A Plastic carburetor?

[dennis thompson]

My snow blower was very difficult to start so I brought it to a small engine repair shop. The carburetor that came with the unit (a Toro) was plastic! I've seen a lot of carburetors in my life but never a plastic one, until now. Anyway he replaced the carburetor with a metal one ,spark plug and gas filter, and warned me several times about bad gas and the need to keep it for only 2-3 months, even when using Sta bil.

What do you do with your gas ( I have to mix it with oil) after it gets old?
Thanks

[Mike Cutler]

Plastic carbs' he body at least, are very common now. You can rebuild one, or clean it, once or twice, and then that's it. He was right to replace it with an all metal one.

All of my small engines use 91-93 octane with SeaFoam added as a stabilizer and a varnish inhibitor. When I'm done the engines are run until the crab is run dry and the tanks are emptied with a manual pump I have.
All of my cars use the same octane of gas, so any gas I have that's getting old, 2-3 months seems a little quick to me though, goes into one of the cars or the garden tractor. The tractor sees year round duty.
I don't need to mix a lot of gas with oil normally., at least not for the bigger machines. My chainsaw, weed whacker and leaf blower, need oil, but they're easy to empty and run dry. I've kept gas mixed with oil and SeaFoam in a container through the winter and it seems fine come spring when I need it again. Been doing it this way for years. The carb on the leaf blower and weed whacker are plastic. The chainsaw is metal.
I like the SeaFoam product better than regular Stabil. It seems to be working for me. I needed to use my generator this past October and it hadn't been started in over 8 years. It started up just fine.

[Steve Eure]

I have been running 87 octane in my 2-cycle engines since forever. I had always run them dry or emptied the tanks after each use because of the ethanol issue in the gas. Every year I have had to take them to a small engine repair shop for the same reason. The plastic fuel lines in the tanks would become brittle and break and have to be replaced. I was told by all the mechanics that the manufacturers recommended not to use ethanol fuel and keep the tank at least 1/4 full at all times even during storage so that the gaskets and o-rings would stay lubricated. They said use a non-ethanol fuel mixed with the right ratio of oil and add a stabilizer.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I burn 10 to 15 gals of gas in my tractor every month. Left over gas is just mixed slowly with the tractor gas and used up in the tractor. Maybe a half gallon of old stuff to a tank of new. As for the two cycle, we never mix up more than a gallon at a time and we have weed eaters, chain saws, pole saws, etc. A gallon gets used fairly quickly during most of the year. The pole saw is used the least and the tank is dumped out after every use. I recently found out about a nearby gas station that sells real gas without added ethanol for off road use. Had the kid pick up 5 gallons for me. Like a buck a gallon higher than the contaminated gas sold everywhere.

[George Bokros]

I started buying gas without ethanol for my small equipment. The ethanol absorbs moisture just like the winter fuel treatment to prevent fuel line freeze up. The ethanol is hard on the small engine carburetors.

You can find locations nationwide that have ethanol free fuel here pure-gas.org

[roger wiegand]

Following the recommendation of my equipment supplier, I use "premium" gas in my various tools, no stabilizer. On those tools that allow it I shut of the supply and run them dry at the end of the season. What's in the tank just sits over the winter or summer and has never presented any sort of problem. The 5 gal can gets used until it's empty, over the winter that can be 5-8 months. Some tools have gone decades with this practice and continue to work just fine. I suspect there's a lot more folklore about "bad gas" than actual problems.

[Grant Wilkinson]

To address the OP's question, I just dump the remaining oil/gas mix into one of the cars. I don't use a lot of 2-stroke mix so I'm usually talking about a couple of quarts max left at the end of the season. Adding to over 25 gallons in the car doesn't make any difference to how the car runs at all. Now, these are older cars without 17 computers monitoring everything from gas caps to tire pressure.

[michael langman]

I just bought a new metal carburetor for my 10hp simplicity snow thrower that is 24 years old, for 15.00 . Amazing. I also bought the rebuild kit for the original carburetor if the cheap new one doesn't last. But it probably will.
I use stabil in regular 87 octane gas. When I add it to my equipment I add an ounce of marvel mystery oil to keep the internal parts oiled and varnish free, and an ounce of seafoam to keep the pistons cleaner.

[Stan Calow]

I dump gas leftover from lawn mowing into the truck at end of season. Same with gas for snowthrower. My QuikTrip and several other places sell ethanol-free gas which is all I will use for power equipment.

[John C Cox]

Plastic carbs have been around since the 1980's... My 1989 Evinrude outboard has a plastic carb that's now pushing almost 30 years old.... They are pretty good these days. The problem isn't because of plastic - it's because of the gas drying out and gumming up everything.

The problem they did have for a while was tightening the bolts too tight and cracking.... But it seems like their designs are better now and have more or less sorted that out.

On the plus side - they don't rust or corrode like steel and aluminum units do... Pop open a 20 year old Plastic carb and it's shiny as new inside...

But when a carb costs $15 or $20 to replace - it's not even worth rebuilding it.... For $20 - I would just replace the carb with a new one at the beginning of the season....

[Jim Koepke]

My weed eater would gum up over the winter. The service department at the local dealer told me it needs to be run about once a month to keep the fuel from gumming up the works. Stihl markets a fuel for two stroke engines that is supposed to be stable for a couple of years. It isn't cheap.

Some very old gas has worked fine in many instances in my experience. Maybe in the past gasoline wasn't stable. My 5 gallon container was filled a couple of years ago and still works fine in my chain saw and weed eater.

jtk

[George Bokros]

[QUOTE=Jim Koepke;2761850 Stihl markets a fuel for two stroke engines that is supposed to be stable for a couple of years. It isn't cheap.[/QUOTE]

This is correct but they also recommend using 91 octane gas without ethanol. That is why I use only 91 octane ethanol free fuel in all my small engines now. See my post above for a link to find ethanol free fuel in your area.

I also run all my equipment to empty for over winter and I also run my rototiller to empty after use in the spring since is sets until fall.

You can also use Seafoam in your gas for small engines just make sure you mix it according to the directions on the Seafoam can. I have used it an my mower and rototiller have never run better.

[Larry Edgerton]

I started buying gas without ethanol for my small equipment. The ethanol absorbs moisture just like the winter fuel treatment to prevent fuel line freeze up. The ethanol is hard on the small engine carburetors.

You can find locations nationwide that have ethanol free fuel here pure-gas.org

Bingo! Have not had to touch my fuel systems since I started doing this.

[Myk Rian]

Left over gas is just mixed slowly with the tractor gas and used up in the tractor.

^^^^This^^^^

[Dave Lehnert]

My snow blower was very difficult to start so I brought it to a small engine repair shop. The carburetor that came with the unit (a Toro) was plastic! I've seen a lot of carburetors in my life but never a plastic one, until now. Anyway he replaced the carburetor with a metal one ,spark plug and gas filter, and warned me several times about bad gas and the need to keep it for only 2-3 months, even when using Sta bil.

What do you do with your gas ( I have to mix it with oil) after it gets old?
Thanks

Plastic Carb, I rebuilt an older push mower engine and it had a plastic gear inside.