I bought a cheapo Briggs and Stratton from Home Depot three years ago, I've had problems with it from day 1, plastic carburetor, the red priming button dried up and went bad, the tank rusted out and clogged the carb up, and I've had the carb. apart at least a dozen times from dirt clogging the filter up, but the gaskets kits are only a dollar. You see one of these newer B+S motors, turn around and run. They used to, like a lot of the models, be very good. You get what you pay for nowadays though. A decent Honda or Husqavarna will cost you, but almost never break.
I had a different intentions even before I bought this cheapo B+S of converting it to run on alcohol(ethanol or E85, whatever you want to call it). Let me reiterate, all the problems I've had have had NOTHING to do with me converting it to alcohol, it was a piece of junk giving me problems long before I converted it. Anyhoo, I would never cut up a perfectly good Honda either. The conversion was really simple. I took the carb, went to a machinist's shop and got a tiny drill bit the next size up that I need to bore it out(make it run richer). I changed the spark plug to a hotter grade one as well. That's it. I can run a mix of gas-ethanol from E50 all the way up to E90. I don't run straight alcohol as it dries out the gaskets and valves too quickly.
I make my own alcohol for fuel from fruit in my backyard and a simple pot still I bought on E-bay. The permits are free from the Feds for fuel purposes. I make about 2-3 gallons a year which isn't quite enough so I buy some E85 in a 5 gallon jug once a year. E85 is about $.30-40 cheaper than gas, sometimes even less.
I did have one of those push mowers, they work well on small yards as long as you don't let the grass get more than 4 inches tall. :wink: