Originally Posted By: boraticus
Got to wonder why LB would go with bushings in a two cycle engine? Cost savings?
Cost savings, probably. This is one of those anti-Cinderella stories where a second party got involved and, to the dismay of many, really changed what was going on. Toro bought Lawn-Boy in the late 1980s. One of the things Toro did was try to update Lawn-Boy's F engine. The V engine (a real piece of work) was the result. The V engine design morphed into the E engine (Duraforce). It was generally a good engine, but there were some compromises made on a number of fronts. One of the most apparent is the super lean jetting -- many find satisfaction in re-jetting or drilling it out. There were other things, too...like the bushings in the connecting rod big end rather than the needle bearings from before. I personally don't care for the plastic carburetors common from that era, though I don't know if those were exclusively after Toro bought the brand or not.
Many Lawn-Boy fans feel that Toro bought Lawn-Boy for their 2-stroke technology for Toro's snowblower line (the Toro R-tek is basically a Duraforce engine) and then junked the rest of the brand. It didn't happen overnight, but the death of the staggered wheel deck was the death of the brand to Lawn-Boy fans. Today's Lawn-Boys, with stamped steel decks with plastic front axles and Chinese Kohlers, are a real contrast to Lawn-Boy quality of the past.