Garage Mechanic Installs 420CC ‘Big Block’ Engine In Honda Insight
Let the lawnmower jokes flow! This Insight with a 420cc mower engine proves welders with free time make awesome stuff.
Robot Cantina has an incredibly fascinating YouTube channel. Namely, because they have one of the most unique and bizarre builds we’ve ever come across. This unique build came to our attention, because they are utilizing lawnmower power in a Honda Insight.
If you’ve followed their channel before this, you’ll know this Insight has already had a lawnmower engine in it. Robot Cantina was able to source a 212cc single cylinder engine for $100.00 and decided to see just how much performance they could get. It turns out 6.5 horsepower doesn’t do all that much, especially when challenged by a hill. So they went about getting a hot camshaft in it. Amazingly, in the 212cc version, the creators of this contraption could get the Insight up to 50 miles per hour on a flat section of road. 0-30 miles per hour? A bit over 20 seconds. That’s a lot of get-up-and-try.
Now, it was time for a bigger motor. Robot Cantina sourced a 420cc motor, which they have dubbed the “big block” in jest. With more than double the power of the 212cc engine , they are hoping to have a real-world usable lawnmower powered insight.
And it’s not a hack job, either. The 420cc engine has an alternator, an electric start, a manual choke, and more. Even the effort put in to the exhaust is impressive. A full system was built to let the tailpipe exit in the factory location. In fact, more effort was put into this single exhaust system than some SEMA builds we’ve seen in the past.
Impressively, it still even retains the Insight’s five-speed manual transmission. But it transfers that power via a drive belt. It’s an interesting setup, but somehow it still works. We don’t get to see the car on the road just yet, as Robot Cantina is in rural Michigan and is still snowed in.
But now’s a great time to place bets – how fast can this 16 horsepower behemoth actually achieve? Can it hit 55? What about 60? Can it get close to the car’s original 107 mile per hour top speed?
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