Weedeater motors?
 

Hi,

I'm curious about the Homelite, & Ryobi conversions that people are doing. I've seen tutorials & kits on how to convert these to aircraft use... but I have failed to find out wehre exactly one gets these motors.

Would I just drive over to the local wal-mart and buy one of those cheap $60.00 green weed wackers or maybe a $99.00 chainsaw and pull the motor out of these?

Where do you get your motors, exactly? Brand, model etc? Does that matter?

Weedeater motors?
 

All your assumptions are right but there are others like Harbor Frieght and Cummins over the net. There's probably one in the back corner of your best friends garage?

In the weedies, stick with the Homelite or one of the variations of the Ryobi (IDC) engine. The Ryobi would probably be the easiest for the first time converter guy.

There's some people on here that will sell you any of these already converted for slightly more than what it would cost you to do it yourself. If you bought one already done, you could copy that for your next one??

In the chainsaws, the 33's have been the ones you could get for $80 refurbished or $109 new. www.lawnstation.com has Poulan 46's refurbished for $150. Cummins has the Homelite 45 refurbished for $160.

Good luck,

Jim

Weedeater motors?
 

Thanks, that gets me going in the right direction :)

How do you tell if you are getting a Ryobi or Homelite motor? The only thing that I have been able to tell from the websites is the amount of cc's the motor has. Am I missing something?

Also... does the brand of lawn equipment matter, or are the actual motors generaly the same in all brands?

Keith

Weedeater motors?
 

I suppose that's a good question. The homelights generally say homelight on them but you might come accross some that are green anstead of red and they will say John Deere but usually the green paint cost more. The Homelite/John Deere weed whacker are always 25's anymore. About the only way to get a new 30 is to buy a new short block assembly from a dealer.

There are both Homlite and John Deere chain saws new at Home Depot but the green ones cost more. I think green paint must be more expensive?

When you get into old John Deers, they were Kioritz (echo) which is a good brand of saw.

Lowe's has the Poulans but they mostly have the pro models which cost more because of the high cost of yellow paint.

Don't be tempted to buy a little green Poulan weed eater brand weed whacker. They are good weed whackers but make poor model airplane motors. They just don't make enough power. They are usually 21 cc but sometimes 24.

The Ryobi's anymore are called names like MTD and Yardman.. You want to look for a 31cc model. There were old ryobi's with names like Ryan and even Lawnboy.

If you find something that your interested in, get all the info you can on it and get back on here with your questions and your data and surely someone has already been there and done that and will help you.

http://www.cumminstools.com/browse.cfm/4,495.html

Good luck,

Jim

Weedies
 

Try your local lawncare repair place. Often they have weedies that have problems that make them uselss for grass triming but the engine is still sound. $5-$15. Garagfe sales are good too.

Weedeater motors?
 

Hey TK...Does the boss know you're out playing around on the computer ????

Weedeater motors?
 

Busted!

Weedeater motors?
 

Are the blower motors different? It seems to me that they spend a lot of time at high speed, and maybe they would be better for our planes?

Weedeater motors?
 

w8ye,

Thank you very much! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer everything & letting me know where and what to look for :)

Weedeater motors?
 

Blower motors often have a smaller carb on them. Sometimes they are the same as a weed whacker.

Work
 

I'm not playing I'M WORKING when I'm on RCU

WeedWackers
 

I have converted Two weedy's. One is the ryobi 31. I can turn a APC 18x8 at 7200rpm's and show about 12.6lb's. of static thrust.
I have E-mailed Ryobi about the string trimmer vs blowers and was told that they are the same engine. I have also done a 18cc weedeater. Poor results!!!! A zinger 16x6 at 6800rpm's. 7lb's. of static thrust.

Weedeater motors?
 

This guys website was very helpful during the decition process for me. Converting a weedie is a great way to get a large motor for cheap. http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...071/ryobi2.htm

Weedeater motors?
 

Sukhoi_One, those numbers on the Ryobi 31 look very good. About how much do you think it weighs? Also, do you know of any conversion that would give around 25lbs of thrust?
Thanks.

Weedies
 

aftcg:
The Ryobi that I converted weighs 4lbs. with prop,muffler and engine mount. The ryobi 31cc is very easy to convert. If you have access to a lathe. If not there are several suppliers for the parts you need. I made my own prop adapter,engine mount and muffler. The ryobi is a long narrow engine, the carb and muffler are mounted on the rear, so you need a little room up front. As for power they can not compare to a glow engine, but the price is right and the fuel is cheap!!!! As for an engine with 25lbs of thrust, Idon't think any weedy will come close, but maybe some of the chainsaw engines might???

Weed wip , blower & chainsaw engines may last better that the cheap china made engines. Just saying !

Ya think. I've seen a few wear out really quick because they are designed for side thrust instead of forward thrust from a prop.

Chinese engines may be cheap but they are not cheap made. I have three and they are a lot more powerful than the Ryobi I have.

BTW I have the Ryobi and a couple other blower motors for sale cheap. The Ryobi and one of the blower motors has been converted

There's all kind of information in the Engine Conversion forum. Go there and i am sure you can find an answer for whatever you need to know.

I have quite a fleet of flying airplanes, some of them 12 years old and they all have weedeater, leaf blower, or chain saw engines on them. Some of them tach 9400 rpms on the ground, more in the air. Haven't been able to wear one out yet.......

Converted and maintained properly, they work great and I would take one over a Chinese engine any day.

AV8TOR

I go around on garbage day and look for people discarding their trimmers, weedeaters, leaf blowers and chainsaws. So I get them for free. The vast majority of the engines have the starter broken, broken drive unit, etc. Since I don't need those parts and they get removed anyway, it is great. Converting the engines to use a electric battery powered ignition module lets you remove the heavy flywheel and magneto too.