumption might be that you have to throw the entire thing out and replace it.

In actuality, though, as long as you've got some mechanical know-how, you can remove just the old engine from your tools and replace it with a brand-new, likely better-performing one. You can actually buy brand new compact engines from Harbor Freight, pre-assembled and ready for action. 

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One good example of this is the 6.5 HP 212cc Predator Engine, which features a simple ball-bearing-mounted horizontal shaft, making it compatible with many engine configurations. If you've got tool engines that aren't cutting the mustard anymore, just rip the old engine off and slap the Predator 212cc on to return to work.

It's one thing to use batteries to power up a single room of your home, but if you're using a generator to power your entire home during a long-term power outage, you need the muscle that comes with a gas-powered engine. If your old generator can't quite pump out the juice you need, though, then bolt on the Predator engine to give it a new lease on life. The connection makes sense; after all, all of Harbor Freight's own generators are Predator-branded as well.

Besides providing ample strength for gas burning and energy generation, the Predator 212cc engine has a couple of safety features that mesh well with a generator. Specifically, it features both a built-in low oil sensor that automatically shuts the engine down if the oil is too low for safe operation, as well as a fuel shutoff to allow for safer, cleaner transportation. 

It's of the utmost importance that your home generator is operating safely, after all, so there's no downside to equipping it with an engine with its own safety features. Plus, the Predator engine features a reinforced construction and systems, allowing it to stand up to the test of time much better than similar engines. The only thing better than a reliable generator is one that you can keep using for years on end.

When a bucket of soapy water and an oversized sponge won't do for your outdoor cleaning needs, that means that it's time to bust out the mighty pressure washer. A strong engine needs to be hooked up to a pressure washer's water pump in order to actually generate the pressure necessary to spray that powerful water stream. If your old engine is failing, that water stream won't be much more than a glorified water gun.

As multiple Harbor Freight users can attest, the Predator 212cc engine makes an excellent replacement for a pressure washer engine. No matter how old your pressure washer may be, the Predator engine's simple design and convenient bolt locations will allow it to snap onto the old engine's spot in standard engine configurations. Plus, the engine's cast iron cylinders are designed to stand up to repeated wear and punishment, with reviews attesting to its effectiveness for such applications. 

If you have a large garden or own a plot of farming land, a gas-powered tiller is one of the most important land-cultivating tools you could find at Harbor Freight. If you've got hard, compacted dirt all over your yard that you want to plant something in, a powerful tiller will help to break it all up and get it ready for flowers, crops, and more. If a tiller's engine can't output enough power, though, the blades won't spin fast enough to tear into the ground, which eliminates the usefulness of the tool altogether.

If your tiller's engine is on its last legs, swap on a Predator 212cc engine. Tillers are one of the more popular uses for this engine, according to Harbor Freight users, whose reviews attest to both an easy installation with just a few fasteners and competitive power levels. One user said that they were able to attach the engine to a tiller that was over 30 years old, and with the help of the engine's output, the blades were spinning into action once again with no problems.

Whether you're living out in the wilderness or working in a professional lumber yard, you need a motorized log splitter to handle the heavy lifting of the work, assuming you don't have Harbor Freight's massive bandsaw saw mill. We're well past the age of manually splitting every log with a big ax, after all. Of course, a log splitter needs a sufficiently powerful engine hooked up to generate enough power to force a thick log into the splitting edge. Without one, a log splitter becomes more of a log slapper, which isn't much help to anyone.

Whether your log splitter's engine isn't performing to your expectations or has just let the flow of time get to it, a Predator 212cc engine will get the device right as rain. What's especially nice about this particular combination is that the Predator engine has both user-friendly controls and, as multiple Harbor Freight users can attest, reliable activation on a single pull of the cord. 

This means you won't have to waste precious time and energy starting and running the engine on your log splitter and can dedicate your focus to hauling and mounting logs for processing.

For those living up north, a reliable snowblower is just as vital an implement as any of these other tools. When you're beset by snowstorms in the holiday seasons, it's the snowblower that clears the piled-up snow from your home's walkways and driveways and saves you a proverbial mountain of effort over using an old snow shovel. A reliable engine is of the utmost importance in a snowblower, as the intense workload of blowing snow, not to mention the frigid cold of the relevant season, will chew up and spit out any substandard or aging engines.

Multiple Harbor Freight users can confirm that the Predator 212cc engine makes an excellent replacement or upgrade for any gas-powered snowblower. Mounting this engine to a snowblower serves as a showcase of all of its advertised capabilities, from its wear-resistant body enduring the wet snow to the one-pull activation that keeps you on task for the entire job. One user was even able to mount the engine to a Toro snowblower from the 1980s, requiring only an additional 1-inch PTO adapter to make a sturdy connection.