Has anyone converted one of these engines before? Is it a decent engine? A buddy of mine gave me his old wacker and it doesnt run right now, but Ill get my hands in it here after the weekend and see what I can do with it.

Steve

The Stihl is a good power engine, I have a 23 & 26cc, both with EI to get the weight down. They are strong engines.

I think the Stihl fs36 and fs44 have more in common with the 31cc Ryobi engine. rear intake, rear exhaust, I think its the same engine.?[sm=confused.gif]

Well I havent even touched the engine yet.. Hmm, rear exhaust too?? Uh oh. I dont think I can use it. Ill have to take a look at it though, maybe I can make an exhaust pipe for it that mounts to the rear.

Steve

I just opened up the engine today. It looks like it is going to be a useable engine, in terms of the carb and exhaust on the back. Ill just need to make a mount for it. I tried to start the engine, just to see what its condition is. I am not sure what kind of problems my buddy was having with it (he said it didnt work, thats why he gave it to me hehehe). I just dont think he knows this kind of equiptment that well, because, well.. I gave it a few pulls and played with a few things and got it running! The gas that was in it was old though, so I put some new gas in it and it seems like it runs fine. The RPM's dont seem like they are getting up very high, but Ill play with it some tomorrow and see whats up. It might just be how that wacker is set up with the clutch and all.

Question, and probably a stupid one at that: Is there a way to use the stock pull start on an airplane? It sure would make for an easy to start airplane at the field! Now, granted, it will add weight.. but just how much weight? I havent been able to take the shroud off enough to be able to see how much metal is around the engine. I am thinking that (if it is like the Homelite engine I converted before) that there is going to be quite a bit of metal to trim off (the metal that the shroud bolts to). Since the pull-start is held on by the shroud, I am not sure how it would work if I trimmed the metal off the engine. Have any of you converted this engine and know how its done?

The other item of concern is the clutch on the engine. It would be cool to have an engine be able to idle and not have the prop spin.. but thats a little rediculus. So Ill take that off. Heres the issue with it: How to I get the clutch off? The clutch bell has the 1/4" square adapter for the wacker shaft built on to it, as in the bell and the adapter are one piece. It wont screw off. I tried to yank the bell off, but it is on there pretty good. How do I go about getting this off? Is there a screw down inside the square adapter that I dont know about or something? It seems like that would be too small of a screw to hold it together, if thats what is holding it.

Steve

If the engine is built like a Ryobi with pull on the front end I could not find a way to use the pull start. You want the pull start on the opposite end from the prop. I purchased McCulloch engines with pull start on the rear in order to use the pull start. Some Stihl engines appear to be candidates for using the pull start.

Bill

See if there is a torqz screw the square hole. Capt,n

Well there is a torx screw down in the hole. The only problem with that right now is none of my torx bits will fit down there! I had to buy a torx set the other day, but what I bought is the kind that has all the interchangeable bits, and they are too wide to fit in the hole..... So now I need to go out and get a set of torx drivers or T-handles (probably T-handles, get more torq).

I think I am well on my way on this conversion. I wish I had two of these engines now!! Since this one has a clutch it is kinda hard for me to pull it off because I can see myself using it for a boat instead. I am going to see if I can get the clutch on a different engine here. My neighbor gave me an old craftsmen 18cc weed wacker that truly didn't run. I played with it for about 3 hours yesterday and I got it to run like a champ, so if there is a way I can put the clutch on that engine then Ill do it. That way I can have a boat and an airplane

Steve

Well I got the screw out of the clutch bell and I got the clutch bell off. This brings up a new problem though.. How do I get the clutch off of the shaft???? I tried using a strap wrench on the clutch shoes and a large pair of vice grips on the shaft. The strap wrench just slipped around the shoes. Any other ideas??

One issue I see in using this engine now that I have the clutch bell off is that the shaft doesnt look like it will be very easy to get to accept a prop. The shaft is threaded where the clutch screws on, but then there is about an inch sticking out of that which is what the clutch bell bolts to. Unless the part of the shaft I am looking at is a separate clutch adapter??

Steve

If the part of what you say is smooth and same dia all the way to end, and has a keyslot. You are in luck. If you can take a photo of it. All of us together will come up with a answer! Capt,n