Last week I was given an animal that I have not seen before. I was labeled a Craftsman 32cc weedeater. Looked just like a Ryobi. I took it apart yesterday and this is what I found.

I was definitely a Ryobi. Had the same back plate and looked just like a long shaft ryobi with the cast on mounting on the crank case. However, things started to look different when I took the muffler off. The head did not have the cast bridge in the middle of the exhaust port. I could also see that the piston had two very thin rings on it. When I pulled the head off, I found that the crank looked just like a normal Ryobi crank with the riveted together counterweights. Also, the connecting rod was of the riveted together variety. However, the head had two transfer runners per side. The crankcase had a wider mouth to the transfer ports. The piston had two very thin pinned rings and the pins looked to be recessed rather than stick out all the way to the edge like on one of the single ring Ryobis. The piston also had some machined out flat spots on the side facing the transfer ports. Looks like they may be boost ports. And finally, the head had no exhaust slits in it. This engine seemed to have more compression than any I had looked at in the past as well. The difference was very noticable.

This looks like it might be a more hopped up engine than the garden variety Ryobi. Has anyone else seen one of these?


Jim