Repair/mechanic tricks and or tips?

[jimmer2880]

I never, ever run any of my engines dry. I used to, but then had to tear a carb apart because a gasket had dried out.

Now, I run stabil year round in everything except the cars (and, the diesel tractor).

I would be very very cautious about putting gas on your air cleaner. If the engine would back-fire out of the carb, (which I have seen several do), your aircleaner will be on fire & you'll have much bigger problems.

A good alternative, is to put gas in a mustard bottle. That way, you can squeeze a small amt in the carb to get it running.

 

[Bird]

I use Stabil all the time in all my small engines now. And I don't often run the 4-cycle engines out of gas, although I do not think it's a bad idea, but I sure do run the 2-cycle engines out of gas before storing them for any length of time. Of course, I'm now down to one 4-cycle small engine (Toro lawnmower) and two 2-cycle engines (Stihl string trimmer and Mantis tiller). Right now the string trimmer and tiller are dry and put away. The lawnmower hasn't been used for a couple of weeks, but still has gas in it and will be used before long, with the grass catcher to mulch and bag leaves. When that job is finished, then I'll run the gas out of it, too, and put it away for the winter.

Of course, in this part of the country, I'll be using all of them again in early March for sure, and quite possibly by the middle of February.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

A good alternative, is to put gas in a mustard bottle. That way, you can squeeze a small amt in the carb to get it running.

That reminds me of a story...

In college I kept a Mt. Dew bottle in the trunk of my car that was about half full of gasoline for priming the carb on my 200K mile plus car.

We went up the canyon once to cook hot dogs. When I was getting the wood out of the trunk of the car I spotted the bottle and figured it would come in handy.

After I stacked the wood for the fire, I sprinkled the gas over it. The girls that were with us were yelling in protest and lamenting that "Now we'll never get the fire started. The wood is all wet with Mountain Dew."

I let the gas soak for a minute and then touched a match to the stack.

I think that to this day, none of those girls has ever dared take a sip of Mt. Dew.

 

[jimmer2880]

That reminds me of a story...

In college I kept a Mt. Dew bottle in the trunk of my car that was about half full of gasoline for priming the carb on my 200K mile plus car.

We went up the canyon once to cook hot dogs. When I was getting the wood out of the trunk of the car I spotted the bottle and figured it would come in handy.

After I stacked the wood for the fire, I sprinkled the gas over it. The girls that were with us were yelling in protest and lamenting that "Now we'll never get the fire started. The wood is all wet with Mountain Dew."

I let the gas soak for a minute and then touched a match to the stack.

I think that to this day, none of those girls has ever dared take a sip of Mt. Dew.

That reminds me of another story....

We used to have this very old motor-home. When this motor-home would sit for any length of time, it would need some gas poured down the carb to get going. My dad decided a good place to keep such gas, would be in a glass Mountain Dew bottle in the fridge. Me, being all of 7 or 8ish at the time went to the fridge & got 2 bottles of dew (1 for him & 1 for me). In the usual frenzy that I was alwasy in, I opened my bottle & took a couple big gulps of good old 87 octane.

 

[Egon]

Pouring gas or spraying either into the carb while trying to start an engine has killed and maimed more than one person.

It killed a coworker of mine many years ago.

 

[KYErik]

Anyone ever tried stabil in their diesel engine? It says it can preserve diesel on the bottle.

 

[Soundguy]

That's the reason I have been moving towards reducing the number of small gas engine implements i have.. IE.. no gas genny.. etc.. etc. The little carbs.. especially ont he brigs for some reason.. like to get stuck needle / flaots ALOT. Not that they are hard to rebuild.. just that it is a pain when you needed to use it now.

Soundguy

This has saved me lots of hassle. I try to always turn the fuel valve off on my portable generators while they are running and when the engine starts to misfire from fuel starvation I put on the choke to keep it running as long as possible. This runs the carb dry which has a couple benefits:

1. deteriorating fuel can't plug up any little passages in the carb and
2. moving the generator, especially in a vehicle off-road will not continuously slosh fuel and flood the engine.

A stupid mistake I made was to start a genny before taking it into the field just to be sure it was OK and ready to go. It was and started right up. I then drove a quarter mile and couldn't start the genny as I hadn't run it dry and it got flooded. I pulled until I nearly pulled both arms off (alternating arms) and finally got it to run, barely.

Another time my larger electric start genny wouldn't start, not even fire a little. I removed the air filter and wet it with gasoline. (Shake it out so it is dampened but not dripping.) Then replace the filter and cranked the engine. It fired right up and ran for 15-20 seconds, proving the problem was definitely a lack of fuel. getting through the carb. Of course when the air cleaner dries out the engine dies again.

Somehow something in the carb had gotten plugged up. There is a bleed screw in the bottom of the float bowl and it ran clean fuel when loosened. I removed the bowl and raising and lowering the float turned the fuel off and on intermittently as it should.

I siphoned the tank dry and added half a can of Berryman's carb and choke cleaner. I loosened the bleed screw on the bottom of the float bowl until if ran some fuel/Berryman's out. I re tightened the bleed screw and let it soak for a few minutes and then wet the air filter again with gasoline and started the engine to develop vacuum and help suck the Berryman's through the little fuel passages in the carb. I then drained and saved the Berryman's as it is still good. I then added some gas to the tank and it cranked right up and ran fine. I shut it down and let it set for a few minutes and later it started right up, problem solved with no disassembly of the carb except fussing with the float bowl.

While I was playing with Berrymans I put a little through the manual start genny as a preventative measure. I have 4 chain saws and will be using them again soon and will put a dose of Berryman's through each of them. In the past when a saw got balky or didn't seem to be up to par with no real explanation at hand, normal full power was restored by running a liittle Berryman's through with a partial tank of fuel. That takes less Berryman's than doping a full tank and I don't like to over do it. It isn't necessarily the total amount of additive that gets the job done it is the concentration. Running briefly on a stronger mix of Berryman's seems to do better than a long run with a weak mix.

STABIL is a gooooood idea for generators, chain saws and other intermittently used gas powered thingies.

Pat

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Pouring gas or spraying either into the carb while trying to start an engine has killed and maimed more than one person.

It killed a coworker of mine many years ago.

That's good to know.

I've never used either gas or ether while actually trying to start the engine. I always prime the carb a little with gas or prime the air intake with ether and then try to start it. I'm sure there are risks in that too.

Then again...Getting up in the morning is a risk.

 

[TheKid]

That's the reason I have been moving towards reducing the number of small gas engine implements i have.. IE.. no gas genny.. etc.. etc. The little carbs.. especially ont he brigs for some reason.. like to get stuck needle / flaots ALOT. Not that they are hard to rebuild.. just that it is a pain when you needed to use it now.

Soundguy

If you think you have a stuck needle/float give this a try. Tap the sides of the float bowl with the handle of a screw driver, or if it's hard to reach put a dowel rod against the bowl and tap the dowel rod. A few taps will usually free things up.

 

[Soundguy]

BTDT... that's an old mechanics trick...Works on good quality carbs... on cheap-o brigs carbs with plastic parts.. when the float needle sticks.. it sticks and requires manual cleaning to free it up.

soundguy