Splitter didnt make it through the summer

Is the fuel stale?

I have had good luck on small engines that have sat a while if I dump the fuel out of the thank refill it with fresh fuel and then spray the carb air filter with starting fluid. It keeps them runnning long enough to clean out the line.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I have a dr chipper that ran great 2 years ago. Put it away with gas in it. Took it out last year and could not start it. Poured gas in the carb and it would start, but only for seconds. Took it in and $285 later, it ran again. Pit it away last year with gas in it... Same thing this year. It would not start.

This year I took the top off the carb and it looked like it was filled with fish eggs. Scooped it all out and then blew it out with an air compressor. Filled it with gas and it runs great.

I think I will run it out of gas this year.

Pump gas is considered oxygenated fuel. It has additives that will precipitate out when it dries. Plus it goes stale pretty quick. Things that don't run often should be drained of all fuel and take off carb bowls and dry out. Other way around is to use Avgas but its expensive. Its only pure fuel and leaves no residue when it dries.

One word, ............or is it really two.........

STA-BIL

-Soupy1957

Sorry to hear about this....there are few things worse than having relatively new equipment fail, and it's "salt in a wound" that it was because of crappy ethanol-laced gas. I agree with Soupy that Stabil helps. I use double the amount they suggest along with Heet, and just started a thread about Sea Foam. That stuff rocks!

richg said:

crappy ethanol-laced gas ... along with Heet

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Isn't alcohol the primary ingredient in Heet?

KarlP said:

richg said:

crappy ethanol-laced gas ... along with Heet

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Isn't alcohol the primary ingredient in Heet?

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Yes it is! Heet is Isopropanol (Rubbing alchohol) and gas usually has Ethanol in it.

If your machines have a gas shut off, and many do, use it. Run the carb's dry when storing the unit but you can leave the tank full of fuel treated with Stabil/Seafoam/Star-tron/etc. to prevent condensation in the tank.

My dad is retired and does a nice little business picking up dead OPE, reconditioning it, and reselling it. Whenever he sees a dead push mower out on the curb 90% of the time its a matter of a good carb cleaning and maybe a plug cleaning. As you can imagine its a pretty good profit margin Whenever I put something away for the season I drain as much gas as I can from the tank, add Seafoam to whatever is left, start it up, and let it run until it dies. I've never had a problem yet. Most folks treat OPE as they would vacuum cleaners and dishwashers, ie: you push a button and it turns on-no maintenance required. Then once it dies from lack of maintenance, they throw it away. Luckily the damage is usually not that bad-as a result my garage is full of "junk" OPE :lol:

It's gonna get worse very soon, fellas.....they want to eventually up the ethanol to 25-30% in your gas......you think it's bad now, give it a few years.....and the government is the one doing it....they don't give a crap about how bad it is on your machinery.....so, especially for your small engines, make sure you buy the ethanol stabilizer, the good kind.....and if you can afford it, use airplane or racing fuel for your saws....yes it is very expensive, but cheap insurance for your saws and equipment......there is NO ethanol in airplane fuel, kinda funny if you think about them telling you how great this ethanol is, and yet they know it is unstable so it's illegal to use in aircraft......what a crock!

That's why I bought a Silverado "Flex Fuel" vehicle..............it can operate on 85% Ethanol, if need be.

-Soupy1957

soupy1957 said:

That's why I bought a Silverado "Flex Fuel" vehicle..............it can operate on 85% Ethanol, if need be.

-Soupy1957

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Soupy, we have the Flexfuel grand caravan for the wife and kids, so that one is good...here's what really irritates me though (and most don't realize it) but do the math; we are paying, say like here where we live, $3.60/gallon......we're only gettin 3/4 of a gallon of gas, the rest is that junk.....we don't get anywhere NEAR the fuel mileage on a gallon of this junk gas, the valves always ping on the ethanol and the kicker is (you can look it up if you want) ethanol costs a LOT to manufacture! The real reason we are stuck with this ethanol garbage is that the corn lobby runs this country.....along with the big banks.......sorry I had to get that out......

wannabegreener said:

I learned my lesson the hard way. I have a dr chipper that ran great 2 years ago. Put it away with gas in it. Took it out last year and could not start it. Poured gas in the carb and it would start, but only for seconds. Took it in and $285 later, it ran again. Pit it away last year with gas in it... Same thing this year. It would not start.

This year I took the top off the carb and it looked like it was filled with fish eggs. Scooped it all out and then blew it out with an air compressor. Filled it with gas and it runs great.

I think I will run it out of gas this year.

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Those were spider eggs. Spiders seem to be attracted to gas. They also like to lay their eggs in the evaporative emission control parts parts in your car.

soupy1957 said:

One word, ............or is it really two.........

STA-BIL

-Soupy1957

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Sta-bil only works if the fuel doesn't totally evaporate. Problem most people have is all the solids precipitate out when it dries and then they clog little passage ways in carbs.

#1 Stay awat from the ethanol. # 2 Run super in it. # 3 Seafoam.


KC

iskiatomic said:

#1 Stay awat from the ethanol. # 2 Run super in it. # 3 Seafoam.


KC

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Just as someone else said above, my small engine repair guy agreed that Super would be ideal but, since most stations don't sell very much, you could get some old gas, perhaps containing water. He says he always uses the middle grade to be safe and recommends it to his customers unless they can buy super from a high turnover station.

There is virtually nowhere around here to buy ethanol free gas, except avgas.

Kohler just came out with full closed loop EFI for some of their engines. They claim it will run up to E85.

As the industry's only closed-loop system, the KOHLER Command PRO® EFI (electronic fuel injection) engine delivers the precise fuel-air mixture to optimize power, performance and efficiency. The result is superior reliability, less downtime and fuel savings up to 25%. The closed-loop advantage also means KOHLER Command PRO® EFI engines automatically adapt to load, weather, fuel and altitude changes, resulting in improved power, performance and reliability as well as increased life span. Now available with Flex Fuel E85 technology.

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We have had only ethanol gas here in NY for several years now. I have personally seen no difference on any of the gasoline powered machines and vehicles that I own. This includes cars and trucks from '70 - '06 model years, an inboard boat, '68 garden tractor, chainsaws, leaf blower and lawn mower. I don't drain fuel from any of them and only use StaBil in the boat fuel.

soupy1957 said:

One word, ............or is it really two.........

STA-BIL

-Soupy1957

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Even better word SEA FOAM........LOL :coolcheese:

Flatbedford said:

We have had only ethanol gas here in NY for several years now. I have personally seen no difference on any of the gasoline powered machines and vehicles that I own. This includes cars and trucks from '70 - '06 model years, an inboard boat, '68 garden tractor, chainsaws, leaf blower and lawn mower. I don't drain fuel from any of them and only use StaBil in the boat fuel.

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Performance wise you are right. Everythng runs the same. Its those little fish eggs thats the problem. Can't tell you how many small engines that stop running I've seen with fish eggs in the bowl.

What I am saying is that none of the things have stopped working or required additional maintenance with the ethanol.

Avgas works great in all my small engines. (two stroke and 4) It will sit for a year and fire right up and won't damage your fuel system. No ethanol and very stable. If you can get it, go for it.

Yes, its expensive (thanks congress for forcing me to buy gas that is actually stable) but its cheaper than fixing broken stuff!

JD

Avgas is all I use for all my small engines and even the ZTR.

Flatbedford said:

What I am saying is that none of the things have stopped working or required additional maintenance with the ethanol.

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Good chance you would have trouble if something sat long enough for the fuel to dry up in the tank. Everything I own (prior to using AvGas) that sat long enough for the fuel to evaporate didn't start or had trouble running correctly and all had fish eggs. Generators are a classic thing that may sit for long periods. Keeping the tank full and adding a stabilizer is best thing to do but not as good as Avgas. Avgas remains fresh for over a year and if it does evap it leaves no trace behind.