... but a mower doesn't need to be efficient in terms of specific power output, that's really not what mower engines are about. Much of what you describe above as typical B&S design (or not) is exactly what one wants from a mower engine - simplicity, runs on almost anything inflammable, reliability.
Oh, I couldn't agree more. I am not sure what capcity that 14bhp engibne was - looks like a 500cc single potter. Tuned up, an decent 500CC engine could be delivering better thah 60bhp. More than enough for a small car
- like a cinquecento (about 600cc despite its name).
At an estimated 2000 RPM it isn't going to wear out very fast tho.
It depends how old and where the engine was made. Briggs & Stratton have been OK on unleaded for ages, as have Honda.
AVGAS is still rich in lead, so if you want to poison the daisies while cutting the grass, you can obtain that from your local airfield. You may be able to achoieve the fiorst vertical take off of a lawnmower as well since it's 100 octane.
Well some cars were aware long before that! I asked Rover this question when I got my Marcos (Rover V8) in 1988, and had a letter back saying that all Rover engines had been capable of running on unleaded since some years before that. I still have the letter somewhere and if I can find it I'll post the exact quote here, for reference, but I seem to recall it was some date in the seventies.
Don.
Basically when they scrapped the Old A and B series engines, and went to Honda engines - O series?
I THINK they rejigged teh A and B series engines around then anyway. Or raplaced them.
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk saying something like:
Most Japanese bike engines were designed to use unleaded from the early
70s.
And with Jags I believe Don?
All the best ..
T i m
I used to own a '79 Nissan that took unleaded!
ME
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