Bobcat M21 with tough to find Briggs two cycle engine

[old 040]

Snipped this off C-list this last week on the cheap, I've been on the lookout for one of these engines for years with no luck, and ironically had just been talking about this series engine with my co-worker earlier the same day that I found it, it also was a close ride for pick up, these Bobcats were based on the Sensation mowers, pretty sure Bobcat bought Sensation out, extra heavy duty and runs great, will clean it up when the weather breaks, but still stoked to have it!.....

 

[heimannm]

Very interesting, I was not aware that B&S ever got into 2 cycle engines. The engine looks to be fairly modern with the complete shrouding, but the mower has a distinct vintage look to it, any idea when it was made?

FWIW, if I have my details straight, Robert McCulloch married a Briggs (from the Briggs & Stratton clan) and Ralph Evinrude was an uncle.

Mark

 

[old 040]

Very interesting, I was not aware that B&S ever got into 2 cycle engines. The engine looks to be fairly modern with the complete shrouding, but the mower has a distinct vintage look to it, any idea when it was made?

FWIW, if I have my details straight, Robert McCulloch married a Briggs (from the Briggs & Stratton clan) and Ralph Evinrude was an uncle.

Mark

Engine is date coded from 1987, this series of two cycles were only around a couple years, Briggs also made the 62030 series two cycle engines late 70's/early 80's?, I've only seen them on the Atlas made single stage snowblowers, from what I've read, Bobcat bought out Sensation mower corp, I owned one of those at one time, the decks are nearly identical, here's a couple pics of one on my local C-list at the moment.

 

[Locust Cutter]

Hell I'd like to have something tough like that as a farm mower for tight areas.

 

[old 040]

Hell I'd like to have something tough like that as a farm mower for tight areas.

Yep, they're built like a tank!

 

[heimannm]

'87 seems modern to me, but predates many of the kids who drop by these forums...I have to wonder why B&S would have been messing around with 2 strokes in the 70's and 80's given the focus on emission controls in those days. I was led to believe that one on the major reasons the McCulloch balanced piston two strokes (BP-1 chainsaw, BP-399T snowmobile) were so short lived were their excessive emissions of unburnt fuel mix.

Makr

 

[Locust Cutter]

That BP-1 is a blast to run though!

 

[Steve]

'87 seems modern to me, but predates many of the kids who drop by these forums...

I was born in 86 so does that mean I'm a man?

 

[Steve]

Snipped this off C-list this last week on the cheap, I've been on the lookout for one of these engines for years with no luck, and ironically had just been talking about this series engine with my co-worker earlier the same day that I found it, it also was a close ride for pick up, these Bobcats were based on the Sensation mowers, pretty sure Bobcat bought Sensation out, extra heavy duty and runs great, will clean it up when the weather breaks, but still stoked to have it!.....View attachment 47249 View attachment 47250

What is the displacement of that engine?
Reed valve or piston ported?

Very, very cool!

 

[KYsawman]

Bobcat and bunton merged in the late eighties. and they sold the same sensation built mower as a bunton also. Buntons where green and the bobcats where orange. John deere ran the briggs and stratton two cycle on there push mowers, the silver cast aluminum deck ones of the eighties. Alot of the commercial push mowers had two cycle options, toro ran suzuki two cycles, Lawn boy where all two cycle, and tecumseh had several different two cycle models that where used by different manufactures.

 

[Locust Cutter]

The Suzukis on the Toros were pretty tough and powerful. I wish I could find a nice one for around the farm.

 

[old 040]

'87 seems modern to me, but predates many of the kids who drop by these forums...I have to wonder why B&S would have been messing around with 2 strokes in the 70's and 80's given the focus on emission controls in those days. I was led to believe that one on the major reasons the McCulloch balanced piston two strokes (BP-1 chainsaw, BP-399T snowmobile) were so short lived were their excessive emissions of unburnt fuel mix.

Makr

I've also found that Briggs had these engines made to their specs by Komatsu/Zenoah, also the stricter EPA requirements on small engines didn't start until 1995, why Briggs opted out of keeping this series of engines around I don't have an answer for, at least not yet, maybe it was do to the up-coming restrictions in 1995, just a guess though.

 

[old 040]

What is the displacement of that engine?
Reed valve or piston ported?

Very, very cool!

As with almost all Briggs model numbers, the first and or first two digits are the cubic inch displacement, in this case, 9 cubic inch. These were piston ported.

 

[old 040]

On a side note, maybe I should send this thing down to Randy and have him port it!.........

 

[old 040]

Bobcat and bunton merged in the late eighties. and they sold the same sensation built mower as a bunton also. Buntons where green and the bobcats where orange. John deere ran the briggs and stratton two cycle on there push mowers, the silver cast aluminum deck ones of the eighties. Alot of the commercial push mowers had two cycle options, toro ran suzuki two cycles, Lawn boy where all two cycle, and tecumseh had several different two cycle models that where used by different manufactures.

I have seen pics of the orange Bobcats, but clearly as mine would indicate, they also came in green.

 

[old 040]

Snapper also used this Briggs two cycle for a short while.

 

[old 040]

Masport also used the Briggs two cycle briefly.

 

[KYsawman]

I had a snapper that ran a tecumseh two cycle, very simular to the little snowblower engines and the engine that was used on the eskimo ice augers.Not mine but a picture of what mine looked like.

 

[old 040]

I had a snapper that ran a tecumseh two cycle, very simular to the little snowblower engines and the engine that was used on the eskimo ice augers.Not mine but a picture of what mine looked like.

About 25 years ago I owned an MTD mower that used that same engine as well.

 

[old 040]

Very interesting, I was not aware that B&S ever got into 2 cycle engines. The engine looks to be fairly modern with the complete shrouding, but the mower has a distinct vintage look to it, any idea when it was made?

FWIW, if I have my details straight, Robert McCulloch married a Briggs (from the Briggs & Stratton clan) and Ralph Evinrude was an uncle.

Mark

Would make sense about Bob and Briggs, Robert, Steve Briggs and Ralph were all in the outboard business, Steve formed OMC.