Four Cycle Engines

Re: Four Cycle Engines (in rearview for me)

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Helpful info, but all in the past for me, as small gas engines no longer reside here.

Typical suburban lot - not a huge lawn, and I have gone battery powered. Same system for mower and battery, can cut both front and back, and blow off the driveway on the single battery (single charge) I have.

Not the answer for everyone I know.

Henry

Re: Four Cycle Engines

Tom Norton

So is it advisable to drain the gas tank at the end of the season?

What I Have Found

David Yoho

First, let me say I have access to and use only non-ethanol gas in all of my power equipment. I have two homes (one summer house at the river), which means two riding mowers, weed trimmers, and blowers. On the advice of a small engine mechanic I no longer use a fuel stabilizer for treating the gas over the winter months nor drain or run dry anything. So far no problems starting or with carburetor diaphragms going bad.

However, if I were only able to get ethanol pump gas, he recommends using a fuel stabilizer like Sea Foam or Stabil in large engine things like mowers. For small things like blowers and trimmers there are three choices for winter storage. First - store with the stabilized fuel in the tank. Second - run the fuel out before storage, or, third - fill the tank with the pre-mixed fuel in a can available at most stores. The pre-mixed fuel is expensive but contains no ethanol. Addition of a stabilizer is not necessary.

If you are one of those that likes to run the fuel out before storage here's a tip. When you do this and the engine stops, it's not completely out of gas yet. You may be surprised that you're able to start and run it several more times before all the fuel is gone and it won't start again.

Re: Four Cycle Engines

Bill Howatt

Sorry, but you have to pick an opinion .

I posted this somewhere but don't see it. I used to have trouble starting 4-cycle machines in the spring and I did shut off the gas and let them run dry. I also have friends who have had similar problems from lawnmowers to snowmobiles that have been traced to the gas.

What I do now with great results:

I use Sta-Bil in all my gas for such machines. Do it even if I'm using the gas right away so I don't have to wonder later if I put stabilizer in the can. Note that they say with modern gas, it degrades after a month.

I buy no-alcohol gas.

Form my summer vs winter gizmos I fill the tanks and leave it that way with the fuel turned on while they sit for the half-year. I check every now and then to ensure the tank remains full which is probably more important in the summer when the air is humid. For my rarely used generator I let it run dry.

I keep the gas for the generator for about 6 months (the supply also gets used in the other tools) and then dump it into my mini-van and replace the supply in the cans.

For my 2-cycle chainsaws that are very rarely used (interval measured in years) I let them run dry. Pre-mixed and stabilized fuel for 2-cycle devices that get rather infrequent use is a good idea.

That's my opinion.

Bill

Re: Four Cycle Engines

Michael Wilkins

For my mower I have been using regular gasoline and adding Stabil to each can of gas.

For my pressure washer, which does not get used often, I just by the 4 cycle fuel from the big box store and have been pleased. The unit has sat for over a year and fired up with 2 pulls.

The pre-packaged fuel is pricey but worth every penny, since it contains no ethanol and has a fuel stabilizer mixed in.

Follow up....

David Weaver

...that I'd ask the friend is which engines aren't quite this sensitive.

I have a honda mower and it gets used in the fall each year (to mulch leaves - the rest of the year, I use a manual reel). Occasionally, I will run the mower in the spring if I need to bag or mulch something (like clippings from the bushes around the house), but not always.

I buy a 5 gallon can of gas every two years or so (chainsaw, trimmers, etc, use gas - not much gets used in the fall) and have never had an issue starting any of them aside from initial pain learning that the old fuel lines won't tolerate ethanol.

My mower is not a commercial version (wouldn't make a difference, I'd bet), just one with the entry level GCV honda motor.

I wonder what the difference is with my practices vs. others (why I never have any issues doing this). At one point, I put stabilizer in regular gas, but on learning that the premium gas usually has less ethanol, I switched to premium about four or five years ago.

The instructions with the mower describe turning the gas off and running the mower dry at the end of the season, but I've never bothered with that in the fall. My mower is now 17 years old, and did hard service the first 12-13 years mulching heavy grass (I pushed the limits with it) before moving to mowing with a reel.

Separately, my dad has a long driveway and a fairly large snowblower. Twice each year, he starts the snowblower, and it's always a bear. At one point, he liked the snowblower a lot, but didn't like the hard starting and took a perfectly fine snowblower back to the dealer and traded it for the same version with electric start. As hard starting as it was and as aggravating as it was for him to start it several times in the interim, I kind of wondered if he'd have been smarter to just run it out of gas and wait until the next year to run it. Since they run infrequently, the electric start is a plug in the wall type (sitting with no use is terrible for equipment and farm batteries).

The average person would do well to understand a few very simple things with motors.

* check the exhaust and make sure there isn't a clogged screen (terrible backpressure probably isn't great for starting, nor running)

* learn to check spark if something isn't starting

* learn to remove the plug and smell the cylinder to see if fuel is getting from the tank to the engine

* learn to check oil level

My luck may be as simple here as the blend that we get in spring and summer (when I usually get gas) being favorable for storage, and storing the gas well sealed in a place where it stays at constant temperature.

Re: Follow up....

Bill Howatt

There is a difference in the blend from spring to fall varieties but which is better for storage, if either, is beyond me. the winter stuff apparently is more volatile which should make it easier to start (I think). I had an old Camaro that I could never stop pinging under acceleration unless the timing was too retarded when using the winter gas.

Interestingly, manufacturer's usually, if not always, recommend running dry, not what some of us are saying.

It wasn't clear if you are adding stabilizer to the premium gas.

Anyway, you have a method that works for you and you can't argue with success!

Bill

P.S. I would never buy a snowblower without electric start even though I don't usually need it.

Re: Follow up....

Sam Force

I too require electric start on my snow blower, my neighbors like it too! Sometimes I am repaid with chocolate chip cookies!!

when using regular..

David Weaver

...I used stabilizer. The last couple of cans, I haven't - not for any reason other than I can't find the container of stabilizer. The two cycle mix that I use came with it.

Yes on the snowblower - as a kid, we had one that mounted on the tractor, and the next two after that, my dad didn't want to pay $125 for a plug in electric starter. The second was bigger than the first and had one of those big two hander loops for starting (11 or 13 horsepower). I wouldn't say one pull was really that big of a deal. two sets of 10 would generate a bead of sweat or 10 on the forehead, though, and if things went too much longer, you may take a break and come out again later. I think that's what sold him - a couple of failures.

Our long-term neglect championship story belongs to a tiller (but it was last filled before ethanol). 7 or 8 years of sitting in the garage and the gas in the tank looked like aged varnish and a new renter neighbor asked if we had a tiller they could borrow. Rather than drain it and refill it, I dribbled a little in the air cleaner (briggs type side valve engine that used to be 80% of what's around) - the smell of the gas was unreal rotten.

with a couple of minutes of pulling it was running and the exhaust was ungodly stinky, too (not oil, but like skunk/gasoline combination smell).

I let it propel itself down the hill to the neighbor and the neighbor tilled his garden with it and then the throttle linkage broke on the way back (just due to rust from sitting).

My curiosity in this case about soon-to-fail gas and things of the like makes me suspect that a lot of people flood an engine or don't have fuel or that something else is the cause the majority of the time (ganked fuel line on anything made before ethanol and then fueled with ethanol). A failure or two and then everyone gets really prescriptive, and small engine dealers end up like my spouse's friend (who works in a spine and head injury group helping with rehab - prevention measures for spinal injuries are over the top with them - some of it spreads to my mrs as she worked per diem with the same group for a while.).

But it could very well be something as simple as where I store things or where my dad stored things (in a building in the shade) or the blend of our gas making a difference.

7 or 8 year old gasoline isn't something I need to smell again, though.

Re: None of the Above

William Duffield

I'm trying to do my part to save the world for future generations. I've already replaced my worst off road climate abuser and maintenance nightmare with battery power, and I have a CybrTrck on order. I just hope for the day that Elon decides to take on John Deere, B&S and even Caterpillar.