Problem with Tecumseh Engine

   / Problem with Tecumseh Engine #1  

sandybeach

Bronze Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2012
Messages
68
Location
Whidbey Island,WA
Tractor
Branson 3510H
I have a Troy-bilt chipper-shredder. It has a Tecumseh 10 HP engine. The other day while chipping and shredding I tipped the machine on its side (with engine running). I shutdown the engine immediately and returned the chipper to upright.

A hose had hit the muffler and melted - no big deal, I can replace it. Incidentally, that hose runs from one part of the engine to another, but it's not a fuel line. What else might a hose that size be [Tecumseh 10 HP]?

My real concern is engine oil. There was a small amount of oil dripping out the air filter cover; that tells me that at least some oil was displaced from the crankcase.

I needed to change the oil, anyway, so once I do that the engine will have the proper amount of oil.

What else might have gone wrong (other than clumsy operator, which is not fixable)? What should I look for before restarting it?
 
   / Problem with Tecumseh Engine #2  
Replace the oil, clean the air filter and area, replace the hose. I would pull the plug and clean or replace. I think the hose that connects from the muffler to the air intake... maybe a pre-heater or something. I have that on a number of my engines...
 
   / Problem with Tecumseh Engine #3  
+1 on the suggestions of Lloyd E -- I have given myself that kind of job several times with small engines that do not appreciate being turned over --usually it pumps a little oil into the cylinder which in turn gets blown out somewhere. You sure that filter is not supposed to have oil in it?
 
   / Problem with Tecumseh Engine
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Replace the oil, clean the air filter and area, replace the hose. I would pull the plug and clean or replace. I think the hose that connects from the muffler to the air intake... maybe a pre-heater or something. I have that on a number of my engines...
Thanks. I did all of the above and voilà - it lives! The only remaining issue is that the engines 'lopes' at idle - the engine speeds up, slows down, speeds up.

The hose is a crankcase breather - a crude 'smog device.' The guy who designed it should be horsewhipped. Would it have killed him to make the breather tube 1/8" longer? To reattach the hose I had to remove the crankcase breather cover, remove the tube to which the hose connects. Then I had to flare the end of that brass tube and slip the hose over the flared end - otherwise the hose would not stay attached to the brass tube. A 15-second task turned into 30 minutes.
 
   / Problem with Tecumseh Engine
  • Thread Starter
#5  
+1 on the suggestions of Lloyd E -- I have given myself that kind of job several times with small engines that do not appreciate being turned over --usually it pumps a little oil into the cylinder which in turn gets blown out somewhere. You sure that filter is not supposed to have oil in it?

The air filter is mounted vertically. For it to need oil (as in the old engines, like my '65 Ford 352) it would have to be mounted horizontally. When I got the chipper upright there was oil dripping out of the air filter cover. There had never been oil there before. I assume that the oil went from crankcase to carb to filter.

With a few seconds of running rough as the oil in the carb went through the engine, and all of the oil smoke disappeared.
 
 
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