Thanks again AV8TOR!

As usual you were 100% spot on! I went to friends house last night to try his new Weedeater Xtreme 25cc trimmer. Damn my 16cc echo has more power! So when I came home I ordered a factory reconditioned Homlite blower from www.homelite.com. It cost $49.99 plus $10 delivery. I was going to go down the route of asking the repair shops to find me a cheapy but time is short and I prefer a brand new one as I know the engine is good! I will try and locate scrap echos for future projects in the meantime. All these new engines in the shops seem to be low compression for easy starting and set up for California use so they are strangled to death for low emissions and noise. I assume then that only the old engines are good for this sort of conversion unless you like spending hours porting and modifying. Unfortunately I work long hours and I am also trying to set up business repairing clocks so time is not always available for me. Thanks Ralph for your advice I will look for some scrap echos for future projects.

Rich