Riding mower mods

[oil pan 4]

First mod was a string. A baling string I found in my field plus a hole I drilled in the discharge flap that allows me to lift up the grass discharge flap to clear the cut grass so the blades to cut better, faster and put the flap down when the wind blows the grass and dust back at me.

I got a newer than 2010 craftsman riding mower as a pile of parts for next to nothing. A 46 inch single cylinder 19hp machine. I assembled the parts and it works.
Only lasting problem is the carb floods with gas, a bad O-ring allows gas to leak past the needle valve, I just need a carb rebuild kit so I can replace the offending O-ring.
Rebuild kit should be here today, so I'll see if it came in in the next day or 2.
If it still seems like it runs rich I'll get the "high altitude jet" that I found while searching for the rebuild kit.
It already gets much better fuel economy than my older 42 inch 18.5hp V-twin that drinks gas but the plugs last 2 or 3 years so I don't think it's running real rich.

The 19hp has plenty of power, it can easily shred the deck belt if I push it too hard, a $30 oopsie. So of course it totally makes sense to do mods that give it more power. I don't like smelling gasoline exhaust and pm2.5 soot is supposed to be really bad for you causing the side effects of one of those new medications. The ideal pipe for a 540cc 1cyl engine that spins 3,500rpm is a 1 inch ID pipe that is 5 feet long. Probably can't do 5 feet. But I could do a stack and get 3 to 4 feet of pipe on there. I have lots of 1 inch diameter, 0.062 inch wall 304 stainless steel pipe to use. So that works out good.

To use that power I will investigate the possibility of upgrading from a 1/2 to a 5/8 inch belt, it looks like a 5/8 will fit on the existing pulleys.

Bigger tires might be nice, the tallest deck setting is almost too low and 2 notches down out of 5 and the deck is on dragging on the ground. Taller tires would allow me to go faster not necessary but fun and should make a for a better ride over bumpy ground and cut the field grass higher.

[Piotrsko]

If it sat with fuel In it, the bleed air hole in the carb main fuel tube may have corroded smaller by just a bit.

[oil pan 4]

I have taken it apart, I don't know if the factory buggered up the O-ring or the last guy who put it together did it.

[oil pan 4]

New mod, over driving the blades to about 4,000rpm. It seems to work very well.
I don't have other people around so when a blade breaks no problem.

[Piotrsko]

How often do you break a blade? I never have, even on the rocky property I owned.

[oil pan 4]

If you run them long enough they will break.
It's actually really difficult to break one.
I ran some blades all the way to failure just to see what it would take.

[oil pan 4]

I hit a rock about the size of a golf ball, nothing super hard, kind of a decomposed lime stone. Well blades spinning at 4,000 rpm have no mercy. The rock was pulverized with 3 hits that sounded like 1 and left 3 nice chips taken out of my blade. I filled them in with L56 wire and CO2, the damage was not in line with where blades are known to crack and break.
Definitely worse damage than normal speed blades.

[oil pan 4]

Definitely getting accelerated wear on the blades at 4,000rpm.

[redneck]

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Higher rpm leads to more air being moved lifting dirt, sand and debris causing excessive wear and not from the act of cutting grass. Usually it’s the wings on the back edge of the blade that produce lift that wear out first. I had the same problem and corrected it by raising the deck a little higher. Blades now last nearly a full season. I even tried hard facing the blades but it wore out next to and in between the welds. Since raising the deck my grass is healthier, looks better and is more drought resistant.




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[oil pan 4]

Definitely a different and odd wear pattern.

I'll switch be blades between sides and I'll grind off the lift wings and re ballance.