I stumbled across a 16 HP 30 cube horizontal vanny today, it has a broke rod...it beat the piston up and left the crank a little to be desired but looks like itll polish up.  Not even a mark on the block though.  I've got a 18 HP 35 cub vertical vanny also...it's in running shape....any chance the cranks are the same or similar?

Ok pretty simple....I am playing around with the idea of building a rig that might put the transmission input and engine pulleys pretty close together.....without having built it I estimate a distance of about 13" between centers of the shafts.  It would probably end up being about a 30" +/- belt all said and done.  I'm tryin to decide if this is the route I wanna go with this.  Issues we have come up with are lack of belt belt wrap and clutch design issues....but I'm looking for input from folks who have actually dealt with this first hand.

I have a small vtwin vanguard.  I have been freshening it up for a project, it has one of those electric fuel solenoids on the carb bowl.  On OHVs I have always taken those solenoids off and cut off the plunger or just replaced them with a bolt to hold the bowl on.  The solenoid on this carb looks a bit different, has two sets of threads and it has holes drilled in it.  Either way- I "modified" the carb by cutting off the plunger and part of the threaded section of the solenoid and it is dumping gas out of the overflow.  There is a good chance the carb just needs rebuilt, but I need to override this solenoid.  Can I just replace it with a bolt like I do my singles?  Thanks in advance!

Sorry- I'm an extreme NOOB to the world of mower racing.  Been playing with mud trucks for years but some buddys and I started leisurely racing in our back yards.  So I have an 18 hp intek motor.  Where can I get aftermarket parts for this motor?  Is there an advantage to having AVS when modifying?  I'm looking to start with piston, rod, maybe crank, cam, valvetrain, flywheel.  No major mods just bolt in stuff to start. Anything I need to know please fire away, I am all about learning in this point.  Thanks in advance,

Scott