Engine Swaps Are A Great Way To Save A Bad Mower

[@stevepelino5986]

Great video. I recently found a HRN214 on a curb and got it going again and sold it. I have to agree the clutch system was the most frustrating part of getting it running and cutting again. Simple is better. Thanks again for your video. You make it look so easy.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

nice work and thank you I appreciate the compliment

[@billdeblaey6078]

I recently had my local shop do an engine swap for me. I had a 15 year old recycler with a briggs, personal pace. The deck was shot, cracked by the side discharge and rusted through several other places. Engine ran great. Called my local shop and they had an almost brand new deck. A lady had the mower a short time and ran it out of oil. The swap was made and for less than half the price of a new mower i have something that will be around 10 more years!!!! It literally looks 95% new.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

nice! It must look great

[@warpig372]

I own the same Honda for over 7 years. Still starts on the first pull. I definitely keep good maintenance on it.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

That is awesome!

[@christophermarshall5765]

I’ve done engine swaps on mowers before and they worked out great.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

you certainly seem very capable!

[@Shawnee.Hills.Small.Engine]

I've done many engine swaps on mowers. Manufacturers used to make walk behind mower decks with various bolt holes to fit different engines. The first was a tired Tecumseh, replaced with a Briggs & Stratton 3.5 HP flat head. Lawn Tractors are more difficult. If the donor engine was a manual engagement, and the mower has an electric PTO clutch, the alternator has to be changed to a higher amperage, preferably with a voltage regulator.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

wow you've got quite a lot of experience on your side!

[@KPaul7]

Nice swap, I don't like the clutch assemblies either. As you might expect, I have swapped quantum engines. You are right they are straight forward. You might appreciate a engine swap I did on a 88 Honda Civic. Back in 2001 I had a neck injury. I lost the use of most of my left arm. I had just gotten the 88 Civic. I didn't do a valve adjust. As with any new used car I get. I put cleaner in the gas. Then get on the highway and put it to the floor. Well, up you might have guessed it. I burnt the exhaust valves. So I got a donor car. An 89 Civic with much less miles. Now to the swap. It took 74 hours and with one arm. I did have use of a full shop at a friend of a friend's house. Many lessons learned.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

I had something like that happen to me too. Hurt my shoulder a week before I had to swap an engine. Took a lot longer than I wanted it to.

[@KPaul7]

@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE it amazing how much you can do with one arm and the right tools. I have done other engine swaps before in a day, back then, of course.

[@liljoeii6091]

You brought it back to life thank you for the video

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

I sure did, hopefully they don't break it.

[@classicamericanflyertrains2423]

I had replaced the engine on my Jacobsen super bagger, with that mower it requires a short crank shaft. I was able to find one in a mower junk yard same style Briggs engine with vertical pull start just like it originally had, the only hard part was getting the blade adapter the new engine came with off, heat and two flat bladed screwdrivers took care of that.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

nice work with the blade adaptor. Those can be very stubborn

[@lewiemcneely9143]

I took a Kawasaki off a DEERE and swapped it on a Snapper that had a Briggs on it and it was VERY interesting. The Kawasaki had a blade clutch and the crank was smaller that the Briggs. The Briggs and Kawasaki were swapped as far as the sides where the carb and exhaust were so it was all backwards. It took a lot of fabricobbling but I cut and bagged a lot of grass with it. Never had any trouble and I think the Briggs had a bent crank. The kawasaki still had the DEERE sticker on it that got some comments. There's always a way. About the worst was rigging a blade adapter out of clutch parts and rerouting the exhaust gas away from the ABS grass chute. It was still running when it left here. The Stihl battery mower does a fine job BUT I still have the 85 Snapper 4 horse just waiting. Blessings

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

yes by your description that was an interesting one for sure.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Glad that wasn't. I don't think I could do it again BUT I'd have a jump on where to go with it all.@@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE

[@markrabinowitz7070]

6:44 About the parts not being the same--this is especially something to check for before attempting engine swaps on self-propelled mowers--even if the engines are the same manufacturer and style (e.g. Briggs & Stratton Quantum flatheads), the blade adapters may be different, the belts may be different, and the crankshafts may not be of the same length. I've had better luck with push mowers, since with those, the main thing that can make a big difference is the crankshaft length. Even then, there's no guarantee that you'll do a successful swap--all it takes is one frozen or broken bolt to mess up your plans. The best engine swap I've ever done involves two Yard Machines by MTD push mowers. I trash-picked a 2007 model in June of 2022; the deck was in solid shape, but for whatever reason, I could never get the engine to start, so I decided I'd save the deck and make the engine a parts donor. Three months later, I found a 2010 model that had a rusted deck, and its engine was missing the pull starter. The latter issue, I solved by taking the engine shroud off the 2007 model. But I wasn't sure if I could start the engine, given that the sparkplug was missing and the air filter on it was one of the filthiest I had ever seen. To my surprise, after replacing both of those items, the engine started on the first pull! I put the 2010 engine on the 2007 deck successfully, but it was not without a struggle. The engine bolts came off easily enough, but the bolt holding down the blade on the 2010 engine required some PB Blaster and plenty of elbow grease to loosen it. I have and use this stealth Frankenmower to this day.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

wow very nice work getting it working again.

[@Dave7160]

hi, I did a 4 lawn mower engine swaps they went great not hard to do just abit of a wrestling match to get the engine positioned to the deck and get the first bolt started in tandium, did one snow blower engine swap that went easier other than having to drill out larger holes for the bolt heads and cutting top make the shafts for the belts match from the top shaft to the bottom to prevent belts coming off, I built a home made gas powered wheel barrow out of a an old snow blower that I did the engine swap on I had help as well to build it took 3 weeks but it was worth and it also tilts the barrow part I built it for my mom no more having to titls and push a barrow by hand anymore.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

very nice work!

[@Dave7160]

@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE thank you please keep thecgreat videos you make coming I always enjoy them.

[@brianking1138]

I have done a lot of engine swaps. It's getting much harder to find used engines. The shaft length,and diameter as well as the blade adapter are all important.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

I had to learn the hard way with the shaft length.

[@mitchellbroderick5097]

I've do plenty of engine's swaps mainly on Greenfields (Australian made brand) Since they use all the same wiring is just easy to plug them in and not dealing with pulley and such.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

thank you for sharing

[@RussellBooth1977]

The Honda GCV160 carburettor is different to the GSV190 carburettor which is only available OEM. Yes,the 6.5 horsepower Honda engine is ballsy when it comes to cutting grass,I rebuilt one of them for my father last year & the rings have just almost seated in after 10 hours of use because it's pretty much stopped burning oil on startup after being run in by mowing the lawn. I have built a hybrid Nissan RB30DE engine,the single cam RB30E engine was only released in Australia back in 1986 when Nissan Australia 🦘 bolted them into the Nissan R31 Skyline when they were building them in Australia. Holden which was a GM company in Australia adopted that engine which was an SOHC 3 litre inline six after they scoured the world for an engine to replace the then 30 year old 3.3 litre 6 cylinder Holden engine due to the mandatory use of unleaded fuel in vehicles manufactured from February 1986 onwards. Holden had a turbocharged version built under contract by Nissan (RB30ET engine) so it could only be fitted into a Holden,not a Nissan. It's a pity the foreign exchange rate made it too expensive to fit into a Holden after the VL model Commodore,in 1988 they were forced to fit the ugly & rough 3.8 litre Buick LN3 V6 engine into the next model,the VN Commodore which had prototypes which ran the Nissan RB30E engine, so they were developed with them in mind. What I did in 2003 is I used the engine block, connecting rods & crankshaft of the RB30E engine then I got a non turbocharged Nissan RB25DE engine from a1995 model Nissan R33 Skyline GTS then used all of the engines electrics including the ECU ,& wiring harness from the Skyline,the high volume oil pump to operate the VVT camshaft mechanism, the RB25DE pistons, inlet & exhaust manifolds from that engine then I built a 3 litre DOHC 24 valve 6 cylinder engine out of the parts from the 2.5 litre six. I had to measure up my own timing belt,use the standard sized Nissan RB30E crankshaft bearings & I chased up some,0.040" oversized Mitsubishi 4G63 piston rings from an aftermarket manufacturer which fit into the RB25DE pistons ring grooves. I soldered the Nissan R33 Skyline ECU wiring harness onto the Holden wiring harness as well. It went very well & it kept up to cars which put out about 200 kilowatts of power which is about what that engine was making, about 50% more than the SOHC 12 valve engine.!

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

thank you for sharing this information.

[@Willy7212]

Keep up the good work. Great video Thanks

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

Thanks, will do!

[@Turningwrenches85]

Yes some engine swaps arent easy unless its a direct swaps on the same frame then its alot of adapting unless just a basic push mower but maybe some adapting as well to like length of crankshaft

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

you are right about that, had to learn the hard way

[@deebee3901]

I recently took the top off my middle finger on my left hand working on my Honda mower. A stupid split second error of judgement. Something you would never do or something you would berate your kids over. I implore everyone to have safety on their mind when they work on their lawn mower. Do not work on a running mower. Disconnect the spark plug. Etc, etc.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

very good advice

[@berettaguy7445]

Will a Honda GCV160 engine from a Troy-bilt non-self propelled mower work on a Toro 21442 FWD mower? I found a nice one locally and would like to swap the Briggs with the Honda...thank you very much.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

already answers in last comment

[@jons6125]

Im looking at the possibility of fitting the gxv390 or 340 to my mower ….the sharft size for the clutch seams the biggest issue

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

nice choice!

[@robertmailhos8159]

There are some mowers that are worth the engine replacement of the engine

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

agreed

[@robertmailhos8159]

@@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE yeah buddy 😎👍👍

[@Justintime2-j1f]

What is the rubber hose sticking out of the crank case going to the plastic airbox ?

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

It's the breather hose for the emissions system.

[@Justintime2-j1f]

@@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE yeah thats what i saw on google bu i also saw it could be the flywheel key that might be partialy sheered wich might cause a change in ignision timing ?

[@iloveap83]

Please tell me how you determine a mower is officially ready for sale? Any rigorous testing? Ive sold mowers before but i just let run for about 5 mins but I'm not so sure anymore

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

wow, great question, in fact I might have to do a long video, answering it. Now this answer is "My Version" but for someone else it might be too much. Short version would be make sure the mower starts and run, when cold and hot. Make sure all the safeties work, and also use the mower a couple of time on your own lawn. I know some people say All sales, are final, but I genuinely want them to get a great mower.

[@iloveap83]

@@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE I do everything you say except using on my own lawn because honestly I don't want to clean it several times extra... Have you ever encountered a mower that was perfect but when under load or used on the lawn actually gave you issues? Very curious.

[@Ppp-kk6hw]

I have an honda izzy but but what else are good lawn mowers in that price range or cheaper in UK.

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

I'm not sure, you'd have to ask someone else

[@Ppp-kk6hw]

@@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE ok just wanted your opinion don't worry 😉

[@shangrilaladeda]

I’m upgrading my mantis tiller from a gx25 to a gx50

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

wow nice upgrade

[@shangrilaladeda]

@@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE thank you

[@martint766]

Why was the rope moving so much, the handle too. Bent shaft??!

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

I don't think so

[@JCT442]

All Quantums go to Heaven...😊

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

yes they do

[@berardia4]

Not until having a long life

[@Agishus]

I broke a pulley one time that was wit a stuck pulley for a engine swap I had applied too much force to it with a pulley puller that was not a good idea

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

wow, that must have been rusted to it.

[@jamesd.9955]

My Honda engine is great..the deck is all rotted out 😢

[@INSIDEHOUSEGARAGE]

it happens