Need small engine help - snow blower and its snowing

[chopsaw]

And I agree with you . I just had one that had a hung intake valve and a gummed up carb. Yes , today's fuel is hell on these .

 

[pineywoods]

Call a local parts house or two and ask if they have a product called "Mechanic in a bottle" if they do run down and get a bottle and try using it according to the directions on the label before you mess with it or order a new carb it may surprise you.

Also run ethanol free gas you won't have near as many problems

 

[DougE]

And I agree with you . I just had one that had a hung intake valve and a gummed up carb. Yes , today's fuel is hell on these .

Good dose of brake kleen through the intake port should sort the gummed up valve. lol

 

[Brokenhandle]

All right guys, start yelling at me now, I have it coming! Sorry I can't help so much with your carburetor repair, wished I could but don't know enough about them. But do know it can be cured without replacing the whole carb. I'm a farmer, I raise corn, I have ran ethanol fuel in my vehicles for 30 years, with no issues. Yes I do know it's harder on small engines but a small amount of sea foam in each fill up does wonders.
Hope ya get it running! Winter storm warning for us tomorrow... 5 to 10 inches of snow with 30 mph winds. Today was calm, sunny, and mid 50s.

Ryan

 

[DougE]

All right guys, start yelling at me now, I have it coming! Sorry I can't help so much with your carburetor repair, wished I could but don't know enough about them. But do know it can be cured without replacing the whole carb. I'm a farmer, I raise corn, I have ran ethanol fuel in my vehicles for 30 years, with no issues. Yes I do know it's harder on small engines but a small amount of sea foam in each fill up does wonders.
Hope ya get it running! Winter storm warning for us tomorrow... 5 to 10 inches of snow with 30 mph winds. Today was calm, sunny, and mid 50s.

Ryan

Fortunately there ain't too many gas tractors left around. I will grant you that when one of my diesels tear up, it gets into my pockets a whole lot quicker. lol Diesels are expensive to work on even when I'm the mechanic. I said earlier that I did head gaskets on my chevy duramax and parts alone ran me nearly 3 grand. I didn't cheap out on anything and did it right, though.

 

[Fueling Around]

...
I'm a farmer, I raise corn, I have ran ethanol fuel in my vehicles for 30 years, with no issues. Yes I do know it's harder on small engines but a small amount of sea foam in each fill up does wonders.
Hope ya get it running! Winter storm warning for us tomorrow... 5 to 10 inches of snow with 30 mph winds. Today was calm, sunny, and mid 50s.

Ryan

Ryan and all
Ethanol blended fuel is not harder on the basic engine function than basic unleaded fuel.
Ethanol blends causes gunking from non use and erodes gaskets. Ethanol in fuel takes in water the longer it sits in the tank or can.

Corn is a four letter word for wheat, soybean, and sugar beet growers.
The beet pulp after the sugar extraction goes to an ethanol plant. The ethanol goes to Commifornia as it is the greenest to meet their rules.

Fortunately there ain't too many gas tractors left around. I will grant you that when one of my diesels tear up, it gets into my pockets a whole lot quicker. lol Diesels are expensive to work on even when I'm the mechanic. I said earlier that I did head gaskets on my chevy duramax and parts alone ran me nearly 3 grand. I didn't cheap out on anything and did it right, though.

The head studs were probably most of the parts parts bill?

 

[Brokenhandle]

Fortunately there ain't too many gas tractors left around. I will grant you that when one of my diesels tear up, it gets into my pockets a whole lot quicker. lol Diesels are expensive to work on even when I'm the mechanic. I said earlier that I did head gaskets on my chevy duramax and parts alone ran me nearly 3 grand. I didn't cheap out on anything and did it right, though.

The ethanol gas just goes in cars and older pickups, plus mowers and such. As my avatar shows all tractors are diesels. Just love my 06 duramax tho, 226,000 miles. They are a machine!

Ryan

 

[DougE]

The head studs were probably most of the parts parts bill?

A fair part of it. ARP studs are a little pricy. Then there were the new injector lines, they weren't cheap. I had a mild surge at idle before I tore it down, so I replaced the fuel pressure regulator while I was in there. that was a couple hundred. There are cheaper fuel pressure regulators out there, but they all got crap reviews, so I went with the OEM Bosch regulator. I had coolant getting in the crank case. The oil cooler was blown, so that was the first thing replaced. Coolant loss got better after that, but didn't go away and I also actually had pressure in my cooling system after the cooler replacement, but it wasn't the whole problem. I also replaced the water pump while it was tore down to eliminate the possibility that coolant was getting into the crank case from there. I got screwed when I traded my old Dodge Cummins to the Chevy, but the coolant loss was slow enough that it took awhile to figure out it was going into the crank case. Rather than put fresh oil in it and trade it back off and have someone else get screwed, I bit the bullet and fixed it. I'd have a hard time sleeping knowing someone else got screwed. I couldda done the same thing the last guy did and traded it on a fresh oil change. Nobody would have caught it, but I gotta live with myself.

 

[pineywoods]

Ryan if you lived in Florida you'd have a different take on ethanol gas. It about crippled the pleasure boat industry it "cleaned" fuel tanks and clogged fuel lines, filters and such. Add to that it broke down those fuel lines that weren't designed for it. For quite awhile you couldn't get a boat into the shop to get it fixed they were so backed up. Many fuel tanks either cleaned or replaced over time pretty much all fuel hoses replaced. It also did a number in the old cars. More modern vehicles ran fine on it unless you didn't drive your vehicle for extended periods of time then you didn't just have the carb problems we were used to you had fuel tanks rusted in tank fuel pumps rusted out. My father had a 1999 Ford F150 that he let sit for long periods I was busy so he had it towed to the local Ford dealer where they had to get the fuel out and replace the tank and fuel pump. He had a motorhome that he let sit as well I drained the about 90 gals of gas/water in the tank dropped the tank which was a royal pain and cleaned the inside the tank the best I could and replaced the fuel pump and put it back in. Well right now it's sitting at my place waiting for me to pull the tank again and replace it when I find a new tank and find help to pull and replace it. I run ethanol in vehicles and that's it utility vehicles, mower, log splitter, chain saws and other equipment all get ethanol free.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Ryan if you lived in Florida you'd have a different take on ethanol gas. It about crippled the pleasure boat industry it "cleaned" fuel tanks and clogged fuel lines, filters and such. Add to that it broke down those fuel lines that weren't designed for it. For quite awhile you couldn't get a boat into the shop to get it fixed they were so backed up. Many fuel tanks either cleaned or replaced over time pretty much all fuel hoses replaced. It also did a number in the old cars. More modern vehicles ran fine on it unless you didn't drive your vehicle for extended periods of time then you didn't just have the carb problems we were used to you had fuel tanks rusted in tank fuel pumps rusted out. My father had a 1999 Ford F150 that he let sit for long periods I was busy so he had it towed to the local Ford dealer where they had to get the fuel out and replace the tank and fuel pump. He had a motorhome that he let sit as well I drained the about 90 gals of gas/water in the tank dropped the tank which was a royal pain and cleaned the inside the tank the best I could and replaced the fuel pump and put it back in. Well right now it's sitting at my place waiting for me to pull the tank again and replace it when I find a new tank and find help to pull and replace it. I run ethanol in vehicles and that's it utility vehicles, mower, log splitter, chain saws and other equipment all get ethanol free.

Yes I know it's all different to each and every one of us. About tomorrow I might be wishing I was in Florida...how many inches of snow would ya like me to bring along?

Ryan

 

[pineywoods]

Let me know what time you'll be in and I'll cook us something. Be sure to leave all that nasty white stuff up there. 70's and 80's here lowest is 44 for the next 10 days they say

 

[sandyut]

great discussion! and greatly appreciated. pretty sure it was a gas issue. the new gas must have dislodged the issue because this morning it ran better than ever. Had to clear another 8" or so plus the plow pile and it was a snap. I have some carb cleaner coming and will be buying an aftermarket carb for safety's sake. we get too much snow to shovel with my bad back.

I was panicking last night, but this discussion helped alot! thanks to all!

 

[Flatrate]

I had a problem with a small engine some years ago and a friend turned me on to Seafoam and I am a believer. My blower would barely stay running after a good treatment ran like new. I now use it in all my small engines as preventive maintenance .

 

[clifish]

I was using trufuel on my new Ariens snow blower but the way that think monster drinks it up it got expensive @$24/gallon. Finally found an ethenal free station and bought 5 gallons, added startron and poof instant truefuel @ at less than $5.00/gal.

 

[zwiller]

Always learn in these threads. Timely, gotta switch out the mowert for the blower. Will try the Startron. Blower is getting harder to start.

 

[sandyut]

I bought the Sta-Bil Fast Fix cleaner. I have used their gas stabilizer for years with all my small engine gas and motorcycles with good success.

 

[thirdeye]

I was using trufuel on my new Ariens snow blower but the way that think monster drinks it up it got expensive @$24/gallon. Finally found an ethenal free station and bought 5 gallons, added startron and poof instant truefuel @ at less than $5.00/gal.

I have RealGas available as several stations, but for all my small engines the TruFuel is my go-to. It has a 2 or 3 year shelf life (unopened) and a 1 season life when opened. I don't have any gas hogs... ice auger, tiller, leaf blower, and string trimmer.

For my 2-stroke engines I'm sold on Amsoil 100:1. I mix it about 85:1 and run one mix in everything.

 

[JckDanls 07]

I mix it about 85:1

Your not fouling plugs at that ratio ? Or have a bunch of oil coming out/clogging mufflers ??

 

[thirdeye]

Your not fouling plugs at that ratio ? Or have a bunch of oil coming out/clogging mufflers ??

No, it's the other way around, I have less oil in the gas. For example, if I have an engine that needs 20:1 (20 parts gas to 1 part oil) and I use Amsoil at 85:1, that's 85 parts gas to 1 part Amsoil. I get better starting, better throttle response, and almost no smoke. You can mix it closer to what your engine specs call for but check out the info in the link.

LINK

 

[OldSmoke]

Two years ago, I had to rebuild the carbs on every piece of equipment I own. And my outboard three times. That’s like seven rebuilds in one summer. I bought a ultrasonic cleaner since I was doing so many. Sometimes the same carb every month. It seems like that ethanol crap turns into green epoxy overnight.

I switched to non-ethanol fuel and I could not believe how much better everything ran. And, start with one pull. My outboard feels like it has at least 30% more power, idles smoothly, and starts first pull. It’s the only gas the yard and tree guys around here will use. I have had zero issues since switching.

Ethanol fuel has no place in marine engines. It attracts water which causes corrosion. It can also destroy fiberglass fuel tanks. It’s a major safety issue.