I've been given a Stihl weed wacker. I did some research and the engine is a 31cc. I started disassembling it thinking I was going to get a nice engine for free to convert, but got a nasty surprise. The crankshaft apparently goes through both ends of the engine. The front side drives the cable to the weed wacking spindle like normal, but the crankshaft also comes out the back. This is where the flywheel with magnets and ignition module resides.

My question is....

Is this engine even worth messing with? It looks to me that to have any hope of using it on a plane I will be forced to get rid of the flywheel and ignition module and buy electronic ignition so I can have some place to mount the thing. Even then it looks like it would take some kind of weird motor mount to get it done.

Anybody have some experience with this engine?

Thanks, Jim