Nice thread before some go taking your carb apart check with the dealer. As I've cleaned many a carbs working at a JD dealer. Some how lately we can buy carbs for $15 to $25 our cost from the honda dealer for the small HP eng's. At $69/hour I can't clean a carb for that cheap. Wish JD could get their prices down there.
Some have talked about putting sta-bil in their fuel. This is fine but one word of caution. Make sure you follow the direction on the bottle. In the old days if a little was good a little more should be better right. Not so with sta-bil !! If you mix to heavy and the fuel in the carb evaporates. It leaves a sticky gum in the carb that carb cleaner will not touch. Have taken many apart that are junk because of sta-bil being mix to heavy.
When it comes to fuel octane read your OP manual. It will tell you what to run for fuel. Those in the more northern areas that get colder weather. Like diesel fuel, gas has summer and winter grades. So only buy enough fuel for 30 to 60 days. Could go on about fuel forever, but just do a search on fuel storage shelf life.
