I didn't know! I had a thread or two on here about my Countyline 22-ton splitter with Kohler 6.5 hp engine behaving poorly. And that I got tired of unending problems and decided to just buy a new carb. Put that on, didn't fix it, bought another, didn't fix it. Then decided that it was the coil going bad. Bought that. Just before I was going to install it, I cranked the motor again to see what it would do one final time. It cranked right off but this time, it didn't run for a few minutes, even 15 minutes, it died in about two seconds. What the heck! I had arrived at thinking it was the coil because the motor would run for, like, 15 minutes and die, so, the new idea was that the coil was going bad and when it got hot from 15 minutes running, the motor would quit. This last time and it died in two seconds was puzzling. I told a shade tree mechanic friend about this and he agreed that it now did not seem to be the coil. He said to bring the splitter to his shop and let him mess with it. I did and he came back to my house in only 15 minutes and said he thought he had it figured out. He had the gas tank in his hand and said look down in there, what do you see? I said rust. He said it's shellac mostly. And some rust. And showed me the bowl from the new carb and it had some brown residue in there and he said it is tiny fines of shellac/rust. His idea was that it was enough to cause the motor to quit. He also showed me that there is a fuel filter inside the gas tank at the end of the rubber fuel line connection to the gas tank. And he said the fuel filter is close to plugged up with these almost microscopic fines from the shellac and rust. Told me to fill the gas tank with white vinegar for two days and let it work on the shellac/rust. It worked decent to remove a lot of it but it is still some left. Oh, well, some improvement. PLUS... with one of those Chinese clone carbs I bought, they sent some spare parts and one thing they sent was one of these filters! I installed that. Result... fixed! So far, anyway. We ran it yesterday for several hours with no issues. I wish he had thought of that filter from the getgo, lol. I had kept him informed all along the way about what's going on with the motor and my ideas and would ask his confirmation/advice. So, if you have a small engine, you might check to see if you have one of these filters. Appears to be called "gas tank joint filter." It attaches to the end of the fuel line and screws into the gas tank. Duh! Most of you probably already know this, lol. If I have fuel issues in the future, first thing, I can easily take that filter out and try to blow through it and see if it's plugged. I also cut the fuel line in half and added another fuel filter.
I'm glad it was an easy fix although it was a troubling one. Just being nosy, do you use any fuel stabilizer? leave it stored full of gas? Or empty/partial?
I haven't used fuel stabilizer but I do use e-free gas. I have not paid any mind to leaving the gas tank filled while in storage but this problem made me think that it could possibly be a solution to prevent a future problem.
Yep many small engines have that little mesh cone inside the tank on the pickup. Fuel filter issues can be so tricky and have you chasing your tail...because "they never clog up". I went over all kinds of stuff on my zero turn and then finally was like this has to be a filter acts very similar to a restricted filter. Bought a new one and it ran fine after that.
Certainly something to remember. Like when your truck doesn't start. #1 Check battery ; yup it's there ( in this case is there fuel in the tank) #2 check battery terminals ( just like the fuel filter second thing from the starting point) often the simple things get overlooked.
