Modifying a Husqvarna leaf blower

[Hoytster]

Anybody else out there modify their 2 cycle leaf blower? I bought a Husqvarna 125B on Sunday at Lowe's, with a coupon, for $100. I just needed a basic <30CC handhelf leaf blower and this seemed to fit my needs. Brought it home, filled her up with some fresh mix, and proceeded to blow my leaves (go figure). After the first couple minutes of using this thing, the only thing I could think of was it was too quiet and it def. needed some bigger nuts. I was just about to start cussing at myself for not buying the bigger model when I decided to use my chainsaw modding experience and see if i could get some more power out of this thing after only one tank full of fuel.

After taking a look at this unit, it appeared to be setup just like a chainsaw engine. So, I took the muffler off the unit and pulled the spark arrester. Couldn't beleive it, this unit had to be breathing out of a what appeared to be a 3/16" hole behind the spark arrester. So I took the muffler casing apart, removed the cat, opened up the opening behind the spark arrester as much as I could and opened the muffler exit as much as possible. Put everything back together, started the unit up, and it started and sounds just like a muffler modded chainsaw. The throttle response was a heck of a lot better and it appeared to rev higher. After warmup, I retuned to engine. These units are def. setup very lean from the factory so I ended up adjusting both the low and the high. Now the unit smokes a little when cold and four-strokes a little at full throttle until warm.

So what were the results? Before the muffler mod and retune, the engine would sound like it was struggling to breath and wouldn't rev very quickly. Plus, the maximum held RPM was low and therefor air speed was slow. After the muffler mod and retune, the engine revs easily, it sounds a heck of a lot better, and it holds the revs much higher. As a result, the air speed is much higher coming out of the nozzle. Before I did the mods, I couldn't move a foot wide, wet birds nest along the ground. After the mods, I can be almost 5-10 feet back and move that same, wet, foot wide birds nest. I was fairly impressed by the performance increase of just these few mods. Makes me want to do a full port job on it, but I have a feeling I am approaching the safe RPM limit of the impeller. Anybody else ever mod on of these things and see some nice improvements?

 

[John D]

I run redmax backpacks...they run great stock,fairly noisey so I didn't want to piss my customers off more...but my husqvarna trimmers get a muffler gutting, rip out the cat and open up the hole...then tune it.What a difference....before the mods it would bog in tall grass and the shield and muffler got so hot it would burn your arm right thru the shield and almost melt the plastic on the trimmer housing ...now muffler and engine runs much cooler and power is probably up 25% easily ....it flies thru tall grass now...and a tank of fuel now lasts a full hour in most cases not 1/2 hr..

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[brages]

Hope you don't live in a residential neighborhood... leaf blowers are loud enough already -- JMHO!

One thing to consider, I suppose, is that a leaf blower is typically going to be sitting at full throttle/full load for several minutes at a time, so you probably want to be conservative with your mixture...

 

[Myarmistired]

Leaf blowers are one of those pieces of equipment that don’t need anymore noise. Please do others a favor and keep a steady finger on the throttle, none of this up, down and all around stuff. When my boss saw people doing that they wanted to start cutting index fingers off.

 

[Hoytster]

No worries, I don't live in a close residential area. Noise isn't really a concern, unless it is before or after hours. This blower isn't anything compared to just about any of my chain saws.

I have the tune pretty conservative, especially considering where it was stock. Ran about 4 tanks of through it sofar, so I pulled the plug and checked the cylinder. Both are looking great yet.

 

[Miles86]

Nice job;

I do that to all mine also, about like you did. I noticed that reed valve engines seem louder than the piston port engines :msp_confused:

My loudest handheld is a Troy Built with the 31cc reed valve, it is Hellishly Loud. Muffler is no different than my others, a single chamber with a 3/8th diam. outlet. I have to wear ear plugs. This one always starts with one pull, even dead cold, I love it. No neighbors so noise doesn't disturb anyone.

My most quite is an Echo PB230 LN- also single chamber and 3/8 outlet, but this muffler is factory-fitted with a glass pack lining on the inner & outer muffler body, it works great, very quite, and very low restriction. The muffler is very large volume which helps also.

I like to seal the crimp with RTV copper to stop the oily residues dripping out.

I use a castor blend oil for extra protection.

 

[openloop]

I just got a 125e???? I think for my b-day... after 5 mins of use I had the muffler ripped apart and had the die grinder out. I only opened the inside hole (the 3/16" one) and left the larger oval outside hole alone. Im sure its still choked up but I didnt want my leaf blower to sound like a dirtbike (ill leave that up to my saws). I did notice an increase after opening the inside hole up, nothing drastic but it is better. It really is amazing what they expect those things to exhale through.

 

[deye223]

chainsaw ?????

i can't wait to see it with a bar and chain

 

[openloop]

i can't wait to see it with a bar and chain

I think it is posted here due to the similarities between chainsaw and leafblower engine modifications.... If you know of a better place to locate this thread maybe a suggestion would be appreciated.

 

[deye223]

I think it is posted here due to the similarities between chainsaw and leafblower engine modifications.... If you know of a better place to locate this thread maybe a suggestion would be appreciated.

Homeowner Helper Forum

 

[blsnelling]

I ported both my Redmax handheld and my Shindaiwa backpack blowers.

 

[paccity]

I think it is posted here due to the similarities between chainsaw and leafblower engine modifications.... If you know of a better place to locate this thread maybe a suggestion would be appreciated.

http://www.arboristsite.com/stickies/183967.htm

 

[Hoytster]

I think it is posted here due to the similarities between chainsaw and leafblower engine modifications.... If you know of a better place to locate this thread maybe a suggestion would be appreciated.

You got it openloop. Guess the homeowner or alternative woodcutting would've been better, but to tell you the truth, I don't have the time to constantly search this forum and know every single sub forum to post into and I didn't even know they existed. Live and Learn.

Nice job;

I do that to all mine also, about like you did. I noticed that reed valve engines seem louder than the piston port engines

My loudest handheld is a Troy Built with the 31cc reed valve, it is Hellishly Loud. Muffler is no different than my others, a single chamber with a 3/8th diam. outlet. I have to wear ear plugs. This one always starts with one pull, even dead cold, I love it. No neighbors so noise doesn't disturb anyone.

My most quite is an Echo PB230 LN- also single chamber and 3/8 outlet, but this muffler is factory-fitted with a glass pack lining on the inner & outer muffler body, it works great, very quite, and very low restriction. The muffler is very large volume which helps also.

I like to seal the crimp with RTV copper to stop the oily residues dripping out.

I use a castor blend oil for extra protection.

Your absolutely right about the reed engines being louder. This piston port engine, with basically no muffler now, is ALOT quieter than my little old muffler modded Homelite XL. And it's nothing in comparison to my ported and muffler modded SXL 925.

 

[Hoytster]

I ported both my Redmax handheld and my Shindaiwa backpack blowers.

How did the porting on your Redmax turn out? The HB280 sure looks ALOT like this Husq.........