@GeorgeSanJose: A 2-stroke Lawnboy will work great for that, provided you rotate the carb to work with the crank horizontal.
Those GM 3800 engines are hard to kill! This must have been a real neglected one. Probably had sludge that came loose and plugged something when fresh oil was put in… This is why I try to run one of these mower engines for like 5 minutes or less on new oil and then change it again.
As for homebrew conversions of small engines for go karts, scooters, and the like, I have heard a lot about using weed eater engines. There are even kits out there people sell to work with some of the more common and economical models out there. For example, the engine on the $69 Wal-Mart trimmers never seems to be the problem. The head, shaft, or something else is usually the problem and the engine is still working fine. Plus, there is an endless supply of these being trashed if you do wear one out.
Someone recently sent me the link to a Youtube video where someone had converted a straight shaft weed eater to an outboard boat motor. It looked very simple and a little kid was really scooting around on the water in a small inflatable raft.
A twisted V-belt will work suprising well in some apps,BTW 15-40 diesel motor oil seems to work a bit better in old wore out lawnmower engines.On that subject ,I beheld a sad sight in the shop at work this morning a Chevy 5.3(aluminum block I believe) the pan was full of sludge and gunk and the oil had been changed rather frequently as far as I know,but they had been running 15-40 diesel oil in it ( was what I was told.) But the old Guy that used to own this company ran the same oil in his Cadillacs as the the multi thousand dollar Caterpillars used and He seemed to have had no engine trouble(of course most of these caddys were big blocks probaly-which brings me back to this Mantra,on newer stuff run what the manu says,performance and economy will be much better!
But on the small engines service them regularly and you will probaly have them till you get tired of them(been my experience anyway)-Kevin
@kmccune
It makes me wonder about all those cars in Mexico, which are all using 20w50, according to @irlandes
I’ve never personally experienced this, but I’ve heard of it happening. There does seem to be a certain logic to it.
@DB,I suspect that the Mexicans sort of have that one figured out,we had a worn out 8N Ford tractor and started using 20W-50 in it and worked a lot better.
On a different note,a,lot of Farmers around here would have thier tractor engines rebuilt and then go right back to using ND oil,I dont think my explaination of the benefits od modern HD oil did any good-Kevin
@kmccune
There’s absolutely no GOOD reason to use 20w50 on a modern, low mileage engine which calls for 5w30 . . . unless nothing else is available, as @irlandes said
@DB, take it up with the Mexicans I dont advocate it(I think Nascar still uses 20W-50)-Kevin