Only connection to wood burning is clearing the path to the woodshed, but... 
The engine on our old Toro snowblower is getting old and tired, and the starting is becoming unreliable - maybe it's the starter (me) getting old and tired, but we don't want to go there.... :red:
We are considering replacing it, but would really rather not. However if we do replace, we'd prefer to get a high quality machine that will last us for the next few ice ages. I'm not interested in an MTD, or Yardmaster peice of Chinese crapola machine. Used to be the king of the snowblowers was Ariens, followed by Toro (maybe) and everyone else in a distant third - is this still the case? If not what other brands are highly reccomended for reliability and servicability?
The other option is to try to fix our existing machine. It is an old 7HP 26" cut Toro, with a Briggs & Stratton engine, we purchased it at least 2nd hand through our local outdoor power equipment guy. For the most part, the mechanical half of the snowblower works fine, the drive is solid, auger turns smoothly, etc. OTOH, the motor uses a lot of oil - 1/2-3/4 cup per fillup of gas, and doesn't feel like it has a lot of compression when pulling the start rope. When running, it sounds like crap. The muffler isn't in the best of shape, and everything does serious shake and rattle, almost sounds like a bad rod or main bearing... (I do wear ear protection when using it, and NEED to!) The spark isn't great - I can hang onto the plug wire when pulling it over and it doesn't hurt the way my bike ignition does :cheese: When I pull the plug it's usually fairly black and oil fouled. The out of the engine spark tends to be weak orange rather than a nice fat blue arc.
When the engine is warm, it starts pretty reliably, one or two pulls. When cold it will sometimes start fine, other times not. However it usually feels like it's almost catching but not quite getting enough RPMs or turning over enough times to start running. Although I'm giving a pretty good yank on the recoil starter, I suspect that it is marginal enough starting the recoil just isn't able to spin things over fast enough to get it cranked. When it starts, I usually get 4-5 pops as the engine winds up to speed and starts to run normally, if it doesn't start I might only get 2-3 pops.
Thus I see three options -
1. A new machine - looking on the web, it appears that we can get an Ariens of roughly the same size for about $1,000 more or less (or the big kahuna machines for $1500) - so far it doesn't seem like there are many "end of season bargains" out there, and this is WAY more than we want to spend if we can avoid it.
2. Try to put an electric start (110v AC) on the existing machine in order to be able to crank it longer / faster than I can with the recoil - I've heard that one can retrofit an electric starter to most B&S engines without too much problem or expense, but I'm not sure just what it would cost me to do so. Given that I'm not sure how long the engine I have will last, I don't know if it's worth it if the cost is much over $50
3. Try to get a new engine for this machine - I've found at least one website that appears to have about the right size B&S Intek or Tecumseh snow blower engines, with electric start, etc. for $3-500 (I've always heard there is no real difference between B&S vs Tecumseh engines, that both are good quality...) If so, I'm not sure if there is any advantage to trying to fit a bigger engine - the cost difference between a 7HP and an 8 or 9HP engine is minimal, and I've sometimes found the existing engine underpowered - though that could be on acount of it's age.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Gooserider
The engine on our old Toro snowblower is getting old and tired, and the starting is becoming unreliable - maybe it's the starter (me) getting old and tired, but we don't want to go there.... :red:
We are considering replacing it, but would really rather not. However if we do replace, we'd prefer to get a high quality machine that will last us for the next few ice ages. I'm not interested in an MTD, or Yardmaster peice of Chinese crapola machine. Used to be the king of the snowblowers was Ariens, followed by Toro (maybe) and everyone else in a distant third - is this still the case? If not what other brands are highly reccomended for reliability and servicability?
The other option is to try to fix our existing machine. It is an old 7HP 26" cut Toro, with a Briggs & Stratton engine, we purchased it at least 2nd hand through our local outdoor power equipment guy. For the most part, the mechanical half of the snowblower works fine, the drive is solid, auger turns smoothly, etc. OTOH, the motor uses a lot of oil - 1/2-3/4 cup per fillup of gas, and doesn't feel like it has a lot of compression when pulling the start rope. When running, it sounds like crap. The muffler isn't in the best of shape, and everything does serious shake and rattle, almost sounds like a bad rod or main bearing... (I do wear ear protection when using it, and NEED to!) The spark isn't great - I can hang onto the plug wire when pulling it over and it doesn't hurt the way my bike ignition does :cheese: When I pull the plug it's usually fairly black and oil fouled. The out of the engine spark tends to be weak orange rather than a nice fat blue arc.
When the engine is warm, it starts pretty reliably, one or two pulls. When cold it will sometimes start fine, other times not. However it usually feels like it's almost catching but not quite getting enough RPMs or turning over enough times to start running. Although I'm giving a pretty good yank on the recoil starter, I suspect that it is marginal enough starting the recoil just isn't able to spin things over fast enough to get it cranked. When it starts, I usually get 4-5 pops as the engine winds up to speed and starts to run normally, if it doesn't start I might only get 2-3 pops.
Thus I see three options -
1. A new machine - looking on the web, it appears that we can get an Ariens of roughly the same size for about $1,000 more or less (or the big kahuna machines for $1500) - so far it doesn't seem like there are many "end of season bargains" out there, and this is WAY more than we want to spend if we can avoid it.
2. Try to put an electric start (110v AC) on the existing machine in order to be able to crank it longer / faster than I can with the recoil - I've heard that one can retrofit an electric starter to most B&S engines without too much problem or expense, but I'm not sure just what it would cost me to do so. Given that I'm not sure how long the engine I have will last, I don't know if it's worth it if the cost is much over $50
3. Try to get a new engine for this machine - I've found at least one website that appears to have about the right size B&S Intek or Tecumseh snow blower engines, with electric start, etc. for $3-500 (I've always heard there is no real difference between B&S vs Tecumseh engines, that both are good quality...) If so, I'm not sure if there is any advantage to trying to fit a bigger engine - the cost difference between a 7HP and an 8 or 9HP engine is minimal, and I've sometimes found the existing engine underpowered - though that could be on acount of it's age.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Gooserider
