Bad gas in new lawnmower or something else?

[JustinH]

So I have a very small lawn to maintain, and thought I would be just fine with one of those 79 dollar home depot lawnmowers with the little briggs engine on it.

With such a small lawnmower it takes me forever to go through one gallon of gas.

The gas I put in the tank was about 12-14 months old. It sat in the shed over winter in a sealed gas tank.

I filled it up, and the mower won't start unless I spray carb cleaner directly into the carb, then it starts right up and runs fine.

Should I just let it run until it is out of gas, then put some fresh gas in there or is something else wrong?

This is a pretty much brand new mower, less than a couple months old.

 

[AandPDan]

Did it ever start up right? Before you put in the bad gas? Might be an issue with the choke.

It it runs fine, run it empty then put some fresh gas in it. Run that through it.

Try not to store gas longer than about a month. Especially with ethanol in it, the gas can absorb water. Put it into your vehicle and use it up.

 

[eljefino]

How does the primer bulb feel? Pull the air filter and see if you can see a squirt of gas when you push it.

As long as it runs on the old gas I would run it out.

EPA must have tightened specs, as my 10 year old briggs with three little holes in the gas cap will evaporate out most of its gas in a couple weeks. Anything left is not worthy of being called fuel.

 

[JustinH]

The primer feels good, I've never ran this mower with anything but year old gas. It didn't occur to me how old it was until the thing wouldn't start.

What is the best way to dispose of gas, I don't want to use it in my car either.

 

[matrass]

I am having the exact same problem with my mower. I did put gas stabilizer in before winter. my mower is about 8-10 years old so I figure the primer is not working right. does not seem like it is getting fuel. I ran it for the first time the other day getting it started with just a spritz of starting fluid.

 

[Bandito440]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
What is the best way to dispose of gas, I don't want to use it in my car either.


Just put it in your car with a full tank. It'll be diluted enough not to hurt anything.

 

[Cutehumor]

I bought a new toro self proppelled with mulch/bagging last year. first winter the mower saw. I put fresh ethanol free gas in it with fuel stabilizer in it. first start up, it took almost 10 pulls to get it to run. always started on first try last year. so I will store it gas empty this winter unless I change my mind.

 

[Quest]

After receiving a 6yr old B&S 675 (and restored it, simply affair), I decided to add 2 things to them: (1) a nylon fuel shutoff valve; (2) a 100micron mesh fuel filter.

with these 2 gadgets: I can simply shut off the fuel to the carb and run the engine dry before putting into storage; and the mesh filter is to filter out the debris typically gets into the fuel tank during refueling process (dirty can nozzle, dusty environment).

Also: I dope my fuel in the jerry can before I start my season. By the end of the season, whatever remains in the jerry can or mower fuel tank should have been sufficiently doped for winter. Jerry can, I don't care: simply dump the remaining fuel into my wifey's camry and burn it. Whatever remains inside the mower gets drained out properly before the start of the following season.

Also: I only keep up to 6 mnths of fuel in storage, for emergency and mower only.

Q.

 

[andyd]

I use the fuel shut off after every use. I also add a cap of MMO to every fill. Since I started doing this, I have had a lot less trouble with 10% ethanol gas. So far the only problem has been with the Husqua-whatis weed whacker

 

[yeehaw1960]

Take the air filter off with a flat head screw driver. Take a digital picture of what is underneath for later reference. Remove the 1/2 inch bolt that holds the carb/tank to the engine. Remove the 3/8 inch bolt from the end of the tank. Pull the tank away from the engine and do what you have to do to remove the linkage from the carb. If it’s a long linkage rod with one spring, remove the spring and set it aside. If the spring is attached to a short linkage rod, just pull the linkage of out the hole it’s in.

Remove the 5 Phillips screws holding the carb to the tank. Inspect the gasket/diaphragm and ensure it is soft and pliable. Completely blow/empty out inside and top of the tank. Push primer bulb in to expel excess gas from carb. Blow air on the bottom of the carb and into the hole at the base of the pickup tube. (Not too hard into that hole or the primer will burst). Place your thumb over the spring so it won’t blow away. Reassemble carb and reinstall. Should be good to go. Don’t take the gasket and diaphragm apart, but if you do, make sure you assemble in the following order. Tank, diaphragm, gasket, then carb. Chances are, the diaphragm is bad. It usually is. O’Reillys in my area sells them for about 3 bucks, and the mower shops charge 7 or 8.

 

[southernjeeper]

drain the gas!

if the bad gas did anything really bad like gum up the float needle. You will need to take the carb apart and clean it up.

Try your best to use non-ethanol gas.

If not use something like Heet, seafoam, star-tron, MMO, or Sta-bil marine formula...

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Buy midgrade or premium for the mower. Don't keep it in the gas-can longer than 4-5 months. I use either MMO or fuel stabilizer with every gallon or two of gas I buy.

 

[GMorg]

When this happens to me, it is usually a gel-like material in carb. I remove the carb and pass a pipe cleaner through every passage that I can find. Usually, it is near fuel line. The clear gel break apart easily. It is annoying, but fairly easy to fix.

 

[clarklawnscape]

many are recommending stabilizer, good advice, but if the stabilizer doesnt mention ethanol, its virtually worthless. briggs offers an ethanol fuel stabilizer treatment, there is also an excellent product out called fuel medic but its often hard to find. ethanol is enemy #1 to these small carbs. as others have mentioned, higher octane is a good idea too. i have used as an experiment strictly 87 with no additives and found yellowish gunk in the carb, switched to 89 or higher and no gunk

 

[xxch4osxx]

I use Petro-Canada 89 octane for my lawnmower which is a MTD Gold with the Honda GCV 160 engine. In the fall I shut the fuel off and let it run till it runs out of fuel, then drain the tank. This spring, I filled the tank up with fresh gas, turned the fuel valve on, let the carb bowl fill with fuel and with one pull it fired right up. Can't get much better than that.

 

[gman2304]

I use 89 octane, Startron, and Stabil and a inline fuel shutoff after every use. Never had a problem.