These dumb kids, blowing up this lawnmower engine for their own entertainment with nitrous and squirt bottles of fuel! They could have been hurt! They could have set the lawn on fire! They could have this that or the other thing. But they didn’t.
See, here’s the thing, we should not be mourning the death of this little Briggs and Stratton engine but rather we should be celebrating it. In my opinion, the small single cylinder lawnmower engine is the most important gateway into hot rodding that has ever existed. Think of your own life, think of all the stories you have heard from old timers, think of the fun stuff you did as a kid with a lawnmower engine. In my case it was the first engine I ever took apart and the little piston and rod still live on my desk today.
Did you ever build a go kart with one? Maybe rebuilt one with your dad or a guy in the neighborhood? Maybe chucked the rod out the side of one when you hit a rock or a stump in the yard? This was the introduction to internal combustion for so many of us, it kind of makes us happy kids are doing wacky stuff with them today.
Is this the smartest idea? No but I’m guessing that many of you reading have done and may yet do dumber stuff than this. The nitrous line into the carb is funny and the manual enrichment is even better. The thing is turning big RPM already and then once the additional fuel shows up that thing goes into hyper drive because it barfs fire and kicks the nitrous line off of itself.
Kids are going to fool with engines and thank the heavens for that because when they stop, the roots of what we all love begin to shrivel and once a plant or tree loses its roots, it withers and fades back into the Earth.
Doing stupid things for the pleasure of YouTubers? Hope it never bites back…please post it if it does! 🙂
And this is suppose to be entertaining?
Nope
Dumb!!!!
Judicious use of starting fluid works, too.
grown up version –
I’m still pissed my wife shelled the motor on my 1993
Grand Cherokee 4.0 6cyl – had about 250K on it and a wicked rod slap …
My son said it went so hard he thought they hit something …
Meh – when I was a kit I fed a 2 cycle engine propane, removed the governor and spun that sucker until the rod came out. That little motor was really wrapping until one of the rod screws failed.
Wright brothers were called fools and idiots. Throughout history inventions arose because people ignored the naysayers. Right on with the ‘test’ now you won’t have to say “this one time on Fortnight….” and to the naysayers. screw you.
Ours was fed a diet of Cox RC Engine fuel so we could say it was burning Nitro! Today I teach Auto Tech at a local High School, and lawn mowers are still our entry level projects, as they are cheap, plentiful and easy. For the kid who’s never held a wrench prior to my class, the reaction to that Briggs firing off after overhaul is awesome. Brian, this totally hits home. While we don’t nitrous any of ours for obvious safety reasons, we end up straight piping a number of them, as the inner gear head should be nurtured in the next generation.
Year ago I attended Tony Miglizzi’s destruction night. A fund raiser for a local children’s charity, Tony set up several engines in his parking lot (L&T clutches) and one at a time ran them WFO until they blew up. If memory serves, the victims included a couple of kart racing engines, a small block ford, a big block chevy and a Cummins diesel(which proved nearly impossible to kill). Tony also got In n Out’s mobile unit to cater the madness. Ask Lanny about this amazing night when you see him.
Were is that Studbaker Wagon Brian?