As you frequent readers know, CC is all about the obscure and the interesting. How about this Lawn Boy lawn mower? This particular Lawn Boy has some family history. My grandparents got this mower brand new if I remember correctly, and when my Uncle Dave and Aunt Lori bought their first house in 1984, they gave them the Lawn Boy. These older lawnmowers were tough and very well built, much like another classic lawn mower Paul wrote about some time ago. This particular mower has some local history too, being built in nearby Galesburg, Illinois. This Lawn Boy has a solid aluminum deck and is still ticking along with no complaints, 37 years after it was made. Dave still uses it for trimming, to this day. Let’s hear it for human-propelled lawn mowers, built before average suburban guys got lazy and bought ride-on lawn tractors!
Ah yes I remember these well, old two stroke skeeter killer! My neighbor growing up had one and I thought it was the oddest looking lawn mower, lime green, two wheels one size and two another and one of them behind the side chute no less!
I had a 1975 that I bought from a family friend after my dad’s 1973 model died (which I bought from my dad – I had to make a capital investment in my lawn equipment if I expected to get paid for the labor). The 1973 was a great mower until something finally gave way – I don’t remember now what it was. My 1975 had a white top, same style plastic cover, but it was self propelled – maybe that signified the self-propelled version?
I remember these from around 1970 when my parents bought their first house and corresponding lawn mower.They decided a Lawn Boy was too expensive and bought a Toro instead. Since that mower was still running strong when they sold it along with their second house in 1987 I can’t fault their decision,
Note the absence of such silliness as a blade brake to keep one from severing one’s fingers. Why not just keep your hands out of the way of a running mower blade?
My dad bought a basic 3HP Briggs & Stratton-powered mower (I think it came from Western Auto) in 1968 when my parents bought their house, and I was still using it well into the ’80s when I got old enough to mow the yard. Very simple, and made of heavy-gauge steel, so it didn’t start to rust out after three years.
I ran one of these bastards for twenty years and the damn thing would not die but talk about tempermental at starting. I swore when it was done I would and I did treat myself to a Honda that starts every time on the first pull. Forget the mixing I am a 4 stroke boy from now on. The Honda will have the longevity of the Lawnboy without the frustrations.
+1
Add me to the fan club of Honda mowers. I bought mine in 1995, and last year was the first time I had to do any sort of repair…and that was to clean the carburetor, possibly because I forgot and left a little E10 fuel in the tank over the winter.
+2. And what I really hated about them was that it was my job to mow the lawn. My parents were real sneaky about keeping me grounded, without actually grounding me. My high school let out at 1245 on Friday’s, so it was a nice long weekend – except for me. I had to mow the lawn, every Friday, and rather than getting to use dad’s Gravely (it was a large lawn), I had to use the Lawn Boy. Which guaranteed that it would take me four hours to mow the lawn, getting me finished just in time for supper, and missing out on whatever the rest of my peers were doing Friday afternoons.
Later, when I got my first job (bag boy at the local grocery store) I discovered that they were only able to schedule me Friday and Saturday evenings. Yep, the parents had a quiet talk with the manager. No way were my folks going to risk having the police drag me home from some party, or worry about me dating girls.
And they wonder why I was determined to go to college at least 200 miles away from home?
BUT , the bottom line .. were you successful in life ? Many of us do not have caring parents ..even if this “caring” is far from perfect .
LOL! I could have written that, except I only had mine for about three and a half years. My Lawn Boy would always start right on, or on the pull right before I was going to give up on it. When we bought the new house three years ago, I bought a brand new non-propelled Honda.
The Honda in contrast has always started on the first pull except once. That would be this spring when it started on the second pull after being left under the deck, uncovered with no fuel stabilizer or anything all fall and winter. We had been working on the house and filling up the garage over the fall so I figured – what the hell, this will test it. I got worried, but sure enough on the second pull it sputtered to life.
Don’t forget the fuel savings. I don’t know about you, but my Honda uses probably 1/4th the fuel that my Lawn Boy did.
I’m with you. I bought my first house in ’83, which was at the beginning of the required blade-stopping area. At the time, all of the U.S. manufacturers used the strategy of shorting out the plug to stop the blade when you let go of the dead-man’s handle, so you would have to restart the damned things if you stopped to toss a twig out of the way. Only Honda used a clutched blade brake.
I was sold, and every spring it started right up on the first try.
Ten years later, when I was relocating to Japan, I left it by the curb the day before trash day, and one of the scavengers in pickups snagged it. I’m sure it found a good home, and who knows, it might just be running yet.
The “blade-brake” and the dead man’s control .. both a royal PITA . My first mower had neither; Forty years later, I have modified the 10685 LB to have neither .IMO, not all legislation is in the right direction ,, There is responsibility , awareness, self reliance… Tempting for me to feel that many should never be allowed to come close to a rotary lawn mower .. or a screwdriver ..
‘Fraid not, Toro had a BBC in 1979, and LawnBoy came out with it in 1982. Honda was one of the last to get to it actually.. but any mower with BBC was expensive… On the other hand, I’ve had my Lawn-Boy 47 years, and it’s never broken down!
+1 Just for the pic.
That’s a man content with his lawn equipment purchasing decisions!
We had three Lawn Boys over the years when I grew up in the 70s and early 80s. I miss the old two-strokers. Modern Lawn Boys are no different from any other mower anymore; they’re just green.
Whoa!! What’s going on here? That’s my new Lawn Boy!, And I was just about to write this story. I picked mine up (the exact same Model 7268, photo below) for $10 (marked “For Parts”) at a used junk store, and I just finally got around to getting it running. Always wanted one after having used two of them that neighbors had, whose lawns I mowed, back around 1966 – 1967.
I can see why folks are into old 2 stroke Lawn Boys: they’re really easy to work on. The carb came off so readily, and everything is well designed. I just blew out the carb and sharpened the blade, and it runs like a top. I used it for the first time a couple of days ago. It’s so light and easy to push, and the subtle smell of oil in the exhaust is very nostalgic.
The only issue is that the Off-On switch is wacko. It doesn’t turn off, even though I’ve opened up the switch and confirmed it is working. Something in the electronic ignition. For now, I have to pull off the plug lead.
LOL, you and Tom should form a club with my old man. In my comment I noted that he had 4 or 5 of them, of those 4 or 5 probably 2 run. He’s also a pro at picking them up at yard sales or farm sales, and even has the guys at the local small engine shop watching out for them for him.
It’s almost an ongoing joke in the family that when one of us kids gets a house, we get a Lawn Boy and learn the cuss words associated with them. My particular one matched yours and Tom’s and didn’t have much of a muffler while also having a rather “aggressive” throttle so it sounded like a dirt bike. It was always hard to start, but always managed to start right on or right before the pull where I’d give up on it.
I replaced it three years ago with a brand new mower that’s it’s kin – a non-propelled brand new Honda – but I’d still have it if we could have ever consistently got it to start.
Keep this mower long enough and you’ll learn to hate it , that is if you actually use it. Keep it to look at and things will be a lot better. The wobbley cheap plastic wheels , the weak CDI system and equally weak starter will fail. Get used to cleaning the exhaust ports every few years as well. Any air leak from a gasket or seal and you could score the cylinder. Best to pay the extra 50 cents a gallon and buy pure gas because gasohol and 2 stroke oil do not get along. It’s good that it’s a push Model as the Self Propelled version has the poorest drive system ever. I vintage Toro , Chris-Cut, or a Cooper Clipper , now that’s a mower! 🙂
I’m a confirmed Lawn-Boy owner. My first was a 4hp model I bought in ’87. It still runs like a top and is out at our vacation home. My newer one was a Gold model built in the last year the government let them make 2-cycle. It is a 6.5hp beast. Usually I don’t cut my own grass now that I’m approaching 70 (my wife’s decision, not mine). The 6.5 hp is heavy though self-propelled. I plan to take it out to the country and swap it for ol’ reliable. It’s also self-propelled but much lighter. My home yard isn’t that big but we have an acre around the country house. If I have to mow it, the bigger mower with a sharp blade will do the trick.
Never had a lawn boy growing up as my parents had a Sears Craftsman reel mower, powered by a 4 stroke Techumseh 3hp motor that they bought new in I think, ’65 and kept running until the early 90’s when it finally crapped out for good.
I helped rebuild it in about 1980 and at that time dad got a some new wheels, a new catcher and a new muffler as the original had rusted through to almost nothing and it soldiered on for a few more years, I think finally crapping out in the late 80’s.
Then at an estate sale, they bought a used 70’s era Sears Crasftman Eagle 1 mower, from I think the mid to late 70’s that ran fine to replace it, and one day in the early 90’s as I was cutting grass, it spun a rod and freewheeled to a dead stop as it apparently lost oil (come to think of it, I think the older Sears met that same fate somehow.
they bought a new, still in the box rotary mower, I forget the maker now at an estate sale and it was their last mower, when m Dad died in ’98, Mom sold the house and the mower went to my middle sister and her husband. They may still have it. All of these were 4 strokers, the power weed eater, that WAS a 2 stroker though.
Back in the 70’s, good friends gave me an old rotary mower from the 60’s that didn’t run. You turned a crank and released it via a lever and it would then start the mower, except it never started, I tried to get it going, to no success.
We had 2 neighbors who had the older McLane reel mowers and those are interesting to use, thanks to the power rear wheel, which meant one had to raise/lower it when turning and the catcher was up front, rather than in the back as in most reel mowers.
Dad had one of these when I was growing up. He didn’t like how it’s throttle was controlled so he hooked up a universal throttle cable. Man, those things would rev!
I wasn’t a fan because it left odd wheel tracks in the grass.
Ah, the Lawn Boy! We didn’t have one when I was a kid, but my senior year in HS I worked at a local hardware store where we sold them. As I remember, they were tough to start out of the box, but we, er, fiddled with the L shaped screw at the carb (took it for an adjustment, but I kinda wonder if it was supposed to hold the body together) it would start. Somehow, we never got any machines back for problems, (well, almost never) so the fiddle worked.
I owned one in the early 90s. It was still a two-stroke, but the compression was high enough it was a PITA to start. I had a bunch of ear surgery at the time and couldn’t handle the pull, so the mower went in the scrap heap.
Eventual replacements were a cordless Black and Decker (my wife’s second favorite for its weight) and a Honda powered Husqvarna. Have to clean the air filter every half hour when mowing our “lawn”, but that’s the pumice soil we have. The real favorite is the new Kawasaki powered garden tractor. Still have to clean the air filter, but I can get the tractor-friendly part of the “lawn” (actually, clumps of grass, weeds and dirt) mowed before having to clean it. John Deere Green, this one.
In ’68 I was mowing a couple of lawns with the corded Sunbeam my father bought. Not much fun. I really wanted a Toro Fly-mo. Still do.
A FlyMo would be a cool find.
I remember a local radio (Steve and Garry for Chicago folk) show hosting a guy that was pushing a modern version in the early 80s. The hosts kept pointing out the fact that he only had six out of ten digits left..
An article about a lawnmower? I really love this website! You don’t get this kind of stuff anywhere else. There’s nothing like that smell of fresh-cut grass… When I was very small, my parents had one of those Briggs & Strattons from Western Auto, and after everything but the engine fell apart, they had a series of Toro push-mowers. IIRC, the engine from the B & S was later used for a go-kart, but I may be remembering through grass-stained glasses.
Very fancy Ill stick with my ancient 3hp B&S powered Morrison drill start the (recoil disintegrated) and screwdriver to short the plug stop switch. Its got +- 100 yards of mig wire holding it together but it always goes.
I remember the short-the-plug trick–I had to use that on one of our mowers. I never kept one so long that I had to resort to a drill start, though.
I’ll have to write up a post about lawn mowers, I’ve still got the my very first rotary mower that was left at a rental house my dad purchased in 1974. It was also my very first engine rebuild in 1976. I’ve been thinking about this ever since Paul did his first lawn mower post. I had almost 40 mowers when I went away from college; when I returned, there were about 5 left.
If you think lawn mowers are cool, you’re going to absolutely go crazy about a character in a made-for-TV movie with Brooke Shields called The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery. In this movie, Rip Torn plays a FBI agent whose hobby is collecting and restoring vintage lawn care equipment. His shop has pedestals with restored equipment on it complete with spotlights. The movie’s worth watching just for those few scenes IMO.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115520/
Please do! We love pretty much anything with a motor here at CC. Just let me or Paul know if you’d like to do a post.
Hmm, Brooke Shields and vintage lawn mowers? I’ll have to check the TV listings a bit more closely!
As a kid, we had a really old Lawn Boy and I remember dad fixing on it a lot. It was replaced by a Briggs and Stratton 3.5 horse that ran for like 20 years.
While I never used this model of lawnmower, it still takes me back to my high school auto shop class. Everyone in that class had to bring a lawnmower engine to school, take it apart, and put it back together before we could start doing anything to our cars. It was one of the top three (classroom) learning experiences I had in high school.
This is definitely a classic that is always found working “curbside”!
Eeew! Yaaard-work!The horror.
Thank god I’m an apartment dweller.
Back in 1973 my parents built a home on 6 acres. Dad bought a 1968 cub cadet tractor. It was my job to mow every week. What a drag. I blew up the mower with the lack of oil. Heck, I was only 10. My punishment was mowing with a push mower till dad rebuilt the cadet. Some 39 years later, I am the proud owner of the very same cub cadet which the folks brought down to Florida. Dad gave me “Old Smokey” to hitch up to my boat and camper to move them around my property her in St Pete. There’s nothing like jumping on your vintage garden tractor with a cold one and visiting the neighbors. “There goes Mark on his ‘machine’, again!” Ahhhhhh, the memories…
When I bought my first house in 1987, it had a small yard. I got ahold of an old manual reel mower. After the first year, I had had enough of that and bought a power mower.
Mine was a reconditioned Lawn Boy from the 1960s. Does anybody else remember when they were tan instead of green? The place I bought it also had a 1959 model, but they wanted some real money for that one. That stupid thing ran forever. Other than the occasional need to clean out the carb because the filter screen in the gas tank kept dislodging, it was perfect. I eventually gave it away after moving to a much larger yard that was too much for the old 19 inch push mower. With the 16:1 fuel mixture, I was always surrounded by a blue fog when cutting grass.
Does anyone remember the Lawn Boy jingle from the 1960s? “Lawn Boy lawns are the level-cut lawns, they’re the level-cut level-cut level-cut lawns.” I also know that the old ones had a magnesium deck. Did they go to cast aluminum later?
Tan, as in cream white, or gold? A white LB was a special edition model. 1967 only, I think. Blue lettering, correct? They had Mag. and aluminum decks most of the time.. one was the high end, one was the cheaper. Mag, of course, being better. Everyone on here complains they were unreliable mowers.. you didn’t take maintain it right. Yeah, the crank seals would let go, sure the exhaust ports plugged easy… but in good shape, a LB was the best you could ever use! I’ve had mine 47 years, and it is one of my 7 LB’s. It’s NEVER broken down, NOT ONCE!!! But it does need a little more yearly maintenance then an old 3.5 Briggs.
My Dad loves those old Lawn Boys, and has probably 4 or 5 that look exactly like yours. In fact, my first lawnmower at my first home that required one 7 years ago – I avoided such things until the ripe age of 29 via apartment life – was one of them. My wife can definitely relate the stories of old smokey, and my struggles to get it started on many occasion.
Yet like yours, it always seemed to start and stay running. When we bought our current house I decided I wanted to upgrade, so I gave the Lawn Boy back to the old man and bought a brand new Honda – completely sans any sort of drive mechanism, thankyouverymuch.
While the new Honda is definitely a couple hundred steps above the old Lawn Boy, sometimes I do miss the old thing. The one Dad gave me had a barely functional muffler and rather “aggressive” throttle so it sounded more like a dirt bike than a lawnmower. Dang if the thing always worked, though. Even if I did learn the family cuss words for mowers.
Indestructible….. i ran out of oil one late fall day…did not want to run and buy oil. just put a little cooking grease in the tank. No problem. Smelled weird though.
I bought one of these three years ago for $75. Now I have an idea how old it is…
Some of the neighbors had these, and I always thought they were kind of showing off. Didn’t seem to me like it had anthing on my dad’s (practically speaking my) no-name Briggs and Stratton powered mower. It was also indestructable. Before I “inherited” it at age 11 or so, he never changed the oil and eventually seized it. He turned it over, put a 2×4 against the blade and hit it with a hammer until i freed up, and it ran another 20 years. Later, it was running poorly for me, and I saw hemlock needles in the carb – so I took the carb apart – no manual or anything – and it ran fine. I had no idea how complicated that was supposed to be…
Fascinating! (and so was Paul’s earlier article that you linked to). Don’t think I’ve ever seen a Lawnboy mower down here. Wouldn’t the front right corner where the chute is dig into the ground if it wasn’t dead flat?
As with many of you, my first experiences with internal combustion engines began with family lawn-mowing duties at around 10 yrs old. I wanted to buy Australia’s monthly Wheels car magazine, and lawn mowing enabled this. I grew to love lawnmowing, and still do – it’s a great work out. I enjoy sometimes mowing in patterns – eg I do my back lawn diagonally every now and then, just for the hell of it.
I have, though, been hexed when it comes to mowers. Most that I use have tended to be highly temperamental. In the mid-80s I was mowing my grandmother’s lawn one day (1970s Masport with the 3hp B&S engine), when something whizzed past my leg and the engine stopped. That’d be the conrod then…and it came out through the fuel tank for added excitement. Then in 1990 my grandfather bought a brand new Masport with B&S for his lake house. I fired it up for the first mow, mowed 10 metres and the front right wheel fell off and rolled across the road and down a hill…
Nowadays my mower of choice is a 1991 Victa Mustang GTS (‘GTS’=Guaranteed To Start) that Dad bought new but always hated. He gave it to me when I bought my first house in 1998, and he went back to some sort of ancient 1960s Masport with B&S. The Victa’s 2-stroke, and easily and noisily out-powers any B&S I’ve ever used. The alloy deck is slowly corroding (bits just disappear), the handles have stress-fractured twice, it churns through starter cords every 2-3yrs, and I had to have the engine freshened a decade ago, but nothing stops it – nothing! And it’s got the words “Mustang GTS” in its name – what motoring enthusiast wouldn’t love that!
Here ’tis:
could you please advise what type of victor lawn mower is this one
Been collecting and working on these things for years. If I stated how many I actually owned you guys would think I am sick in the head. The one in the picture is probably a 7268 or a 7229 making it a bit newer than a 1975. This one would be anywhere from a 78-84. You would have to run the serial to know the exact year. Lawn-Boy (omc) made this model for that many years and it was quite common and popular. They made the switch from magnesium to aluminum in 1975 as someone had asked. To the guy with the tan mowers you can be sure that those are from the 1960’s. 1950’s they made a gold color and the very first iron horse engine models had a red top and green deck. These were manufactured by RPM which was bought out by OMC eventually. The plant was located in Lamar MO. The tan models were 1965,67,69, There may have been a few economy 18 inch tan models in that amount of time as well. I could go on and on but that is the basis of the conversation had here.
I remember they briefly produced a pale yellow model as a lower priced mower. These all had horizontal pull starters that held up way better then the vertical pull units that came along later. The old RPM/Lawn-Boy with the wrap around starter and metal mesh air filter was a doozey! Rubber tires, Steel wheels and ball bearings! Yeah!
I have been looking for a mid to late 1970’s model lawnboy like the one in the picture. My dad bought one of those new in 1978. He had an auto accident in Oct.2004;when a lady driver hit him broadside at over 75mph and he was almost killed. He spent almost 8 months in the hospital having several surgeries and some very extensive rehab. Anyhow while he was hospitalized his mower was stolen. I live three states away and have been tryiny for nine years to find him a replacement. If anybody has one for sale that is still running please let me know.!!!!! Thanks and God Bless is my Prayers. Dad is 74 and it would please him so much to have it or one like it back.!!!!! Thanks again.!!!
Dan,
I can help you. The machine I have like this is fully restored and has not been cut with since the restoration so it would depend on what you were looking to spend as to whether I can help you out or not. Just being up front it isn’t a cheapie and I have money in the thing but if you are lookng to impress and cheer him this is a looker. I do ship if pick-up is not an option. nbravatto at gmail.
Hope to hear from you
I have a old lawn boy push mower. Very functional would be willing to sell to a collector , a true collectors item
I just revived this an ancient ATCO self propelled real Moa. 2 stroke Villiers motor fully revved up I cant catch it, cuts well though it needs the reel machining.
I have a 1979 lawn boy. It was given to me from my parents. They thought it was too old and has purchased three since they passed to me I still use it today to trim my yard. I get teased by family about still using the old reliable lawn boy. Love it. All I do is buy a spark plug and it fires up every spring. 35 years old.
Thanks for the article. I started mowing on a 60’s era Lawn-Boy with a red engine and green deck. After that we had one with a white plastic engine cover and a green deck. That one finally died in around 1978-1980 and I distinctly remember my mom and I shopping for its replacement. The salesman tried talking us into a Honda, but my mom told him that Dad would be upset if we didn’t buy a mower that was made in America. (Union man) So we went home with a new green Lawn-Boy like yours. Eventually I was fortunate enough to inherit that self propelled model. It lasted over 25 years until it eventually died.
When I shopped for its replacement, my salesman showed me about every model in the store except the leftover last two stroke model left. After he showed me all of the others, I said “What about this one?” The salesman said “You like these?”(A statement that still makes me laugh) I said “yes” and walked out with the last two stroke ever sold in that store. I figure if this one lasts as long as the previous Lawn-Boy, it should get me to retirement. The Gold Series doesn’t smoke as much as the older ones, except on start-up. Watch out mosquitoes!
Nostalgia being what it is , we tend to wax overly poetic and forget the bad and over emphasize the good. Lawn Boys are a excellent example of this. My father retailed Lawn Boy products for decades & I took over as he slowed down. My Lawn Boy memories from this era recall plastic carburetors that rarely performed properly. A bulletin for what Lawn Boy called a “Fuzz Problem”, and weak recoil starters. These mowers with the original plastic carbs would often starve for fuel on hillsides as well. Worst of all was the parent company and it’s distributers complete lack of support when a problem occurred. Lawn Boy continued to go downhill after closing the Galesburg facility as things got even worse. I remember when they introduced their solid state ignition, the failure rate was so bad Lawn Boy couldn’t produce replacement CDI’s fast enough. IF you go back to the late 50’s and early 60’s Lawn Boys were a lot better quality. You only had to put up with excess smoke , fouled Spark Plugs, and carbon blocked exhaust ports. Once gasohol became our prevalent fuel , and air pollution standards were written , 2-stroke mowers were doomed.
How old would a Lawn Boy R 8237 self-propelled ser. no. 965569 be, and does anyone want to buy it, complete, clean, but not running? Ray
Someone dug this old post up, and I feel compelled to comment! One of my earliest gigs was as a power equipment mechanic at a very busy saw shop in Montana, and over my five years there, I somehow morphed into the Lawn Boy specialist. This was partially because LB’s are different enough from your average 4 cycle mower, that the other guys weren’t keen on working on them and/or figuring out how to. They’re kind of like that as far as owners and users go, too. Some people won’t use *anything* else, and others hate Lawn Boys with as much hate as you can muster toward a grass cutting appliance.
Soo… This mower actually dates from 1978 to 1982. CPSC started requiring the oft maligned blade brake from June 30th 1982 forward, and I’ll guess logistics may have seen it enter production by the end of ’81. 1978 was the first use of the new F Series engine, which featured a needle bearing at the bottom end, replacing the babbitt used for the lower main on the previous D Series… this was one of the only weak spots on LB’s engines, tending to wear enough to cause a crankcase air leak over time, especially if you used a poorly balanced blade. Once that happened, the engine would become cantankerous and difficult to start, often leading to the delicate vertical pull starter getting yoinked apart by a frustrated person just trying to get the damn thing to run. Yes. OMC specifically designed the recoil starter to have a teeny pull handle to emphasize how easy it was to start just with one’s fingertips. And yeah, if you didn’t have a crankcase leak and the thing was reasonably maintained, the mower would almost always start with one or two little tugs.
Only other thing was that CDI modules would occasionally fail… and they had the oddity that you had to ground the primary circuit for spark, opposite of any other Lawn Boy model… or any other small engine I can think of. Installing the wrong one would make the mower run in the “Off” position and kill the engine when turned “On”. If I had to choose one lawnmower to last me the rest of my life, it would be one of these exact models. Light, easy to push and start. With a 32:1 mix with the correct oil and a cleaned and re-oiled air filter, I honestly don’t think you could kill one.
As a kid my next door neighbor had a Lawn Boy just like the one pictured. He was an absolute yard nazi. He used that Lawn Boy to keep his yard perfectly manicured, even mowing in different directions to be fancy. My dad hated the neighbors guts for that because we were not “yard people” lol. Our yard stayed mowed by a kid down the street until I got old enough. Good memories
Generally I detest 2-stroke engines. Their noise grates on my nerves, and their stench makes me ill. But I can’t help grudgingly respecting the ones OMC put on Lawn Boy mowers.