Guys, I am thinking about building one of those little wood, sleigh-nosed cars like the early Oldsmobiles with the tiller steering. Plans I have call for a riding lawnmower engine. Can these things be muffled down at all? Any other affordable, available power plant come to mind that mind sound a bit more like the old, early engines?

i believe the world of small quiet engines pretty much belongs to honda at the moment

Agreed- the engine on their Eu-1000, and -2000 small generators is really quiet, the Eu-6500, also.

mower engines-
http://www.northerntool.com/sh...mode+matchallpartial

Thanks guys. If those are the Honda V-twins, they're waaay outta my price range. Agree they are quiet, though.

quiet???.... go electric.... salvage a golf cart for $3-400.... nostalgic???.... go for the noise of a fairmont....it was a hit/miss direct reversing, used on rialcart movers....

Someone out there makes a muffler that you attach to end of the factory exhaust on a 4 wheeler that's supposed to quiet them down. Can't remember name of it though...right time of year to check the newstand at Walmart though...

robin-subaru, propane conversion, electric fans and a firewall-from-alum-coated-fiberglass

Sounds fun.

I bet a long curving pipe with a muffler on the end would make that lawnmower engine sound a lot like the original.

look at northerntool.com they have a ton of honda engines on hand

Grenadier: That's an awesome ride, dude!

Early engine sound -- MP3 player and a couple speakers.

If I were building one of these, I think I'd start looking for a small diesel engine for it. There are many small diesels in the 5-10 hp range- Yanmar and Hatz are 2 good brands but there are a few chinese engines out there too.

A lawnmower engine will always sound like a lawn mower, but a small diesel will sound distinctive enough to be unique.

I'd start looking in the local craigslist and maybe you'll find a local bargain on a used one.

Any cheap small car muffler should do. You'll just need some reduction fittings to plumb it in. Dedicated ATV mufflers/silencers cost over $150. Some of the ATV silencers just slip over the existing exhaust pipe and attach to the frame.

Bill -
the murray lawn mower motor is kaput

Saw a guy go by the other day on a gas powered scooter-thing barely made a sound.

quote:

Any cheap small car muffler should do.

Yes.

A project like this is not much concerned with power so you can try several experiments. One that I did when I was a kid was to screw a second muffler into the outlet of the first. It made for a relatively quiet lawn mower.
I also played around with an old kick start washing machine engine. At the low idle RPM of this engine it was also very quiet.

quote:

Originally posted by jimatcat:
quiet???.... go electric.... salvage a golf cart for $3-400.... nostalgic???.... go for the noise of a fairmont....it was a hit/miss direct reversing, used on rialcart movers....

Back in Summer 1982, I was a ranger at a golf course. Our carts were Yamahas. They had some kind of governor on them that allowed them to rev up to high rpm as you accelerated, then rev down and putt-putt up and down as the demand required. This kept the engine cool. I have no idea how this was done, but that's what I have to say. And these carts were very quiet, as you'd expect them to be on a golf course.

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
Sounds fun.

I bet a long curving pipe with a muffler on the end would make that lawnmower engine sound a lot like the original.

my neighbor built one of these looked a little different but same basic design. he used like a 12 hp engine and a hydrostatic rearend from a lawnmower. that litte thing will go kinda scary actually. we estimated about 35mph on it never used the gps to find out but all you have to steer is that little bar coming up so its a little scary.

SR4759: I have an old late-'20s kick-start one-lung Whirlpool engine, but didn't think it would have enough poop to keep the kart moving.