Small Engine Repair

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, Go to amazon with your specs for your engine and buy a new carb for around $15 or so. Why fuss with repair? Justin

Kind of late now, bought the kit, rebuilt the carb, changed the oil a few times and now it is running fine.

Thanks all for the help and pointing out the likely culprit of the fuel float system not working properly.

My wife wants me to extend her thanks.

For me it has been over 45 years since doing an engine, carburetor or ignition system work. When my skills were getting good at rebuilding and modifying carburetors everything changed to fuel injection. When my knowledge of voltage regulators got good enough to repair a dead one, everything switched to alternators. At least distributors and coils held out for a while before everything ignition when electronic.

After learning a bit about vacuum tubes it occurred to me transistors were a better investment in education. Now even the world of tech where my living was made is way out ahead of me.

Thanks to all again,

jtk

[Tom M King]

Turned out to be a Lot cheaper than buying another tiller.

[Jim Koepke]

yep

jtk

[Mike Cutler]

Jim

I use SeaFoam, added to the gas with all my small engines, and when I put them away for the winter I run some SeaFoam through them, and then run them dry. Keeps everything clean for spring.
Speaking of which, I need to do my snowblower,

[Jim Koepke]

Jim

I use SeaFoam, added to the gas with all my small engines, and when I put them away for the winter I run some SeaFoam through them, and then run them dry. Keeps everything clean for spring.
Speaking of which, I need to do my snowblower,

One of the local dealers is selling a gas mix from Stihl which is supposed to help keep two stroke engine carburetors from clogging. It seems to have been effective on my weed eater over the winter.

That thing has been a carburetor clogging PITA!

Unfortunately the stuff isn't cheap.

jtk

[Nicholas Lawrence]

When I bought a new mower and weed eater last year they threw in a gallon of that pre-mixed stuff for the weed eater. I did not think much of it, but have been surprised how little of it I have used. I think I filled the tank twice last summer?

Same with my mower. I bought a two or three gallon can (regular gas for the mower) filled it at the beginning of the summer, once over the summer, and just refilled it for this summer. Both the weed eater and the mower seem to be a lot more fuel efficient then what I remember as a kid.

One of the local dealers is selling a gas mix from Stihl which is supposed to help keep two stroke engine carburetors from clogging. It seems to have been effective on my weed eater over the winter.

That thing has been a carburetor clogging PITA!

Unfortunately the stuff isn't cheap.

jtk

[Tom M King]

I've had no trouble with any of the small equipment since running non-ethanol gas. It's available at almost every gas station around the lake now. Some years ago, the one place that was selling it stopped without putting up a sign that it now all had ethanol in it. Most of my Stihl equipment was bought before 2000, so not made for ethanol.

It was never a worry sitting for months with no ethanol in it, but since I had run it in everything without knowing it, I ended up changing something like 8 carburetors the next Spring. Fortunately, they're pretty cheap on ebay w/free shipping.

At that point, I started removing the ethanol from premium gas, but after another season, other marinas here started selling non-ethanol, so I quit mixing water in the gas to get the ethanol to settle to the bottom of my still, and just went back to buying it.

We run 10 to 15 gallons of non-ethanol here, every week, just keeping up our place, so someone who runs a couple of gallons through newer equipment a year, might think that ethanol doesn't matter, but the situation might be different for the engine.

The Stihl synthetic 2-stroke mix (silver bottles)is good stuff. I've never scored a cylinder on anything running it, even being years old, and some of it getting run all day long at least once a week in grass growing season. The Stihl Dino mix, in the orange bottles, runs dirty, and will clog up the exhaust screen in a small motor in just a few gallons. If you run as much as we do, it's cheaper to buy it in large sizes than the little bottles.

[Jerome Stanek]

I haven't had any problem with my Stihl trimmer with regular gas and their oil

[Tom M King]

It matters both when they were made, and how much fuel gets run through it. Since they started using synthetic rubber, especially for contact with ethanol, it shouldn't matter. I don't remember what year that was. But if it's an older one, like most of my equipment, it does matter. Most of mine were made before the year 2000.

If you run a couple of gallons of fuel, mixed with the Stihl dino oil, in the orange bottles, through a string trimmer, or small chainsaw, the spark arrester screen in the muffler will need cleaning, or the engine won't rev up. You don't have to take my word for that-just check on pro small equipment forums. edited to add: It might be more than a couple of gallons, but I do remember that it's not a whole lot. I haven't run their dino oil since the 1990's.

I've had zero problems of any kind running the synthetic oil, in the silver bottles, and the amount of fuel run through something doesn't seem to matter. Stihl's automatic extended warranty is if you run their synthetic oil.

Even my newer stuff, including riding mowers, gets fed nothing but non-ethanol, and I've not had any sort of problem with them, other than just plain wearing out mechanical parts, and belts.

[Bruce Wrenn]

One of the local dealers is selling a gas mix from Stihl which is supposed to help keep two stroke engine carburetors from clogging. It seems to have been effective on my weed eater over the winter.

That thing has been a carburetor clogging PITA!

Unfortunately the stuff isn't cheap.

jtk

Be sure and buy non ethanol gas, and add Staron to the can on fill up. Seafoam is a mixture of methanol (wood alcohol,) naptha (lighter fluid,) and light oil (diesel fuel,) according to the MSDS sheet.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I just looked using one of those online locators. The closest station that sells gas without ethanol is an hour away. Don’t think I’ll do that to buy a gallon. The Stihl pre-mixed stuff is starting to look more reasonable, especially since I use so little.

Spent some time on the Stihl website. They double your warranty if you buy their pre-mixed ethanol free fuel, and the warranty is void if you use more than 10% ethanol fuel. It looks to me like they think ethanol still matters, synthetic rubber or no.

[Tom M King]

I have seen that high dollar mixed fuel on sale in Lowes, but don't remember how much it was, only that it was a lot less than regular retail.

I've been afraid of the Seafoam stuff because I remembered it's mostly alcohol, and solvents. Back when I was removing ethanol from gas, some tolulene had to be added to re-up the octane. I didn't want to put more alcohol back in though, so stayed away from Seafoam. Fortunately, replacement carbs are cheap for Stihl equipment if you don't buy them from a dealer-off the auction site.