Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I had done some calculations for my Ariens as follows.
Going from the standard 2 3/4" engine pulley up to a 3 1/4".
Would give me a 200 rpm increase.
Which would in turn increase the tip velocity of the impeller blades from 4026 up to 4762 ft/sec.
That I would think, should be enough of an increase to be noticeable. Probably in the travel speed needed to clear
a certain depth of snow in a certain amount of time. Which is what I am interested in.
A throwing distance increase may also be in there somewhere. But anything beyond say 30' is just kind of icing on the cake.
 Because of the different sizes of the snow stream that different chute and deflectors create.
It's hard to qualify the tons per hour capacity by the throwing distance alone.  Even though a 60' throw may look impressive.

I parted out a HS928 and remember a few of the measurement. The engine drive pulley was at least 3 1/4" and may
have been 3 1/2"  The impeller shaft pulley was right at 8" (9" on my Ariens). Don't remember measuring the impeller dia.
But they are 3 bladed if I remember correctly.  My Ariens is 14" with 6 blades.
Honda's for sure run faster than most blowers. But maybe not that much faster than some of the newer blowers on the market.

Since reducing the clearance between the impeller blades and the housing on my blower. I can now say for sure that doing so makes a
very noticeable difference in the efficiency of the blower.(I believe that Honda's have fairly tight clearances)  Especially in the wet and slushy stuff. It blows out everything that it takes in and doesn't seem
to strain as much when doing so.  I haven't yet put on the bigger drive pulley. Was hoping to get a chance to try it with the larger engine and impeller modifications
before increasing the rpm.  But I'm getting impatient waiting for 6" or more of snow to fall.  It's always a balancing act between speeding up the blower rpm and
having enough power/torque to maintain the tonnage flow through the blower at a certain speed. I'm hoping that the HP increase and higher torque of the new
OHV engine will allow me to use the larger pulley.  At the very least the new clone is going to show better results than my old 10hp Tecumseh.
Although I am somewhat wishing that I had gone with the 13Hp instead of the 11Hp. If I had the larger pulley would already been on the blower.
Not only is it not snowing here it's supposed to get into the mid forties later in the week. I guess I should just enjoy it, there is still plenty of winter time left.

Judging by the photo of the stock pulley. I would think that your choice of 3" or 3 1/4" would be just about right.  And 3 1/4" would probably work out the best.
 In one of your photos it looks like you have a 27" blower?  If that's true you've got plenty of engine to drive the blower using a larger pulley. 
You could also try using a piece of 1/2" rope to gauge about how long a belt your going to need. Cut the end off nice and clean, hold it in the groove on top of the engine pulley.
 Wrap it around  the impeller pulley pull it up tight to the end your holding in the pulley. Mark the point with your thumb and then measure the rope.  OPE belts from like Advance Auto
only come in one inch increments.  So you can usually get one that will fit and work on the first try.  Just a thought. Good luck, keep us posted.