The new “Age Old Question”: Horsepower vs cc’s

How powerful is your snowblower? When a customer shops for a new machine, the most common question is about its power. An engine’s CC (Cubic Centimeters) determines how large and ultimately how much power it can put out. Ft lbs tells you how much torque the engine will produce… but that’s another story for another day. Two things to remember:

•       There is no math equation to calculate Horse power.
•       Adjustments in gear ratios and rpms will impact the performance of any snow blower.

A general understanding of CC’s will prepare you when shopping for a new snow blower this season.

Here is a chart to help approximate cc to torque to horsepower. We used 3600rpm in this example.

179cc = 5hp

205cc = 8-9 gross torque = 5.5 – 6 hp

250cc = 11-11.5 gross torque = 7 – 8 hp

305cc = 13.5-14.5 gross torque = 9 – 10 hp

342cc = 15.5-16.5 gross torque = 11 – 12 hp

While the above calculations aren’t exact, it’s a step closer to understanding how cc’s correspond to horsepower. Keep this in mind next time you are shopping for a new snowblower!