Possible to replace engine with different one?

Eddles

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A couple years ago we moved in a house with a large garden - we use a ride-on to take care of the majority of the garden. However there are plenty of narrow awkward bits that the ride-on won't fit through and a wheeled push mower would get bogged down and get stuck, also there's plenty of steep grassy slopes. So we got a second hand Flymo L400 hover mower with a 2-stroke Tecumseh TC300 engine. This mower fit our needs perfect, was fantastic, works great. When we picked it up, it was in a show-room condition, no rust, no scratches, looked very little used for its age. It had an odd show-stopper problem that took us a long time to figure out - it would stop running after 20 minutes. Diagnosis was interrupted by other problems which interfered us from finding out the original problem. We finally figured out the problem to be the crankcase being worn out, when the engine heated up it would expand and the engine would lose compression and stop. The engine was junk.

As we lost trust in second hand mowers as we spent £200 on this one in parts, we decided to get a brand new one. So we got the Husqvarna GX560 with the 4-stroke Honda GCV160 engine. Works great and we are confident in its reliability, but Jesus Christ, this mower is heavy and doesn't hover very well due to the weight. When the inlet vents get slightly blocked it stops hovering and so we are constantly clearing the inlet vents The old L400 is so much better, it's insane the difference is. However it's no longer possible to buy a brand new 2-stroke hover mower in this country any more due to emissions regulations. It is still possible to buy other 2-stroke equipment, however.

So we want to go back to using the L400 as it was fantastic when it worked. As far as I'm aware, Tecumseh is however no more. So my question is that is it at all possible to replace the TC300 engine with a brand new 2-stroke engine? Here is the user manual and the parts diagram.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 

bertsmobile1

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Some one has been telling you porkies.
That engine is rebuildable.
It had a bush & oil seal on the top and a ball bearig & oil seal on the bottom of the crank.
It is these two seals that hold in the primary compession, both are available both are replacable.
To get some one to do the job will set you back in the order of £ 100 as there is a fair bit of time involved.
OTOH it is a dead simple job to do.
Find a small repair shop that actually make their living from doing repairs & selling used mowers nd tlk to an honest dealer.
Any franchise chain with a big showroom & tiny workshop will always try to sell you a new mower where large amounts of easy profit are to be had.

The Tecumseh 2 cycle manual is available on line free and so is the parts books if you want to tackle the job itself.
Only diffult home mechanic part is replacing the top bush but any engineering, motorcycle , mower repairer can do that for a few £
 

bertsmobile1

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:welcome:

You will need to confirm this with your exact model number but it seems the crankcase is still available with the top bush & seal fitted

partstree.com/parts/tecumseh/engines-vertical-2-cycle-engine/tc300-3111-tecumseh-2-cycle-vertical-engine/engine-parts-list/

$ 42 for part # 13 should be abput £ 35 posted to the UK or £ 50 sourced locally.
 

Eddles

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Ugh, I seem to have made a stupid mistake! When I said crankcase, I meant cylinder block... To be more precise, they said that the cylinder block expands, so apparently the piston loses pressure through the gap between the cylinder and the piston ring when the block expands, so we'd need a new cylinder block and possibly ring(s). Not sure if it's still available to purchase. I've got the service manual already. Looking at the link bertsmobile1 provided, the cylinder block is part number 1 in the diagram and isn't available for purchase.

The place we use is't franchise chain, it was a small local independent repair shop, they gave the mower back in parts, said that the engine was a write off and didn't charge us for the inspection or strip-down. They didn't attempt to sell us a new mower as they don't sell new mowers, so we brought it elsewhere.

Apologies again for the rookie mistake and thanks for responses so far!
 

bertsmobile1

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Looks like the cylinder is NLA even from mower breakers.

Again, it can be repaired however it will be a bit more expensive.
Your old cylinder can be relined to fit a new piston however the price will vary depending upon what type of cylinder liner it has.
We used to reline TZ Yamaha cylinders wheb they were the bees knees for racing and hat involved flame spraying chrome into the bore then wet grinding back to size.
You can also g to a specialist ring company like Total Seal and get some custom rings that are a slightly bigger outside diameter ( larger radial depth )

Any 2 stroke engine will physically fit , it will just be a matter of redrilling some of the mounting holes.
However finding an all alloy engine light enough could be a problem.

I did ask for the full engine number which is needed in order to chase up possible relacements which you have not provided so I can be of no further assistance.
 

Eddles

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I did ask for the full engine number which is needed in order to chase up possible relacements which you have not provided so I can be of no further assistance.

Sorry about this! Where do I get the full engine number from? Thanks!
 

Eddles

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I did ask for the full engine number which is needed in order to chase up possible relacements which you have not provided so I can be of no further assistance.

Hi the full engine number is TC300 3156F (B) 8271G hope this helps?

Many thanks again!
 
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