I have an old victa utility from the 80's which originally had a power torque 2T engine but now has a sprint 375 4 stroke engine ..
So It needs new blades and im wondering if I really have to hunt out utility blades which are not all that common locally or can i get away with more common mulch/catch blades, and if I use catch/mulch blades on the utility deck will it effect the mower from throwing grass out the side
The Utility bases do slightly differ from year to year ,you need to check blade clearance.
Just be careful when you use fluted blades on a utility as it depends on blade plate and blades ,sometimes I grind 1/8 of an inch off the end off the blades for clearance but mostly with the utility I get a big punch and hammer the side outward as the higher part of the flute usually rubs because the side of the mower tapers as it goes up.
From memory it's just one spot that rubs ,I've had a lot of utilities where the base wasn't panel beaten out and the blades have cut through the base in this corner.
With the muffler you can do as Norm suggested with a round muffler or do what Briggs and Stratton did when the muffler faces the operator, just screw on the deflector ,the deflector fits round or rectangular muffler.
The mufflers are made with 4 holes to fit the deflector.
I would usually just re drill the engine bolt holes in the base so the motor isn't mounted sideways ,I have the top part of a power torque base that has the holes for 2 and 4 stroke ,you bolt the plate on and drill any missing holes for different mounting positions.
Hi Max, thanks for the tip about the blades, I will take a good look and sort that out if needed..
Been thinking of making some sort of deflector out of tin or even alloy, it shouldn't be too hard to fix something up, there is probably something at bunnos off the shelf that will bolt right on its just a matter of knowing where to look
Just noticed the muffler actually only has one bolt holding it on, hopefully taking it off does not end up a can of worms
I've had mowers where someone has just screwed a bent alloy plate to the muffler to deflect the exhaust.
When one muffler bolt is broken and I can't be bothered drilling the bolt out I just fit the round muffler as the internal thread is in the exhaust port on these motors.
I noticed the muffler deflectors in the ODK store but postage is a bit of a killer on that one
So I ended up copying Max's idea of cutting out an old victa PT base that has both 2 / 4 stroke bolt holes and will turn the engine back around the correct way, to be honest i got sick of looking at the engine sitting sideways
If you cut up an old PT base to get the bolt pattern , you just bolt the plate onto the base and drill the missing holes then remove the plate as it saves time and the holes don't move when drilling, I also put the Honda holes into the plate.
A long time ago I mostly stopped selling 2 strokes Norm as they sold for less ,took longer to sell and having buyers that had no idea about mixing oil with fuel ,even though it was explained to them how to mix the right amount of oil with fuel they would still bring them back straight fueled the next day.
