Cold Splitter question...

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biggins08

New Member
Sep 20, 2006
227
Springfield MA
Brand new splitter here, temperature around 20. Any advice for starting a Brig and Strotton engine with out a choke on it? Engine starts and dies, over and over....
 
No Choke on the engine?? Take the air filter off and hold a piece of cardboard over the opening until the engine warms up enough to run without blocking it for now.
Hope that helps!

Craig
 
its brand new and doesn't have a choke??? you sure your just not seeing it?
 
Yeah, it's the speeco (husky) splitter 22ton from Tractor Supply. Can't find a choke....
 
The more I think about it, the more I think you should see a choke lever somewhere by the carb, probably gray in color. If you can't find one, take the air cleaner off and see if you can see or reach a finger in and feel the choke butterfly in the carb.
 
Then I could just stick the butterfly closed...Nice thinking. Yeah, if you go to Speeco's website, the manual does not have the choke in the starting instructions with my model but it does in others.
 
If no cardboard, place your thumb in the butterfly opening as much as you can. This method kind of helps with 2 people, (as all splitting should be...share the work, share the heat). It can be done, but you must be able to walk and chew gum as a prerequisite.
 
It sound like the same motor as on my lawnmower. I put some Stabil in it yesterday and it started up very hard. I also primed the heck out of it. I let it sit for a while while I messed around with the snowblower and then it started.
 
"Yeah, it’s the speeco (husky) splitter 22ton from Tractor Supply. Can’t find a choke...."

On my 35 ton it's right below the air box that houses the air cleaner. It's a lever that is damn near hidden. There should be a choke sticker on the air box. If not consult the manual...it's gotta have a choke.
 
On some really cold days, I have to pump the primer about 3-5x, pull the cord when the engine starts to sputter, pump the primer slowly 3-5 more times to keep feeding the engine extra gas as it starts to warm up . As the engine is sputtering, you'll get a feel for too fast and too slow on the pump.

I think the lack of a choke is an emissions thing - don't want to forget the choke is on, and muck up the air.

Also, make sure you have fresh fuel and fuel that was bought "in the season". If you have fuel from last August/September, it could be "summer fuel" which has lower vapor pressure and higher flash point and can make for hard starting in the cold.
 
......there is no choke!!!....

http://speeco.com/pdfmanuals/logsplittersmanual-g.pdf

Scroll through....it says hit the primer 3 times and off you go....unless it doesn't then hit the primer again. I suppose it kind of makes sense being the fuel tank is higher than the carb but i'd have bet the farm it had a choke (like the 35 ton). I will say the choke on my 35 ton rarely gets used. It starts pretty good even in cold weather.
 
Had identical problem with an older splitter a week ago. Probably not what you're seeing, but I'll pass it along anyway.

Here's what happened: first time running in the cold. There was a bit of water in the fuel, so it's ice now and was restricting fuel flow. I had to remove the fuel bowl and dump ice out, and pour hot water over the outside of the carb. I prefer hot water to other heat sources for this purpose due to the flammable fuel vapors - just make sure it doesn't get ingested.
 
Don't prime too much as it can become a fire hazard. I have a 1999 Sears snowblower with a Briggs engine and they had a recall on it where they came out and changed out the priming system so it could not put too much gas into the system due to the fire hazard.

In very cold weather I often give small engines a shot of Starting Fluid but you have to be very careful with the qty of this stuff. It is very potent. It will run for a few seconds on a shot of starting fluid alone which is usually enough to get the rest of the system going.
Be careful if you use it!!!
 
I'll let you guys know what happens Saturday when I try and start her up!
 
I have the Speeco as well and it chokes it when you run it all the way wide open me thinks. It can be a bit of a bugger to start in cold weather. It helps if you run a Synthetic oil in it.

Mine is stubborn to start as well. I found after replacing the plug it started much easier though. BUt if yours is new then I doubt that will help.
 
struggle said:
It helps if you run a Synthetic oil in it.

My money is on the oil. It ships with straight 30 weight, much too heavy for cold weather. It says in the manual not to run the 30w below 40F or you will have hard starting and possible engine damage. If it's new did you do the first oil change after 5 hours? That's a crucial oil change because everything is wearing in and there will be a lot of contamination in the oil. I use synthetic 10w30 in mine and it starts fine in the cold with 3 primes waiting 2 seconds between primes. Also they don't recommend running hydraulic oil below 30F (again, what it ships with) you should be running ATF instead. It's all in the manual!
 
Interesting. Have not even run her 5 hours! Will replace he fluid soon though....
 
Hard Woods said:
Will replace the fluid soon though....

From the manual: "Operating the engine below 40F with 30 weight oil may result in engine bore damage." Better sooner than later :^)
 
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