spyder0069

Just picked up a Weedeater brand Featherlite 23cc Leaf Blower from Wal-M*rt. They had them clearanced out for $30 (originally $70). I figured I'd break it in as a leaf blower (definately can put it to use right now) and maybe convert it over the winter. Don't see any information on this engine yet. Anyone converted one of these?

Craig F

I would check with Pete at Wackerengines . He makes really nice stuff and his prices are good.

Craig

Mighty Mouse-RCU

My Feedback: (145)

I thought about these as well, but I think you'll need a new carb. Doesnt it have a 3 position carb not varible?

spyder0069

Yep. This is my first leaf blower and I just got it out of the box and fired it up. Has a three position carb. I haven't opened it up yet but does anyone know if you can modify the carb for full control? Otherwise it may stay a leaf blower because investing in a new carb kinda defeats the $30 steal.

lee2wings

My Feedback: (2)

Our club has bought about 10 of these little jewels in the past summer, I have converted two. You will not need a new carb, just take the little clicker thing out of throttle arm, very easy conversion. But don't expect a lot of power, turns a 16xx8 at about 7400 rpm with nothing added except an intake extension. You will have to use a dremen cut off wheel to cut slots in the needles so that you can tweak it out, or make a little tool to fit over them. Oh, and we opend the exhaust a little, but still use the stock box, very, very quiet engine. But not as much power as a .60 Fox, or some other engine of less quality, like an OS, or Super Tiger.

One of our members has posted some about his experience with one an Ultimate, but I think it is really not enough power.

But if you want a cheap gas engine, to get your feet wet, go for it.

The Homelite 32 cc conversion is the strongest I have had, It took my Sukhoi at about 16lbs, unlimited vertical, until the cheap controls horns snapped in the cold, and well... that's the end of that story.

Blowing leaves is an excellant way to break it in anyway.

spyder0069

Great. Thanks for the tip. I was really amazed how quiet this engine is. It must be more powerful than a .60 if it can swing a 16x8. Even a Fox .75 has a max prop size of 14x5 according to tower. Granted this might be at a higher rpm. Either way if it goes on a plane I was thinking a 120 size high wing. Just a putt putt plane. Nothing thrilling. How hard is it to remove the clicker? Do I have to disassemble the carb to do it? I know the plastic piece you are talking about and figured there was a way to fix that but don't recall seeing a easy way that it came off.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

Ok, so my Ultimate was a tad underpowered with the leafblower 25cc (they are 25cc by the way). And, yes, your 32cc did have unlimited vertical, but very very very limited down vertical Ok, sorry to tease you (by the way, if anyone is interested I have pictures of the recovery of the Sukoi, lol. The conversion of the WeedEater (poulan makes these by the way) is so simple even I can do it. Took a couple of hours max. (helps to have all the conversion parts handy) You will need a prop spacer, prop nut, some type of back plate to bolt onto the engine for mounting ( I used a piece of 1/2 inch 9 ply baltic birch plywood). Pull the red throttle arm off and remove the black plastic clicker, that will free up the throttle for full swing. Grind down the red throttle are until you can drill it for a servo attatchment (or buy a bolt on arm for the throttle shaft tossing the red arm away). You will also want to grind off all the extra casing from the motor. Dont take to much off the mag attatchment arm. I cracked mine on an inverted landing.......ok, someone told me to do an inverted wormburner..........I did.........sorta. If you have more detailed questions just drop me a line or Lee2wings. He has converted more of them than I, as a matter of fact he has burned up more of them than I......well, I did help burn up that one. But mine is still running great If you want, I can take some pictures of mine for you, or better yet, I will take some pictures of Lee2wings's (can you put an apostrophy behind a plural?) He has several..........dozen........conversion sitting around :P
My 25cc now graces the nose of a Balsa USA Eindecker 80", where it flys the plane so scale ( euphemism for slow) that you want to duck out of the way of the bullets when Boelcke makes a low pass. (Boelcke, check your history books)

spyder0069

Thanks for your input. Oh and it looks like I'll have to take my blower back and see if I can get the extra two cc's. (I know.. my girlfriend hates it when I try to prove people wrong too) Ha ha ha

spyder0069

Here are pics of the carb. Its a Zama and on the back its labeled W12B 46A if that makes a difference.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

Look on the little sticker at the back of the blower. Mine said 25cc. They where billed on the box as 18cc. You never know what poulan will put out there to clear the shelves.

spyder0069

That is a good looking Eindecker. I just started playing with a "professionally" converted Ryobi 31cc I bought. I got it to pop once by hand but it wouldn't run until I used a electric starter which after trying my Hobbico 180 torque master I had to switch to my 5A drill with a attachment I made to use the starting cone. The 180 torque master starts my 23cc ST 2 stroke glow fine (actually that is usually just a back flip to get started) but on the ryobi it gets one revolution and then never makes it past rev 2. I know I have read that with these conversions sometimes they have to be spun fast to make spark. Did you find that to be true of your Poulan engines? It also seems like the ryobi doesn't prime well by just covering the exhaust. Even if you use uncap the one outlet and use the bubble pump to prime and get fuel to the carb it doesn't seem to pump into the engine without it spinning with the starter. So it looks like I'll be in the market for a gear reduced starter.

spyder0069

Doh. My girfriend will never let me live this one down. I stand corrected. Mine does have a sticker on the plastic blower assembly that says 25cc! AND I see what you are talking about. Walm*rt's discount label on the box actually says 18cc.

Yes, I'll take that 23cc blower and supersize it!

So there's definately hope for this engine!

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

I have only dealt with the 25cc (yes, 25cc :P) Poulan WeedEater leafblower motor. My first conversion to. Lee2Wings has much more experience than do I. He helped me convert mine. I do need to spin it for a while before it will fire. I use a Kavan starter. Others use Hobbico starts just fine though. I have been told that the chainsaw conversions start with one flip, but they have much much higher compression. The leafblower has very little compression to start. I have been told (and I have noticed from use) that the compression gets better and better as it is run in, and more power. This seems to be true. The Zama carb seems to be working fine for me, very hard to adjust with the casing around the needles. A buddy made a special tool for me to adjust mine. Lee2Wings slotted his with a dremel and that worked fine also.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

lol, yeah. There is hope for that engine. I love mine, flew the poop out of it this summer. I had it in a CarlGoldber Ultimate all summer and had a blast. Way underpowered but flew it fine. It is a perfect motor for any 1/4 Balsa USA bipe or high wing trainer type plane. Plenty of power for slow flying.

spyder0069

What do you do with the choke lever that goes into the bottom of the carb?

I suppose with the needles you just screw the needles in counting the turns to get your factory setting. Then back them all the way out and slot them with the dremel. Seems simple enough.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

You could just slot them now, that way you always know where they are set to factory. I dont know how you would turn them without a special tool or slotting them. We tried. You can leave it in and use it to choke the engine, one guy even hooked it up to a servo to do this. Or remove it. Pull out the flat metal choke plate, slide the blue arm out. THEN, and this is very important, THEN make sure you remove the spring and ballbearing that is in the choke arm slot. Dont miss this little item. It was the cause of a sudden and irreversable engine stopage. Sorry again mike.

CigarSlicer

My Feedback: (2)

Put a 23 CC on an old Telemaster and just flew the dog crap out of it for a test bed. They are really good engines in the correct planes. I tweeked the settings ONCE and have not touched them again. Have another on a " Ugly Stick" scratch built at about 75 inches and it goes like stink!

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

Not sure I would want my plane to "Go like stink" But I think I understand [8D] Glad to hear from others about these great motors.

CigarSlicer

My Feedback: (2)

The trick is to find the plane to fit the engine. I wrap a nylon pull cord BEHIND the spinner and use it for starting. Works like a charm. I carry a gallon of fuel an extra prop or two and a field charger to go fly. No more boxes full of life support for a glow engine and no more $15.00 a gallon fuel. Gas is the only way to go. I have a friend that converts the engines and does a great job if anybody wants a few of them.

buck1856

My Feedback: (49)

heres my 25cc poulan, at least thats what it said on the case. its from the wacker that converts with a bunch of attachments.im at about 1500 above sea level.74oo with a 16x6 mas wood.first put it on my sons D-V111,14lbs dry.flew it but way underpowered.i now put a 30cc homelite.flys at half throttle.

aero nut

Have any of you guys ever tryed to increase the size on the carb venturi and opening the exaust, I did and I got 8300 rpm's on a 15x6 master airscrew prop flying it on a giantscale's edge 540 flys great, so try these changes and let me know if you can get the same improvement in power as I did. I enlarged the ventury to .400 inch diameter and drill a 3/8 hole through the exaust .

oslim

FYI Ebay Sale Search "25cc Weedeater Engine Replacement". Price $25 + $10 shipping. Seller "theplacenashvill". 200 new engines to sell.

oslim

To Cigarslicer: Re: "Wrapping a nylon cord behind the spinner to start engine:" Did you attach a pulley or sheave to hold the cord before pulling. How many turns of cord? I had thought of doing this but was afraid of the cord getting caught the prop.

mikenlapaz

spyder0069
1) Try covering the carb instead of exhaust. I believe you want to create a suction/vacuum on the carb (choke)
2) The primer bulb, which I which I use on 5 different engines, is designed to fill a carb full of gas, just to save a bunch of cranking to draw fuel from tank. I like the ability to see the air escaping in that return line to tank. That same line with a T fitting becomes the tank fill.
3) You may save some $$$ by trying a 2nd 12VDC battery hooked up to give you 24VDC to supply your present starter. Borrow a friends battery and give it a trial run. Yep, 24vdc generates a bunch more heat when it is running but how long does it take to spin an engine? 5 seconds +-.

spyder0069

Tried my conversion out yesterday. I made a prop hub out of a deep well socket. It worked but added some weight so I got a aluminum one coming from wackerengines. I slotted the needles and that worked great. Made the mount out of ply and its attached with the four back plate screws (which I had to replace with longer ones). For the throttle I used a nose wheel arm from a trike gear setup. Just drilled out the bushing to the correct size. Worked great. Mine has the 5/16 shaft so I was able to use the same prop nuts that fit four stroke glow engines. This was mounted on my GP 60 size Tigermoth and put in a 14oz tank. Weight on the box shows the TM coming out at 10.3 lbs. With the 25cc engine it came in at 11lbs even. So not too bad. I did have to cut a slot in the tail and mount my receiver battery way back to balance.

Got to the field and no one was there since it rained part of the day. I prefer to beta test planes with no one around anyway (for safety and humility). Fired up the engine and could get it to idle down. Turns out I had the linkage set wrong. After pulling the clicker the butterfly will turn 180 degrees. Apparently it really only functions properly one way. So a quick reverving of the channel and a turn of the phillips fixed that. Tried to tune it a little. Seemed like when I leaned it out I was only getting about 6400 rpm on the master airscrew 16x8. That was when the engine went from the fourstoking sound to a smooth two stroke. I didn't get a chance to really lean it out plus this was the 3rd tank of gas that the engine had run so it may improve. Spin up time was pretty slow though. It was very happy with a low idle. I took off.... slowly. The tigermoth isn't a fast plane by any means but this combo was less powerful than my .91 glow fourstroke swinging a 14x6. It was acceptable though. The 10 mph winds meant I was often hovering if the throttle was 3/4 or less. Came in for a nice soft landing. I don't think this could pull it through a loop without a good dive.

So. Here is my questions.

What ratio fuel are you running? I ran the first two 24oz tanks on 32:1 and for the flight I tried 40:1. I had opened up the stock exhaust to 1/2 hole but did not drill through the internal baffle. Not sure if that is a big cause of the lack of power. Also I don't have a velocity stack. Not sure how that affects it. I have read about replacing the carb to get the extra power. Wackerengines has them for $20. Just not sure if the engine will gain a big performance difference. I am going to buy one of their mufflers because my plane after the flight was spotted with dark exhaust residue. I am guessing I must be still running rich because I though the point of going to gas was to have less cleanup too. The residue was harder to clean than glow. I have a couple of 15x6 props. Do you think these are a better match or should I continue trying to get the 16x8 to work? Oh, and here is a big one. I have a escort wagon. How do you keep the smell of gas from getting all over the car?