When is a LawnBoy truly worn out? I surely don't know.

[Phototone]

So, I have been repairing and refurbishing a lot of LawnBoy mowers, both for my own "collection" (haha) and maybe to sell. Well of course I gave my son a Silver Series 4.5 hp steel deck 10201 rock stock mower to use. It failed on him the other day. It had no compression, piston spun freely. Well, I dis-assembled it, and the piston was scored and so was the cylinder, one ring was stuck, and one crankcase seal had popped out. I cleaned it up, cleaned the piston on my wire wheel on my grinder, made sure the ring-slots were clear, put a new set of rings on it, new crankshaft/crankcase seals, put it all back together and it starts on one pull, and runs strong. Now it has a scored piston and cylinder, but no rough edges. Can these things be killed at all? This has excellent compression. I traded out another exact same mower with my son, and I will give this one a yard test tomorrow, but it sure seems good. Runs smooth, no vibration (I balance blade, always), and the little bit of test cutting I did showed me the engine was strong.

 

[lewb]

Probably the only issue that takes them out is running with no oil in gas or left out side and the internal rust. In the snowmobile world 800 cc two strokes run a 8000 rpm all day long for up to 3000 miles before you need to replace the pistons and rings. However there are several Suzuki 800's 2 strokes with 8000 miles on original pistons. With the low operating Rpm of a lawn mower I would think this takes durability to x4 compared to a high operating rpm 2-stroke. In my opinion the 2-stoke is the perfect power plant for a push/self propel mower other than burning oil. I really believe that having the power on every down stroke on a crank shaft( blade )provides the best cut on a rotary mower. The burning of oil is what has led to the down fall of use in lawn mowers. If you are some joe home owner and using a 2-stoke LB for the first time. After you mow your wife says you smell like oil. Probably not going to be too impressed. Not too mention the environmental nut jobs that get their panties in a bunch when they see smoke coming from the exhaust. There is technology to reduce the mix down to very low levels as well as 2-stroke oil that does not smoke, I believe LB could be powered again with a 2-stroke. However the throw away design of the new 4 stokes push/self propel where oem see return sales every 5 years or so probably not going to make something that last like a 2-stoke LB.