Good choice to replace engine. Generally it's $90hr for service tech to look at, diagnosis, and repair. Hard to do better than $342 for new engine. Looks like a very nice chipper and easy to move.

I came across your channel looking for chippers. So I was curious about the name of yours. I would also like to add. You may consider reinstalling the engine mounting plate and just drilling new holes for your engine. Changing the geometry angle that much could cause your belt tension adjustment issues. Seem like your belts were very loose. Nice chipper

Those 440cc are suppose have a key switch.

This 18hp Duromax engine is only a 439cc engine. I am highly dubious of the 18HP rating. For comparison, the Kohler 429cc is only rated at 14HP. Despite what appears to be an optimistic horsepower rating by Duromax, I just placed an order today for the newly-released Duromax 500cc engine with electric start (model XP20HPE). Duromax claims this 500cc engine has a 20hp rating. It has 22.87 ft-lbs of torque at 2500 rpm. Again, the horsepower rating seems excessively optimistic, but the torque spec seems in line with the 500cc displacement.