owners of stihl 4-mix engines

[budman]

Just a little tebit I could not start my sr90 trimmer for the life of me.Changed spark plug,put meter to
the kill switch used good fuel no go.Whent on line landscape site and found guy that said there
was problem with fuel tank vent going into breather box and if u over fill with fuel or seats out in
the sun fuel backs up into filter and clogs it sure as hell started first pull.I know this is not wood related
but just wanted to pass this on.

 

[BrotherBart]

You just saved anybody that has one and knows how to use Goggle a lot of frustration.

 

[velvetfoot]

Thanks for the tip. I have a 4 mix trimmer, but so far so good. Of course I'm going to start it for the first time this season, so...

 

[bassJAM]

Good to know, my brother just bought a new Stihl trimmer, and he's bad about leaving his stuff outside for lengths at a time. He's also bad about calling me whenever something breaks before taking the time to look up the answer himself. And I'm bad about giving him the answer, which ensures the process repeats itself.

 

[pma1123]

Thanks for the heads up. I have a KM130 thats still new enough that I'm trying to figure out the exact cold starting procedure that requires the least pulls.

 

[bobdog2o02]

One word, Echo. The flaming may commence in 3, 2, 1, FLAME!!

 

[Retired Guy]

Going on three years with my 4-mix blower. Never a problem starts on the first pull every time.

 

[7acres]

Thanks for the heads up. I have a KM130 thats still new enough that I'm trying to figure out the exact cold starting procedure that requires the least pulls.

In my experience my KM130 needs perfect fuel. First of all, no ethanol. Where I live I can't get non-ethanol pure gasoline in 93 octane. So I've been running 87 octane and the engine still didn't sound right. I recently bought some Klotz octane boost and Bingo! The KM130 came to life! For cold starts I push the fuel primer plunger 3 times and with one pull it's running. And the thing has awesome power like never before.

It used to get hung up on suckers shooting out of stumps and just rip the bark off of them. Now it whacks them off clean. The thing just doesn't bog down no matter how heavy the weeds are. I'm finally happy with the trimmer. I believe it's all about using the correct fuel.

Now I think I know why Stihl started selling cans of pre-mixed high octane fuel. With all the ethanol weirdness and difficulty finding 93 octane pure gas these days their customer base was getting lackluster performance out of these great engines with the fuel from their local gas station.

 

[pma1123]

Thanks 7acres! Yes, I love the raw torque of my KM130 and I'm getting it figured out with the cold starts now that I have a few tanks run through it. Our local stations offer 91 no octane, but I'll pick up one of the high-test fuel cans and give that a shot also.