Winter Woes - That's some Bad Gas!
Welcome to blog post number 1!
With the cold temperatures of winter coming in you may not be thinking about your mower. However, careful weatherization steps should be taken to keep your mower and other power equipment ready to run smoothly next season. Fresh fuel is the key to keeping your machine running great. Fuel that sits in your tank or in the carburetor will "gas off" and becomes like a thick tar. This tar clogs the small passage ways in your carburetor. It also glues choke plates, throttle plates, float valves, diaphragms, and springs. Inhibiting them the intended motions required to properly mix the air and gasoline to deliver a quality combustible fuel that is ready for detonation inside your engine.
There are several ways to keep your fuel fresh for long periods of time. There are also limitations to how long you can store fuel. Fuel stabilizers, like Amsoil Fuel Stabilizer, do help to keep fuel "burnable" longer. They also keep fuel additives bound longer in a stored tank. However, these stabilizers are not an answer to every fuel storage situation and I hope that this blog can help you store your fuel longer with satisfying results.
For the purpose of storing your mower, tiller, generator, or any other piece of equipment with a motor, we need to examine the carburetor to determine what type it is. If your carburetor has a float bowl on it and has that classic small engine carburetor look to it, you have limited weatherization options. This is because your carburetor has a built in vent that allows the fumes in the fuel to gas off and over a relatively quick amount of time this fuel will stale and begin clogging up your carburetor and sticking to the float needle, springs, choke and throttle plates. This can start in as little as 1 month with untreated fuel - regardless of it's ethanol content. With a stabilizer in it, you can expect to stretch that time to about 2 months. After that the fuel will start to get thick and will not detonate easily causing hard or no starting conditions. To remedy this situation you can add a stabilizer to your equipment's fuel tank and fill the tank all the way up with very little room left for air. Next start your equipment and run it for 5 minutes. Do this at least 1 time a month for a maximum of 4 months. After 4 months you will need to drain your equipment's fuel tank and add a fresher fuel with stabilizer in it to get consistently easy starting and operation. The other weatherization measure you can take is to completely drain the fuel tank and the carburetor. Liberally spray the inside of the tank with a light lubricant such as WD-40. Pull the fuel line at the tank side and spray inside line. Also, spray the carburetor's choke and throttle plates inside and out. This will keep your machine's fuel system weatherized for large periods of time. If that last option seems a bit daunting you can always bring it to KCE Repair for friendly dependable service.
There is another carburetor that you may have, this carburetor will generally look very squarish. It is also usually pretty small but can be larger especially in personal water craft. This carburetor is also sometimes still seen in older Briggs and Stratton engines. The self pumping diaphragm carburetor. This carburetor is complex because it has all of the passage ways and jets required to create a perfect mix of gasoline and air for the engine as well as the parts of a pulse actuated fuel pump and a diaphragm controlled fuel reserve. Did I mention it doesn't have a vent. Yeah, no vent. This means that your fuel can store much longer with little adverse effect. However, that doesn't mean you can store it indefinitely. The fuel tank in your 2 or 4 cycle string trimmer, chainsaw, PWC, Tiller or Go-Kart will still allow the fuel in the tank to "gas off" leaving behind the stale, no firing fuel that can lead to a no starting type of situation. Most of the time if the fuel hasn't turned to complete sludge and if the diaphragm as well as one way valves are not stuck or too stiff from age, the machines tank can be completely drained and replenished with fresh fuel with little to no adverse effect to the carburetor. Again, as long as the fuel wasn't a sludge and the internal carburetor parts are still internally "moveable", your equipment will start up with a fresh tank of gas. Weatherizing these machines is simple. 4 months or less only requires a stabilizer treated gas in the tank. 4 months or longer and you should drain the fuel out, spray the inside of the tank liberally with WD-40 and then spray the carburetor insides with WD-40. This will get you 1 year of storage. After that, you may need to replace the internal diaphragms inside the carburetor since they will dry up over time, regardless of normal measures taken to weatherize.
All of this said to say that, if you keep fresh fuel in your fuel tank and start all of your equipment at least 1 time a month, you have a much higher chance of never having a "coming out of winter" issue with your equipment.
Also, I highly recommend and suggest that you buy Amsoil Fuel Stabilizer at KCE Repair. Thanks : )
