tacx

My Feedback: (1)

Hi All,

I would like to convert a weed wacker engine this winter, but I have only had glow engines up till now. What are the best ones to look for when searching garage sales etc. I once took apart a "weed eater" brand that I had used for alot of years, just to see how difficult a conversion would be. I found that the plastic that made up the trimmers outer body was also part of the engine. I thought the engine would come out all in one piece, but that was not the case. So, my question is. Is there particular brands of these small tools (weed wackers, chain saws, blowers, etc.) that you guys look for that make the easiest conversions.

Sorry, If this has been asked before. I did a quick search and didn't find anything.

Tom

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

In the weedwhackers and small blowers, the Echo, Stihl, Ryobi, and Homelite all make good conversions. A lot of the chainsaws are labor intensive as the engine is cast as part of the whole saw. Some of the Echo, Homelite, and Poulan saws have the engine that is easily removed from the rest of the saw.

When possible, you can look up a parts diagram of the machine in question to see how it is put together. This works well for all but the Stihl engines, as Stihl only publishes it's mechanical tech info for licensed dealers, though the Stihl engines themselves are excellent.

The small "Weedeater" and Poulan brand weed whackers don't make particularly good conversions. They are light, but low on power unless extensively modified.

AV8TOR

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

I agree.

and on the old weedeater brand engines with the rear exhaust and intake are more trouble than it's worth, they're mostly 21 or 22cc and are heavy and awkward, but there aren't a whole lot of them around anymore...

I would look for Echo as they are somewhat easy to find but homelite's and ryobi's are a lot easier to find. Before the economy crashed you could find them on craigslist for free all the time but now that everyone's broke they go for like $15 for a non running engine (usually bad fuel lines or a $5 carb rebuild away from running). The old green 4 bolt backplate weedeater featherlite trimmers are easy to convert, get some side cut pliers and go to town on the back plate getting rid of the extra material and get a hack saw and trim up the fan housing, they end up looking like this:


but I agree with av8tor, they are light but the stock port timing is very low, unless you feel up to some experimentation, porting an engine probably isn't the best idea for your first engine... apparently the new $60 2 bolt backplate weedeater brand units from Walmart are a little better than the older ones, but I like the looks of the old ones better... 4 bolt backplates make for easier stud mounts.

Bumpinyota

The newer ryobi's are actually homelites and the newest versions also have 4 transfer ports instead of the usual 2. Stihl's and husqvarnas also are full crank engines afaik. Also chainsaw engines appear to not only come in larger displacements, but be built for higher rpm operation as well as having higher compression.

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

Some of the new Ryobis are Homelites, and some are very similar to the old Ryobi with rear intake and rear exhaust, but much more difficult to convert because they are made as one whole unit instead of with the fan housing bolted on.

AV8TOR

Bumpinyota

Oh yes I forgot about that!  (I was posting earlier on my blackberry...lol)  Even with my newer ryobi that is a homelite, the fan housing is one contigious piece with the crank case.  Nothing a die grinder with a cutoff wheel won't make short work of however...

Scota4570

Best small engine so far was a Stihl 23cc, the difficulty factor was higher. I have a lathe and mill so this kind of thing is fun to me. The stihls are pretty good once you get medeval about removing metal. Mine is in a 60 4-star. It will hover.

Best big engine is was an Echo SB-1080, like from a CS-510 chainsaw. I just bought the short block new. You can buy all ready made parts to convert it. This IS the BME 50.

Easiest was the Ryobi 31cc. Again you can buy everything you need.

Lots of folks like the Homies, I have done one, no feelings either way.

Did a weedwacker featherlite 25? cc. After porting and such it ran OK.

For any of the smaller engines, you will want to buy a real carb. There are several guys on Flea bay that sell them for around $10 NOS.

When you find some cantidates you can get lots of input by asking here on how to proceed.