Will a briggs and stratton lawn mower engine work sitting on its side?

mowing a grass wall?

doubt it. when my lawnmower goes up or down hill it runs like a bag of poop and starts to burn oil and smoke like a trooper.

4 stroke no, the crancase base is the oil sump.

2 stroke will be ok, providing the carb is set to its original orientation, i.e. float bowl at the bottom.

But Briggs do make vertical & horizontal crank engines so if you need to you should be able to pick something up to do what you want.

I want to make a fan powered small boat for a local make your own power craft competition. I thought a petrol hover type engine mounted above the mower blade might suffice. But as you guys rightly pointed out the sump should be at the bottom.

To enter the comp I need to build a powered craft. Man power not allowed. Budget of 75 quid max. I thought a fan powered boat might be fun (as I have a fan and suitable guard) but I need a petrol engine to power it.

how about an engine off a suffolk punch cylinder mower?

or a big V8 ...............

I thought about the suffolk engine. As the power comes off the side and its train driven. Could be a simple process to mount a fan on it.

I think you'd find a Suffolk Punch engine a bit lacking in thrust, they are only about 1.5bhp (downhill with a following wind and the governor removed!).

[Edited on 19/5/10 by MikeRJ]

LEC?

Why not a Cub motor C50/70 or 90 or any other moped. PTO off the front sprocket.

Twas a few year back but I bought one to go round the fields for £35 and a pack of No6 (okay it was quite a while back).

- Jim

Honda do a 4 hp one for pressure washers horizontal shaft.