Lawn mower engines.

Well spent part of the day tearing down lawn mower and tiller engines,after three i really wondered if its worth the effort.Seems to eat up some time, Might be a faster operation if i had permenate setup for such things,I could keep my pullers and such handy. I did find out something i have wondered about for a while, the gas tank on a lot of the older mowers have a nice chunk of aluminum wrapped in some sheet steel. So i put it real tight in the vice and started with the reciprocating saw,to my suprise the vibration from the saw broke the seem loose quite easily A couple cuts and a couple whacks with the hammer and the steel flew right off.The last mower i did i pulled the tank,the head,the aluminum tube,the coil,might just try to crack the block off with a hammer. anybody got an opinion?

hello,
I have 2 lawn mower engines I have been holding on to. Are engines dirty aluminum or considered scrap iron? Thanks for any input

I have said this many times in the past. All your questions are answered in past threads, just do some reading, but I will post this again. In my opinion it is NOT worth the time to brake down lawn mower motors. Pull the motor off the deck, remove the gas tank, drain the oil and sell as irony aluminum. The aluminum block has steel sleeves that can be a pain to get out.

Originally Posted by POS

hello,
I have 2 lawn mower engines I have been holding on to. Are engines dirty aluminum or considered scrap iron? Thanks for any input

I called my yard to inquire, they only have the one grade of aluminum,But that varies from yard to yard,just have to call around and find out the policy I even asked,if i stripped everything off but didnt break down the block,guy said if the crank rod was iron it couldnt go as aluminum, So i off to test the big hammer idea.

Originally Posted by POS

hello,
I have 2 lawn mower engines I have been holding on to. Are engines dirty aluminum or considered scrap iron? Thanks for any input

I've been hanging on to lawn mower motors, frames too, long as they appeared to have some hope. I think I may have taken a couple in awhile back, but not sure how they did me on it, probably not very well. Be sure to call first and explain to em what you've got and ask what they're paying(maybe while you're inquiring their current prices on the other stuff in the load, and as always, get their name), then ask again when you get to the scale to make sure their answers match

actually on the motors and stuff with hope, I'd been meaning to sometime load a bunch of stuff up and take it by a local small engine repair, to see what all they might want at better than scrap, to use for repairs, but I noticed on the way by there recently their sign said "business for sale" and on the other side a few days later "shop closing" : (

By me as is, they would say they go as transmissions for .15 lb vs dirty alum for .25

an impact air wrench can make a lot of difference too, even just for breaking the motor bolts off the frame. I'd venture to guess if you chose to try your hand at breaking them down further from that point, try just breaking all the easier to reach bolts from there and then grab that hammer ; )

I've got a big fat mess of mowers that I've been piling up. I'm semi-good with small engines and stuff, so I'm hoping to turn at least half of them into running mowers, then sell them. For some reason, I've ended up with a lot of Honda ones, so I'm hoping to bring in a little more for them. My wife is just hoping for me to get rid of the darn things...


Anyways: CHECK CRAIGSLIST FOR PEOPLE BUYING NON-WORKING MOWERS. It kills me to see piles of mowers at the yard, sold for $.08 a pound as shred. You end up with, maybe, about $4 or $5 for a mower, vs. selling to a re-builder for $10 or $15, at least, for complete units, sometimes a bit more.

There's a market for parts, too. Wheels, bags, handlebars, etc. Of course this can be a bit of a time-sink, but if you have a lot of mowers, don't think there isn't better-than-scrap money to be made from them aside from the engine.