Originally Posted By: 2cool
I have a 2-stroke Lawn Boy push mower. The deck has rotted out, but of course, the engine strong. Is it practical to mount the engine to any old deck that has the same bolt circle? The only issue I can see is that the 2-stroke has the exhaust under the engine. Since the LB deck shoots the clippings out of the front, will a 4-stoke deck clog the exhaust?
Watch the hanging depth of the blade if you try to mount the 2-stroke to a mower designed for a 4-stroke. 4-stroke decks have a "raised" engine mounting area on the deck that lifts the engine up, while the crankshafts are generally longer to hang the blade back down to the proper height. Lawn-Boy's 2-stroke engine mounted pretty much flush to the deck, with a flat flange. If you set this up on a 4-stroke deck, you will probably have issues with blade contact on the bottom of the deck.
You'll never find another mower deck with the same bolt pattern, anyway (at least not a 4-stroke deck). Not only is are the locations of the holes around the bolt circle different, but the bolt circle itself is different (larger on the 2-strokes). I went through this myself a few years ago, but the other way. I had a nice magnesium Lawn-Boy deck with a bum 2-stroke engine. I wanted to put a modern 4-stroke on the deck, but it just wasn't going to work...
