Bad Fuel for my other engines. Anybody with suggestions?
 

More and more I find myself fixing my gasoline powered equipment. It is isolated to small engines. Snow blower, power washer, string trimmer, etc. Engines that don't get used as often as the cars. I have been putting Stabil in everything and it seems to help a little. I just spent 2 hours cleaning the carb on my snow blower that was stored with no fuel and ran empty, (so I thought) There was enough old gas that it varnished in the bowl and when the new gas pumped in, it turned the varnish into a sticky goo that plugged everything! Those things are not really designed to be serviced easily!

Anybody have suggestions?

Darren

I went through this with our 4 stroke pit bikes (Pilot jet clogs), since they don't get used a lot. I had to take apart the carbs and clean the pilot jet all the time. I was told by a motorcycle mechanic to start them at least 2, 3 times a month. I've been doing that and it seems work.

Only one way to cure this -- run the stuff on a regular basis... and use Sta-Bil in your fuel. I keep a separate 5 with gas that has that added... but even then I'll run my stuff just to keep gas going thru it.

I use "clear" premium for my motorcycles and maintenance equipment. E10 is a nightmare unless you own a small engine repair business.

An old mechanic told me once that if you are going to store an engine, run the carb dry (shut the fuel off and let the engine run out of gas) before storing. Believe it or not, I always do this with my generator and it works great. I use Stabil as it leaves a little trace of lubrication to keep the rubber parts soft even though the gas is gone.

Is 'clear' premium gas without ethanol? I had my local race shop order in some VP-C9 gas.

This should help.

http://www.vpracingfuels.com/storagefuels

Darrren

PERFECT!! I'm going to order some as well.... thanks for the great find!

Don't ya just love the internet. Thank gawd for Al Gore.... :rofl:

This might be handier for smaller amounts of use -- since 5 gallon jugs for lawn mowers etc might be a "lot" of gas...


http://www.vpracingfuels.com/sef-small-engine

He stole the idea from Spiro T. Agnew...

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...MG9141_001.jpg


:lol:

I figured the extra cost is well worth it. I hate farting around with stuff that should just work when I want it to. The snow blower pushed me over the edge. That thing was not designed to be serviced - ever. What a PITA. I got it running and promptly drained all the gas again. My VP fuel should be in this week and I will refuel with that. I have been reading a ton about fuel and fuel storage. It seems that gas should not be stored in plastic containers. I have several of the big plastic 5 gallon gas cans that we use to race motocross. Looks like I might be switching to metal cans this season!

Darren