New LawnBoy mowers with 2 cycle engines.

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Maybe I'm more used to hearing the Suzuki 2-stoke powered Toro pushmowers, but all they sounded like to me is a mad swarm of bees. Max governed RPM on them is quite low. Brrrrrr... crackle.. pop....

Joel
 
Originally Posted By: Nayov
How are the crank and rod bearings lubed in a 2 cycle?


I can't talk about Lawn Boy, as I've never had one apart. But a lot of them have roller bearings.
 
Originally Posted By: Nayov
How are the crank and rod bearings lubed in a 2 cycle?


Some of the intake air/fuel charge blows through the crankcase. The bearings are lubed by the mist.

Joel
 
Originally Posted By: rudolphna
I actually saw some new lawnboy mowers in home depot yesterday. They had Briggs & Stratton 6xx series engines on them.


That's a 4 cycle engine, which is what all LawnBoys come with now.
 
I know we're not discussing the 4-stroke LB's, but anyway....I love the looks of the LB push mowers that The Home Depot is now selling. If I had $400+ to blow on a new push mower, one of those shiny green LB's would be on my short list. Either that or a Honda.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
Originally Posted By: Nayov
How are the crank and rod bearings lubed in a 2 cycle?


Some of the intake air/fuel charge blows through the crankcase. The bearings are lubed by the mist.

Joel

And they work quite well!!!
 
I spoke to a neighbor of mine that is a Senior Engine Exec at Ford...helped.designed the eco-boost Lincoln Engine (copy of the BMW and Audi engines they have had for a while..twin turbos on a V-6..) and who has a 26 year Old Lawnboy..always used "Lawnboy" 2-cycle oil....runs like new

He said that if Toro (who now owns LawnBoy) cared to develop a "green" 2-cycle engine it could be done pretty easilly...and there is lots of demand for them!

He sees a synthetic oil being used...lean burn technology with replacing carb with injection...direct injection of oil and design engine with metalurgy (silicon aluminum) so a 200:1 would work...specially designed catalytic converter to burn all carbon off...easy to build and do....put the engine on a magnesium deck and could compete with a top of the line Honda and outlast it too.

But in America ...we always take the easy way out...it's called discontinuation...instead of evolution. That's why educated people buy froeign a lot of times!
 
Originally Posted By: dwendt44
I ran my old Lawn-Boy on 40:1 conventional oil. Little or no smoke. Never fouled a plug the whole time I had it.
Like 14 years.


As it should be. 2-cycles seem to have a reputation for being smelly and smoky, but in my experience the cause is usually user error. Too much oil in the gas. Assuming the engine/carb aren't worn out or out of tune, a proper oi/gas mix should make VERY little smoke if any at all, certainly nothing noticeable.

And for something like a smaller mower or trimmer, a 2-cycle is so much easier to work with for all the reasons mentioned above, its a real shame these things are going extinct. The eco-weenies strike again.
 
All that high tech stuff just for a lawn mower engine?
It would cost a lot to do and to buy.
The public isn't eager to buy a $500 or $600 mower now, let alone a $1000 one.
 
Like Pete says, modern 2-stroke technology is there. It's been there a LONG time. I recall an experimental super clean burn and fuel efficient 4cyl 2-stroke Ford was 'developing' for small FWD cars 20yrs ago when I was in college. They had one scooting around in an Escort. Thing is- for a mower, one good whack on a stump or rock and that high tech super expensive push mower is as much a goner as a $99 Walmart special would be. I think the other issue with a plain'ol 2-stroke is not so much the oil smoke, no matter how lean you make the mix, you STILL spew a bunch of hydrocarbons out the exhaust in unburnt gasoline. Lots of raw gas goes right out the exhaust on a typical old school 2-stroke, regardless of the oil in the mix.

Joel
 
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I grew up moving grass with 2 different Lawn Boy's. My grandpartents had one that was over 35 years old before the deck literally fell apart. I sure wish I would have bought one 5 years ago when 2 strokes were still available.
 
Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
Was there a common failure or a pattern of failure that you're aware of?
The wheels would get bent, gear boxes would fail, throttle cables, etc. The company I work for has a few lawnboys left, but we are moving to Toro's commercial machines, more $$ but much better quality IMHO.
 
I still own a 2T Lawnboy with a 4.5hp engine and aluminum deck (bought in 1991)and it only briefly smokes when cold starting. At the time when I bought I was also looking at Honda mowers and it was the Honda salesman that sold me on the Lawnboy. He told me that he was getting a lot of Lawnboy owners who were getting fed up, after 15 years of mixing oil and gas, and were buying Hondas (at the time a Lawmboy mower cost $236 (CDN) and the Honda was close to $900 (CDN)). I did the math and figured that if the cheaper Lawnboy mower would last me 15 years I could live with mixing the oil and gas.
 
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