20G Hydro locked

[bigcontender]

Last week I ran out of gas while using my Gravely 20g to pull a lawn roller.

I added gas then the tractor would not start. Turned it over for a while, then I pulled the plugs. Both plugs we're soaked. Turned it over with the plugs out and it blew lot of gas out of the left cylinder. Put the plugs in and it eventually started cleaned up after a few minutes then seemed to run ok. It sat for a week and when I tried to start it no go. It was hydro locked. Pushed it outside, pulled plugs and turned ouer. Blew out a log of gas from the right and gs / oil mixture from the left.

I pulled the air cleaner off and the carb body was full of fuel. I pulled the carb and now I'm wondering if I can just check the float valve or should I get the carb rebuilt? Anyone experiance anything like this before?

I'm also going to change the oil, not sure how much gas went into the motor.

Anything else I should check?

Thanks

 

[sailfast]

Think your carb might have a stuck float.

 

[M E Race]

Turn off your fuel, then drain and change oil. Pull the plugs and blow out the cylinders with air. Start the engine with the fuel shut off and let it run out of gas. If you can get to it, remove drain plug from bottom of fuel bowl on carb and shoot some Sea Foam into bowl. Put the drain plug back in and turn on gas. As soon as it starts turn gas back off and let it run out again. Oh I forgot, put a healthy dose of Sea Foam in the gas tank. Do this 2 or three times and try it normaly. It is most likely a piece of trash in float valve. With this ethanal blended fuel if you don't run the engine on a regular basis it tends to gell rapidly. On a gas engine I normaly shut off the gas and let it run out then shut switch off. Definatly with my generators, they don't like ethanal.

 

[RichardTX]

usually when there is dirt between the needle and seat, the cylinders and crankcase will fill up with fuel.

When it happens, I drain the crankcase, pull the plugs, and then ground out the spark plug leads. Then I will go about blowing the fuel out of the cylinders.

Most of the time there is some sort of debris between the needle and seat and a simple carb cleaning takes care of it.

If there is rust in the carb bowl then the tank needs to be removed, flushed and power washed. Also a good fuel filter should be installed.

 

[bigcontender]

Changed the oil and filter today. Got 3 1/2 quarts of fluid out of the crankcase, must have been 2 quarts of gas in it and 1 1/5 quarts of oil. Pulled the card apart and checked the float valve. Seemed ok so I put it back togther. Added 4oz of seafoam to the gas tank. It started and ran ok. I'l will now keep a close eye on the oil and fuel levels.

Thanks for the tips

 

[RichardTX]

Might want to shut off the gas at the tank to prevent it from occurring again.

 

[bigcontender]

Yup I sure don't want this to occur again.
The gas tank shut off isn't easy reach to shut off. You need to lay down under the tractor then reach over the front axle into a small area in front of the gas tank. My hand hust barely fits, so it's not something I want to do every time. I just ordered a 12v fuel solenoid form e bay. I plan on mounting the solenoid on the frame along where the fuel line runs and a toggle switch on the dash. The solenoid will allow running the motor out of fuel and should stop the loud pop on hot restart.

Thanks Again

 

[RichardTX]

On my G tractors, I can reach the shutoff from the top. I reach down along the tank and there it is.

The loud pop on restart is caused by hot fuel getting dumped into the muffler on shutdown. Even a carb solenoid shutoff valve won't eliminate it completely. Letting it cool by running at an idle helps. Kohler engines are notorious for that.

Got a link to the fuel shutoff solenoid?

richard