Outboard conversion

Hello all,

First post here, got a 12' semi V a few weeks ago, just finished building a trailer so it doesn't have to go in the bed of the truck every time we want to go to the lake, and now the issue moves onto an engine so paddling is not required.

Have a McCulloch 4 that was sitting in the barn for years, and after poking around it was missing more parts than I remembered. Started problem solving, and thought "hey, that lawnmower over there has a great engine that would work perfect". So, took the McCulloch block off the outboard drive, and the vertical drive briggs off the mower. Have an idea of how it's going to be retrofitted for the drive shafts to mate(starting on that Monday), and mount the briggs in the process.

Just curious if anyone has ever tried this before, did you run into any issues? I know it's not conventional, but I'm just excited to have a functioning outboard.


Andrew

Hi Andrew-b,
I had the same idea a few years ago when my old Ted Williams air cooled died. I never followed through with the build. I did later purchase a Briggs & Straton 5 hp outboard. It's an air cooled engine that looks like it would work on a mower. I ran it on a 1958 12' Alumacraft, it was not enough power to plane the 12' boat.
It is also somewhat loud because it does not exhaust into the water. It runs fine, I just don't have anything to use it on. Good Luck, Stagehand

They claim the flywheels on those lawnmower engines are too light, because they are designed to use the mower blade as a flywheel.

Stagehand; yep, I've thought about doing something with the exhaust. But this boat isn't going to be used for long trips, just from the launch to the fishing holes, which luckily for me is relatively close. So I figure if it does work then I can put up with some noise in exchange for rowing.

Bob E; never even considered that about those mowers. I'm curious what it'll do when we put power to it...only one way to find out!!!

Kickback while starting is the main issue the small engine guys warn about.
I've started my lawnmower without the blade on before and there must not have been enough difference worth remembering, but if you're twisted around sideways on a boat seat pull starting at an awkward angle it might be worth thinking about :mrgreen: