Old gas from snow blower

How to remove?

How to dispose of?

How to start snow blower not used last year?   Doesn't seem to want to turn over

TIA!

Does it have a "prime" button to prime the carburetor?  If so push it in a dozen times or more.  Otherwise it may be suffering from old gasoline gumming up.  Good luck

I believe oil and gas blend to run the motor.  The gas evaporates leaving just oil in the fuel line.  This clogs the line and carb.  This is why we're supposed to store following the mfr instrux.  Or use a fuel additive when storing for a long time.  A lawn mower service shop like P&P or Mc Manus can take care of it.

There may be a way to use carb cleaning spray, but I don't know how that's done.

GL

Apollo_T said:

I believe oil and gas blend to run the motor.  The gas evaporates leaving just oil in the fuel line.  This clogs the line and carb.  This is why we're supposed to store following the mfr instrux.  Or use a fuel additive when storing for a long time.  A lawn mower service shop like P&P or Mc Manus can take care of it.

There may be a way to use carb cleaning spray, but I don't know how that's done.

GL

As for oil and gas blending to run the motor - it depends on whether the engine is two-cycle or four-cycle.

But yeah, definitely use an additive for long storage, though it's too late for that.

You can probably get the thing started with enough tinkering, but it's not a novice DIY task, unfortunately.

My snow blower wouldnt start either  changed gas and sparkplug then I broke the cord.  Plugged up the thing and electric starter wont start it either so I oiled my shovels instead. 

That's why I liked my Toro electric blower (back when I owned a house) Always started, and even if there was a lot of snow it would clear it if you were patient with it and took small chunks at a time.

drummerboy said:

That's why I liked my Toro electric blower (back when I owned a house) Always started, and even if there was a lot of snow it would clear it if you were patient with it and took small chunks at a time.

 Reliability trumps efficiency in this case. Gonna hire a couple kids from the neighborhood if it gets really bad. . 

For gas powered snow blowers, you need to run it 3-4 times a year (incl. over the summer), to keep it in working order.  I didn't in 2019 & 2020 due to lack of snow, so I had to pay $ for service prior to our first storm this season.

On the other hand, I have a couple of gas cans with old gas.  Do we have anywhere to dispose of this?

tomcat said:

For gas powered snow blowers, you need to run it 3-4 times a year (incl. over the summer), to keep it in working order.  I didn't in 2019 & 2020 due to lack of snow, so I had to pay $ for service prior to our first storm this season.

On the other hand, I have a couple of gas cans with old gas.  Do we have anywhere to dispose of this?

 Almost exact same scenario, hadn't tried to run it in almost 2 years prior to the storm earlier this winter, lesson learned. I've had it for 7 years and its probably has less than 24 hours run time during that span. 

I can't think of anything more frustrating than buying a snow blower only to have to resort to shovels cuz the damn thing won't start. My heart goes out...

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

I can't think of anything more frustrating than buying a snow blower only to have to resort to shovels cuz the damn thing won't start. My heart goes out...

 I psych myself into focusing on the health benefits of the exercise  if I cant hire any help.. 

We had this problem when it snowed in December, so we called P&P recently and they picked up our snowblower (and lawnmower and generator for good measure) and all were serviced - long overdue. We had a little bit of old gas in our gas can and dumped it into one of our cars (that had a fairly full tank) and also topped that off and refilled the can at the gas station yesterday.

I'm very thankful for that earlier (very shovelable) storm for getting us in gear in this.

the key is "starter fluid"  spray a bit in the carburetor and bingo

old gas-if you have new gas as well-use 1/3 old to 2/3 new  old gas still works