I'm pretty good about changing my oil in my cars and bikes, but honestly I never thought twice about my small engines like blowers and mowers. I started feeling a little guilty that I literally did zero maintenance since new. Zero. So I decided to change the oil in my Troy Bilt leaf blower after like 5 years (factory fill). All 3 ounces of it. Man oh man, black as tar and nearly the same consistency. I'd dab some on my figertips and when I pulled them away it would create those "strings". Frightening. So I filled it up with new oil, ran for a few, dumped it (very dark), repeated (a bit better), and refilled with 5w30 syn to run into the summer. Seems pretty happy now, and revs a lot more freely.
Cleaned the air filter too.
Anyhow, just scraping off some guilt. That poor thing, but it hung in there and seems to work fine.
Cleaned the air filter too.
Anyhow, just scraping off some guilt. That poor thing, but it hung in there and seems to work fine.