I just recently discovered the wonderful world of antique engines. I was watching a guy on YT who found an old chainsaw engine and two old Homelite generators. I thought "Hey, that's COOL!" I then discover the Maytag washer engine. That engine is so small and cute! I'm itching to get a Maytag Model 92 for christmas. I've seen them on ebay in the $200 to $400 range. Does anyone else collect old engines, and can you help me get started?

I have three two stroke diesel ("all fuel") engines from a now out of business company called "two stroke international". They are WICKED fast and sound funny when running.  They were built for the military for portable hot water systems.  I bought four and sold two to a friend.  They are meant to be set at a certain RPM and left there.  Would be sweet for a generator.  The funny thing is they use two spark plugs in the main cylinder to get the fuel going.  Once the engine is warm, the spark plugs are no longer necessary.  They have a timing belt driven "injection" cylinder that has a little carburetor much like a weed whacker.  It compresses the fuel mixture there and injects it into the main cylinder.  This reminds me I need to get one of them out and run it!
Here is the former plant: http://www.twostrokeengineplant.com/

Guess what I'm getting for Christmas! Saturday 11-22-14, my dad bought me a Maytag 92 from Ebay. I'm just gonna tinker with it and see if I can slowly get it running and working good. Now I've just gotta find stuff to power with it. The photo is from the Ebay auction, it is the exact engine I will be getting.

Very cool!

Though not quite antique, this old 2-stroke is what I'm working on.  Its a 1991 Rotax Type 253 snowmobile engine in my Ski-Doo Tundra.  It needs a little work, but runs pretty good.  The biggest problem with the whole machine was a damaged fuel tank, and I just finished replacing a fuel tank this evening.  These engines often used straight gas and had mechanical oil injection, but the injection system was notoriously unreliable, and many owners disabled it.  Enough that Bombardier started selling an oil injection eliminator kit.  The holes in the end of the recoil starter accommodate the injection pump.  Obviously, with the injection system removed, the oil must be premixed in the fuel.

Interesting little engine.  At a time when snowmobiles were getting quite sophisticated, with multiple cylinders, liquid cooling, multiple carburetors or fuel injection and rotary valves, the Tundra was a very simple machine, with a single cylinder, air cooled, piston port engine.  No electric start, so if the engine doesn't want to fire off right away, your arm gets tired fast.

DieselNut, I'm suprised more things aren't mulifuel! Are the ones you have in any way similar to those 60s-80s "Deuce and a half" military trucks? (Since some of those have multifuel engines). 

Made some progress on the snowmobile engine.  Though the new fuel tank helped, the machine was still notoriously hard to start. but ran good once it was going.  My research indicated the CDI module was on it's way out, generating too weak of a spark when the engine was being roped over.  I ordered a new one, and installed it this evening.  5 pumps on the primer and 3 pulls on the rope and the engine was running!  Still has an issue with the idle screw working it's way closed.  After I got it running, the idle worked shut, the engine died and flooded.

@icefoglights, I bet that was really frustrating! BTW did you get that Maxa 4000 fully operational yet?

Haven't done much with it yet.  Been busy, and having to work outside on it isn't a great motivator.

For the snowmobile, it seems to still be tricky to start, but a shot of ether down the carb and it will fire right up.  Pain to setup though.  I'd like to rig a quick connect tube for starting fluid into the carb, instead of having to disassemble things.  Some of it may have to do with the gas not being the freshest, having sat all summer in the old, not sealed gas tank.  Another issue is priming it is very touchy.  It's a very thin line between no fuel yet and flooded.

Hey Dave, any news on the Maytag?

It runs. I ran it out of gas so I could clean the gas tank and carb. It's a work in progress. Maybe after I get my GE fans fixed up, I'll start on the Maytag.

Spent Thursday evening fighting with the Tundra.  There's no obvious reason it shouldn't want to run, but it doesn't want to run.  When it does finally start, it doesn't seem as strong as it should be.  Decided to annoy the neighbors and took a WOT run down the road with my GPS and just barely hit 32 MPH.  It's just not a lot of fun when you have to fight with the thing for an hour to get it running, and don't trust it to get you back home if you ride it somewhere.

Bit the bullet, hit Craigslist and today I brought home a 2007 Arctic Cat BearCat.  It's a nice combination of modern and basic, and man does it go!  70 MPH was quite terrifying    Needless to say my lighting goodies budget is shot for the next little while.

Should have seen this one coming.  Now that I've bought a new sled, the old one decides to shape up.  Suspecting it could have been bad gas.  It's firing up cold with one pull now.  Little trouble getting off idle, but otherwise running fine.  The new sled is still so much nicer to ride though.  Although the engine is over double the displacement, it's quite a bit quieter.

I was going to try to sell off the old sled, but since it's running fine, I'm going to hold onto it for now.

Anyone familiar with two-stroke outboard motors? I hate those things...mainly mixing the gas with the oil for the one I use regularly.

Not that familiar with the motors themselves.  See if a local hardware, marine, or power sports store has a Ratio Rite.  They help, though I wish they were bigger.  For the Tundra, I have to manually mix the gas.  I just have a gas can I use for it, and mix it up at the gas pump when I fill the can.  It's kind of convienient that it's fuel tank is only just under 6 gallons, so a standard 5 gal. gas can is about perfect.  The BearCat has oil injection, which is nice because it holds 13 gallons of fuel.  I still have to mix gas for it to 100:1 for the first run of the riding season.

I know the ratio...1.5Oz for every gallon of gas but I still hate the chore of mixing...what is a Ratio Rite anyway?
I really hate the idea of 2-stroke generators, imagine mixing that gas every day!
On a side note, I'm amazed more engines aren't "multifuel" but I'm mechanically ignorant so I wouldn't know why.  As far as that goes, that's another reason I'd like to eventually own a "Deuce and a half"...you can run them on used motor oil, which I have great access to!

It's a measuring cup for mixing oil.  Has various measurements, as well as ratios for different amounts of gas.  Can either measure out ounces with it, or, in the case of a 5 gallon gas can, fill the cup with oil up to the 50:1 mark for 2.5 gallons, dump it in the gas can, and repeat.  The down side of the thing is it doesn't have ratios for 5 gallons, so you just have to use the 2.5 gallon ratio twice.  When I have to make the 100:1 fuel, I'll just use the 50:1 mark for 2.5 gallons but only fill it once.

I am glad most things I use often are 4-stroke, and I don't have to worry about mixing up gas.  The only things we have that are 2-stroke are a chainsaw and two snowmobiles, and one of those has oil injection.