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The 23HP Vanguard is a fine engine, and will perform especially well with synthetic oil, changed per the schedule. I'm an air-cooled proponent. Liquid-cooled is great on a road vehicle, where I'm close to civilization, but when I'm 50 miles in the bush here in Alaska, I like the idea of my cooling system being nothing more than a fan attached to the crankshaft of my engine. One less system to fail/worry about.
I think that anywhere south of the Mason Dixon line, a person would be wise to stay away from the B&S 23HP. In temperatures outside less than 70 degrees mine ran fine, above that, the problems kicked in.
I now have a new frontier with the efi motor, its perfection. Days of running in hot conditions and no issues with the optional hood fan, I think its the way to go, and efi means no more choke. Did I mention power? Its got plenty and always had reserve power as well. The Kohler is rated 23hp, but its really like a 27hp motor.
The Kohler doesn't have a back-up rewind starter, that's because its a Kohler, the B&S needs one, because the starters on the Briggs will fail with moderate usage. Every Briggs motor I have ever owned has gone through multiple starters. I've only replaced the starter in a 1999 Max4 with a 20hp Kohler. 7 or so B&S starters compared to 1 Kohler.
I don't worry about not having a back-up pull start, I carry a capacitor jump box with me now, its less than the size of a cigar box but will jump a full sized truck.
Most of the engines that power our machines were not originally designed to be installed in an atv. They were built to power industrial equipment and operate at a high rpm. Water pumps, lawn tractors, generators, wood chippers, and any other self contained gas powered equipment. These engines are generally fired up, given a few minutes to warm up, then set at W.O.T. The charging systems were designed for this as was the cooling system. The higher the rpm, the faster the cooling fan runs. We had a contractor come to the mine i work at to fuse 10" diameter ploy pipe. The fusion unit used a 23hp b&s engine to power the hydraulics. They had 1450 hours on the engine and the only issues they had was the starter. We run our engines at a wide range of r.p.m. Most industrial applications, the engine is sitting in a free air atmosphere, not closed off under a hood.
I would think that a hood scoop and hood fan would help the Briggs engine with its heat issues. As for the starters.... The recoil is there. By the way, if you ever try to rip start one of these at -20 Celsius, you had better have a good grip.
Sorry for the thread drift. As far as air cooled vs. liquid cooled I would not hesitate to invest in an air cooled engine as most of my time in my Argo is in the fall and in low range. I run tracks 100% of the time and like to keep my rpm high. Liquid cooled engines are more versatile as they control their operating temperature thermostatically, run quieter, and you have the option of higher horse power. If you wanted to ad some accessories, the avenger models have an optional alternator kit.
Rather than trying to find out wich one is better than the other, gather information both pro and con on both applications and then decide which is best suited for what you want it to do.
This is only my opinion.
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