There have been a couple of guys here that have done a repower of that blower with the 212 cc honda clone from harbor freight. That being said if you prefer the Honda, you should look at the gx160 as it is the motor that was cloned. The gx160 goes for about $350 and the clone can be had for $90 with a coupon.

 

I would suggest that you keep in mind that "with power, comes responsibility" Which is my lame way of saying that you can strap on all the ponies you want to, but if the rest of the machine is only designed to withstand the torque of 3.5 HP and you double it to 7, something else might break (gearbox first probably) when you really start to make her dig. That being said, you can more than likely bump it up a little way. Toros are pretty well built.
JMHO
Larry

 

hello lrmill, welcome to SBF!! the frame of the 3521 is the same one used on the 421 and 521 so if the plan is to upgrade tp the predator 212 motor you should only have minor problems

 

thanks to all I'll try the praetor from harbor freight , couple of miles from house easy access listed at $ 119.00. thanks for the i site!! lrmill

 

Prlnt a coupon off their website and you can get it for $89.99

 

I used the older style Greyhound engines Harbor Freight used to tell. The chute crank is going to be in the way and will need moved or modified. Everything else was a perfect fit. I went with the high tech classy approach as can be seen below.

 

Nice, does the extra 3 hp help ? or why did u replace the 3.5 tec

 

The Tecumseh was leaking oil and running like crap. It actually ran out of oil and started to lock up on me from full before the gas tank emptied. It did run again after I added more oil, but I didn't really know what I was doing back then. For $100 it seemed like an easy fix.

Seemed to run fine. I only used it for that year or maybe year and a half. I like my Ariens now.

 

I did this swap with mine. Very easy and the extra power makes all the difference. Only thing I don't like about the predator engine is the gas cap can be fun to open with gloves on.

 

I had more trouble with the Greyhound gas cap. I think it was because the filter had to be turned just right.

 

Thanks Shryp never though of the filter. I will have to look and see if maybe mine is in the correct position. I don't remember it being so hard to open when It was brand new.

 

thanks, i wanted to know if extra power helps this machine...i see that it will thanks a lot lrmill01

 

I forgot I did a video of the finished product. Now this is only about 1-2 inches and it was still throwing it over the fence which is about 15 feet from where I was blowing.