Is it possible to tune a petrol lawn mower?
Discussion
and if it is, by how much?
one of my lifetime ambitions (up there with hitting 200mph in a car I own and getting intimate with kelly brook) is to buy a briggs & stratton 2.5hp or some such lawn mower and modify it so it becomes a 3.2hp
I just think of the bragging rights in the pub "I can now mow 30ft in just 20 seconds, that's 5 whole seconds better than standard!"
how awesome would that be!
and how cool would it be to be mowing alongside a mate knowing that his is standard and yours although it says "2.5" on the crankcase in actual fact hides hidden power!
the icing on the cake would be when you both start them up, and over the noise of his motor is the lumpy idle of the high lift cam and a rorty carb on yours...and the realisation sinks in to him that you went for the cheaper shelves in ikea last month and spent the leftover dosh more wisely! he knows you are the better man!
one of my lifetime ambitions (up there with hitting 200mph in a car I own and getting intimate with kelly brook) is to buy a briggs & stratton 2.5hp or some such lawn mower and modify it so it becomes a 3.2hp
I just think of the bragging rights in the pub "I can now mow 30ft in just 20 seconds, that's 5 whole seconds better than standard!"
how awesome would that be!
and how cool would it be to be mowing alongside a mate knowing that his is standard and yours although it says "2.5" on the crankcase in actual fact hides hidden power!
the icing on the cake would be when you both start them up, and over the noise of his motor is the lumpy idle of the high lift cam and a rorty carb on yours...and the realisation sinks in to him that you went for the cheaper shelves in ikea last month and spent the leftover dosh more wisely! he knows you are the better man!
A favourite trick of mine as a teenager... Boy did my dads mower fly 
dilbert said:
Fabulous.
I'm thinking about a tuned exhaust for my Tecumseh powered, 2 stroke, Flymo!
it's the same as the logic I'll be applying shortly when I buy a brand new boggo harley speedster 883 (40hp at the rear wheel) and modify it to 1540 or some such to end up with 105hp at the rear wheel! obviously i'm still going to keep the 883 sticker on the crankcase
but I would imagine on a standing start i'll be able to smoke anything up to a gixxer 750 up to 90mph in a standing start! 
edit: for the benefit of the biker boys I am aware it still won't corner!
>> Edited by minimax on Tuesday 5th April 21:00
LRdriver II said:
www.briggsracing.com/home.html
can it be true? that site is precisely what Iwas looking for!
minimax said:
<a href="http://www.briggsracing.com/home.html">www.briggsracing.com/home.html</a>
can it be true? that site is precisely what Iwas looking for!
Have you seen the redneck chainsaw video??
I'll see if I can find a link to it...
it's a V8
slinky
My old John Deerre ride-on has a Briggs & Stratton 8hp & never revved very high so I 'tinkered' with the springs on the throttle/governor linkage (throttle works backwards - ie the springs open the throttle and cable shuts it) to make it rev better.
Anyway being rear-engined with a short wheel base and a high-ratio gearbox gearbox it will 'wheelie' from a standing start and with a bit of balancing can be quite spectacular but the top speed's not up to much and neither's the grass-cutting when on 2 wheels!
Mind you I did have to rebuild it a couple of years back and it has started smoking a 'bit' recently....
maybe it's an engine not designed for high performance (got no bearings in the engine). 
Anyway being rear-engined with a short wheel base and a high-ratio gearbox gearbox it will 'wheelie' from a standing start and with a bit of balancing can be quite spectacular but the top speed's not up to much and neither's the grass-cutting when on 2 wheels!
Mind you I did have to rebuild it a couple of years back and it has started smoking a 'bit' recently....
maybe it's an engine not designed for high performance (got no bearings in the engine). Hilts said:
Tune them ? you can really make these babies fly...
Left Clicky
farkin hell imagine if that landed on a crowd!
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