I hate small engines!

[Jim DeLaney]

You guys must get pretty bad gas, i have weed eater and lawnmower and leave them from Nov thru to May and pull them out and they start first time with gas being left in all that time. These units are 10 years old. Never touched a plug or anything on them and my sons have been the users so only lost parts they can fiddle with like bolts.

Rob, it's the ethanol they put in a lot (most?) of the gas here. Corn-belt politicians convinced the EPA that the ethanol is a good thing, and it's added to gasoline in proportions up to 15% in some places. The problems are many: first, the alcohol draws water; it also causes rapid deterioration of natural rubber fuel system parts; it, along with the absorbed water, caused aluminum and pot metal parts ocarburetorsrs to corrode; and the combination of water, alcohol and gasoline causes a gel-like build-up when left stagnant in tanks and float bowls.

Overall, the whole gasohol 'experiment' is generally a "fail." It does reduce the amount of petroleum used, but at great cost. Without subsidies, the alcohol production costs more than the gasoline component; gas mileage on E85 is less than with straight gas; and of course the corrosion and gelling causes greater, and more frequent repairs.

[Rob Keeble]

Thanks for that info Jim. I thought we were all long settled on the ethanol created issues. I remember that from back in SA when i had an imported car that did not like the mix and it caused untold problems at the time. Did not think it was still prevalent in causing issues. Guess i have just been lucky up here. We got the stuff in our gas too. Just not sure on the percentage.

[ken werner]

Agree with Jim and Brent. I would not rebuild the carb - yet - just clean it out best you can, maybe blow some compressed air thru it. This happened on my J-D lawn tractor, with a 2 cyl Kawasaki engine. Had to take the carb bowl out and clean it. I hate ethanol in gas. Total rip-off to the consumer.