Winterizing A 2-Stroke

2-Stroke engines, at least smaller ones, require a little bit more work when you're preparing them for winter. As they contain rubber diaphragms, which dislike ethanol, as it dries them out, not to mention the fuel likes break down with the ethanol fuel, faster than using regular fuel, and the UV rays damaging them. If you've ever seen rock hard fuel likes, or ones that fall apart just by looking at them, it likely means that it is Ethanol damaged, unless they're very old.

Opening the fuel cap on a Stihl BG30 Leaf Blower

A simple method to keep that from happening?  Add 2-stroke oil into the fuel tank, and pump it thru the carb.

Adding 2-stroke oil to the fuel tank

By doing this, you're essentially displacing the fuel, and keeping the diaphragm, and fuel lines, well lubricated.
This will help keep them from dying out, and falling apart.

The only thing is that, come summer, when you drain it all out, the first few minutes of run time, it'll likely smoke like a fire pit!  But that's okay, it'll help clear the air of mosquitos, and other biting pests!

When you have the fuel tank filled up, and you start priming the system, you'll notice that it gets quite difficult to get it to pump after a bit, this is because the oil is quite a bit thicker than 2-stroke fuel.
But that's okay, it's worth it in the end. The oil won't break down, it'll help keep the rubber lubricated and protected, and means saving money in the spring, when you get it out to use, and.... find that you can't get it started because the diaphragm has dried out.
It's either your time to fix it, if you're proficient, or your money, if you have to take it to a shop.
And if it's a home owner's model, well, then it'll likely be a "toss/sell" and get a new one, which means... more of your money!

Pumping the oil thru the system

Draining Out The Excess Oil

When you've finished priming the system, you can drain the excess out back into the bottle, or you can leave it in the tank, and pour it out in the spring when you get the machines back into service.

Anyway guys,

Chat soon!

What's The Backstory On The Lawnmower With The Missing Carburetor

 Ah, the missing carburetor was such a funny video. It wasn't so much that the carburetor was missing, as it had the bowl nut snapped off inside the carburetor. But, when I originally got the lawnmower, I didn't know. I actually thought the bowl nut was just simply missing entirely, not that it was there, it was completely missing, because it likely was thrown away.

When we found it, it was with another mower, however the other mower was basically an engine & Parts donor, which we happily took.

The hilarious part of it all, the mower was actually in really good condition overall, other than the rear height adjustments were completely rusted, and frozen.  The front I managed to free up, but aside from that, the actual mower itself was in decent condition. The deck was solid, the engine seemed to be fairly well maintained, and even the blade was good.
It was a real conundrum. I mean, especially since the carburetor can be had for under $25 on scAmazon, such as this one right here.

It honestly is a pretty good little mower, with a lot of power.
I really found this to be a fun repair. 
It also was such a good little mower, that I kept it for a good long while, using it as my own mower for a fair bit of time, before finally selling it.  The easy start, and 6.0HP engine on it made it an easy sell, plus when they saw how absolutely easy it was to push with those big goofy wheels, it pretty much sold itself.

The carb wasn't so much missing, more that it just had no bowl nut, or as it's known as on these engines, the main jet. 
It was a really simple repair, honestly, just a replacement carburetor.
However, because I'm me, I thought I'd attempt to rescue this carb, try a different jet from another failed carb...
THAT'S when I found this doozy of a gremlin...

Yeah, I discovered what happened to this mower, and why it was tossed to the side.
The nut had snapped inside the carb.
It's finished, unfortunately..
I attempted to drill it out, and it just did not go well at all.
Sure, I got all the way thru the remnants of the jet, but it was destroyed.
I tossed it into the scrap heap.

I replaced the carburetor with one that I cleaned up off a mower that I replaced the carb on, which made more sense at the time.
I had a new carburetor ready, in case I needed it. But I made sure to be thorough in the cleaning.

After reinstalling the carburetor on the mower, wow did it mow a treat! As I said previously. I was so pleased with the cutting it gave that I kept it for quite some time.  I wanted to make sure that this 35 year old beast still had it in her to keep on going!

Just an all around solid mower, really well built. I am always impressed with these Craftsman products. However the new mowers, after Sears liquidated, that are made by MTD, don't be fooled by those imposters. They're not Craftsman mowers, they're just more department store Chinesieum junk.

This one, it could have used new adjusters, and a deck resurfacing, but for what it is, if it is continued to be well maintained, I could see it lasting another decade or two...

As I was saying about liking it a lot, it was more than that honestly.
The mower was probably one of my favorite mowers to work on so far. It sounded good, it seemed to always want to run, and... I kind of like the fact that I was getting a nearly 40 year old mower back into service.

I hope to get a much older mower back into service one day. That would be a lot of fun!

Anyway guys,

Chat soon!

Blog Posts Are Planned To Post Twice a Week. 
Every Thursday & Sunday Going Forward