Day turned to crap late this morning. I had the snow blower running last fall (Oct-Nov) to be ready for winter. I didn't plan on using it until the banks were too high to shovel over. Well, that day has come and gone so I thought I would start up that ariens and use it today, No start. Tried and tried and even too a break and tried a bit later. Still no start. Decided to pull the plug to clean and dry it. It was hard unthreading the plug....couldn't just spin freely with your hand; had to use the ratchet all the way out. Cleaned and dried and put it back in. It did not bottom all the way as I could see the washer at the base of the plug was loose. damm (except I used another word!) It was cross-threaded. That's a first for me. It went in with the same resistance as it came out, I hadn't thought it would be cross-threaded. Looked straight, but.... Ran it up to repair shop and guy said come back tomorrow. I just got home and the phone rings....it's ready! Chased threads, new plug, drained the fuel and pick it up when you want. BTW, I use only ethanol free for my small engines. I guess it went bad in 5 months time...?
Ok so they were able to correct the thread problem, and it was just the fuel as to why it would not start and run. Maybe some water in the fuel.
My thread was kind of long winded, sorry. Yes, new spark plug and changed the gas. All done. He didn't say he checked gas for water but who knows? Kept inside in unheated building; gas cans and snowblower. It was the first time that ethanol free gas went bad for me.......and in only 5 months time!
One of the things I like to do is smell the gas when it has been sitting for months. I do agree non ethanol fuel will last a long time.
The shop owner told me he smelled the gas and it wasn't up to par.....smelled weak to him. I'll be getting rid of the gas can of fuel tomorrow....mix it in with the truck's fuel tank. Who knows? Maybe it wasn't corn free when I bought it?
It was probably ethanol fuel, even though they advertised it as e free. I'm sure you've seen my posts about that practice over the years. You can't trust that is actually e free, despite signs and a website that say it is e free. If the big tanker pulls up with e10, they have to take it.
Agreed. My go to station for corn free must have gotten a couple of shipments of corn gas as I watched the difference in MPG on the civic towards the end of summer.
That's why I don't stabilize any gas and burn it in 3 months or so. Snowmobiles, snowblowers stuff like that that gets used less than 3 months a year, I empty the tank as much as possible and drain the carb. When it's needed again, I fill up with fresh gas. I've been using this method since e10 came out in my area, about 30 years ago and it's always worked well for me. Now of you don't drain the carb, you get the fun like I had to deal with on my inherited mtd splitter. I wasn't the last to run it, and I probably hadn't used it in 3 years.
Meh I just put startron in the cans and don’t sweat it. Haven’t had a bit of trouble since I’ve been using it.
End of winter I drain snowblower, run till it stalls. Pour a cup of TruFuel in run that through the carb till stalls and leave it empty. Seems to work.
yooperdave man that is frustrating to say the least isn't it! Don't worry about the length of the post. You said what needed said. Would rather read it than try to assume anything! If and when you pull that plug again, the old cross threads are still present, so just be aware it can happen again if conditions are right. Your small engine guy seems to be on top of things. Around here if you dropped off a snowblower, you might see it come August! As to the gas, you probably did select the non ethanol choice but did you put the nozzle directly into the gas can? Look at the design of pumps or should I say multi pumps. I do not design nor have I seen a diagram of the pumps, but there has to be a couple of gallons of the last pumped fuel in the pipe in the pump let alone the hose itself. So next time put the nozzle in your vehicle, pump a couple of gallons then fill your container and bet it is what you selected and not what was left over from the last gas customer. Hope today is a better day for you!
The pumps used to be configured that way....one hose for all grades of gas but they are back to having their own hoses for each grade now. The repair shop is a great place. If they weren't so busy, I would be tempted to just stop by with doughnuts and shoot the breeze with them! I told him thanks for the quick response time and then mentioned what a relief it is now that I know I'll never have trouble with this machine again! Smiling right back and without skipping a beat he says something like "Yeah, it has a lifetime guarantee on it now.....any troubles bring it back and we'll shoot you!" I bought a chainsaw from them in 84 or 85 that is my primary. Good bunch of guys
I would never stabilize fuel left in my gas cans in the past. Going to have to start doing that for anything left over a month or two... Wasn't my idea to put corn in the gas in the first place.....
I always put a bit of Sta-Bil and Seafoam into the fuel jugs to be safe. And some in the tank for equipment that doesn’t get used regularly.
I used to use stabil in gas for longer stored engines. I stopped doing that when I realized I wasn't getting any different results from spending money on those products vs running them low on fuel, draining carbs/ shutting off fuel petcocks, and simply filling with fresh fuel when I wanted to use them again. It's definitely fairly cheap insurance to add some sort of fuel stabilizer.
Seafoam !!! Makes me not tinker on carbs..which I'm not great at ! And makes me sleep gooder at night lol
