Seafoam Test....
I have a little 98cc Toro snowblower that likes to gum up all the time even with Stabil and running her empty. In the past all I've ever done was remove the nut under the float bowl, clean out the holes and I was good to go. Last week I did that but she still sputtered a bit choked and died instantly at half choke. This was the first time I ever put store bought 50:1 fuel in her.
I know nothing about engines so everything I now know has been through tons of youtube videos and chat board threads in the past few days. My research leads me to believe that I need to remove the float on the carb, clean the needle and hit the tiny carb holes with carb cleaner and compressed air. Seafoam has also been a common suggestion so I finally got the liquid form and the aerosol form.
My snowblower only has about a cup or two of fuel so I put in about a cup of Seafoam in the gas tank. She started right up but died a few seconds after mid choke which is progress because she used to die immediately at half choke. I started her up again and as soon as I got to half choke I hit the air intake with the aerosol Seafoam and she sputtered a bit but didn't shut off. I would stop spraying when she sputtered with a ton of white smoke and would spray again once she got back to normal. I did this a few times and then went wide open and continued the same process for about 20 seconds. I eventually continued to spray until she shut down completely and then I put her in the shed.
In a few hours I plan to start her up again to get a fresh batch of fuel/seafoam in the lines. My initial report is that it works because it allowed me to take the choke off. I still have not cleaned the needle and other ports on the carb yet because I wanted to test out the Seafoam first.
On the camping related side, our 2 Honda 2000 genny's have been suffering from the same condition with not running except when choked. In the next few weeks I'll look at cleaning out those carbs and adding some Seafoam to them too.
So far, so good.
I know nothing about engines so everything I now know has been through tons of youtube videos and chat board threads in the past few days. My research leads me to believe that I need to remove the float on the carb, clean the needle and hit the tiny carb holes with carb cleaner and compressed air. Seafoam has also been a common suggestion so I finally got the liquid form and the aerosol form.
My snowblower only has about a cup or two of fuel so I put in about a cup of Seafoam in the gas tank. She started right up but died a few seconds after mid choke which is progress because she used to die immediately at half choke. I started her up again and as soon as I got to half choke I hit the air intake with the aerosol Seafoam and she sputtered a bit but didn't shut off. I would stop spraying when she sputtered with a ton of white smoke and would spray again once she got back to normal. I did this a few times and then went wide open and continued the same process for about 20 seconds. I eventually continued to spray until she shut down completely and then I put her in the shed.
In a few hours I plan to start her up again to get a fresh batch of fuel/seafoam in the lines. My initial report is that it works because it allowed me to take the choke off. I still have not cleaned the needle and other ports on the carb yet because I wanted to test out the Seafoam first.
On the camping related side, our 2 Honda 2000 genny's have been suffering from the same condition with not running except when choked. In the next few weeks I'll look at cleaning out those carbs and adding some Seafoam to them too.
So far, so good.
