Search YouTube for V8 lawn mowers, and you’ll find no shortage of homebuilt oddities. The ones created by Florida Man alone could take days to watch. But how about a totally homebuilt V8 riding mower, one where the engine was completely made by one person in his garage? Needless to say, it got our attention.
We love strange things like homemade vehicles or offbeat, weird, and downright bizarre creations. The old Ford Maverick with a lawn mower carburetor is one we still talk about. But we also can’t get enough of the creations on Lyckebo Mekaniska’s YouTube channel, starting with how he fabricates his own V8 engine from scrap aluminum.
Next, he mills and assembles the parts, including the cylinder head, crankshaft, and camshafts. The only thing that isn’t made in his shop is the Ford distributor he bought off eBay. He designed the engine himself, and the end result is a work of art. Everything from the drawings to the fabrication and final assembly looks incredibly professional. We know very little about the craftsman behind this feat of engineering. The description in the YouTube bio only says, “I like engines of all kinds that make a noise.”
Did we mention the guy is thorough? Some people would be satisfied with getting their homebuilt engine running. But this guy is working on improving it. He installs an oil-pressure release valve to fix an oil leak at high RPMs. The engine runs too lean, requiring a choke all the time, so he fashions an adjustable main jet.
The real reason we’re all here is to see if this thing actually works. Looking around the shop, we see a yellow Partner P115 garden tractor. We can’t help but think he specifically planned the engine for this particular riding mower. His work is too precise for it to be an afterthought. But the tractor thing is introduced in a kind of “hold my beer” moment, which adds to the entertainment value.
The final results speak for themselves. The air-cooled V8 sounds like a single-engine airplane and is more than up to the challenge of motivating the vehicle. We have no idea how fast this thing would be. But for its maker, it’s clear the fun comes from building a working engine from scratch.
