[PODCAST] Vanguard Big Block Engine Series Gets a Redesigned Cylinder Head

At Equip Expo 2025 in Louisville, Ky., Dan Roche, director of marketing for residential, commercial and racing engines at Briggs & Stratton LLC, highlighted enhancements that have been made to the Vanguard Big Block engine series that enable optimized airflow and performance, as well as extended engine life. Listen to him share key features in this podcast here or on Spotify.

Following are more details presented at a media event hosted by the company during the event:

Shown in blue are changes made to the Vanguard Big Block engine series. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

“Twenty years ago, we brought Big Blocks into the commercial turf space,” Roche told journalists and attendees at Equip Expo. “We’ve certainly taken those engines farther than commercial turf, but we were the leader, we were the innovator… in commercial turf.”

Turf applications tend to be some of the toughest this class of engines encounter, he continued. “So, when our engines begin to reach the end of their design envelope, we start to see it in turf... Heads on the engine are where the engine takes it on the chin, because there is so much activity and so much complexity within the heads.”

As such, Vanguard has brought the heads on its Big Block series into the next generation. The series now incorporates a redesigned cylinder head, featuring more cooling fins and aluminum, that works in tandem with an optimized airflow system to allow the engine to run up to 60° F cooler in harsh conditions compared to the previous model.

With the heads under control from a temperature standpoint, it then comes down to lubrication, said Roche. “Can you get enough oil and can you keep that oil cool enough as that engine’s being pushed to its absolute limits?

“What we’ve done is we’ve innovated that, as well, with some proprietary technology that is borrowed from motor sports. It’s called a dry sump in racing,” he explained. “What we’ve done is applied it to our engines to a remote reservoir with five to six extra quarts of oil to share that temperature, share that load, share that oil degradation. So, it’s a really, really smart system that’s only available on Vanguard.”

Other features of the redesigned Big Block engines include optimized starting and cold-crank power alongside upgraded wire harnesses and starter motors for optimal reliability. To further extend engine life, Vanguard offers such options as Oil Xtend, which increase typical oil change intervals from 100 hours to 250 hours, and the Oil Guard System (watch demo here), which can be used to extend 250-hour oil change intervals to 500 hours, further reducing overall maintenance costs.