Howdy,
I'm a new owner of a 926le and I have a few questions.
1. The time has come for the first oil change. I'm curious what everyone is running in the Tecumseh L head. I have always been a Castrol guy, but last summer I switched to Mobil 1 with the extended life formula. I figured that a few extra detergent's couldn't hurt in my small engines that require a multi-weight oil.
2. I used the machine for the first time in serious snow (14 inches) last weekend. I did run the machine twice so it was not more than 8-10 inches of fresh snow. EOD was a good 2-3 feet. The machine seemed to clear the normal drive pretty well, throwing about 20-25 ft. Does this sound normal? Reason I'm asking is because I've read about how the Ariens is the "throwing champ" and my next door neighbor's 14 year old John Deere seemed to throw just as far or farther. EOD the machine seemed to chew through it pretty good, but it still rode up as much as chewed through.
3. Hard to start. I follow the guide, prime, choke etc. After 5-7 pulls, I can't even get it to fire or sputter. I can do the same thing with the electric start and fires in about 2 secs. Is this normal? Even warm starts are 2-3 pulls. Kind of embarassing when your new machine takes 3 pulls and the 14 yr old fires on 1.
4. Loading up @ idle. When I idle the machine down for 1-2 minutes and then open the throttle, the machine seem to run very rich for about 1-2 seconds, blowing blue/white smoke like the mixture is too rich, much like a choked engine, but this is after running and warm, so Choke is not an issue. Once it clears the carb, the engine purrs strong with no smoke or hesitation.
5. Scraper Blade Adjustment. I've adjusted the blade to 1/8" as the manual recommends (I used two small finishing nails to get the same height on both sides). It seems that my blower leaves more snow behind on the goundthan my neighbors John Deere or the other neighbor's craftsman. Any suggestions?
Now, for the good news, my poor neighbor had a craftsman 5.5hp going through the same snow storm and drifts and wasnt' having a very good time of it. I had no problems going where he couldn't. In fact, I ended up doing most of his drive. The John Deere didnt have drift cutters or as high of an opening, so the pattern became me breaking the EOD and the John Deere cleaning up the rest. I think the machine is a workhorse overall, and seems to be happiest under load--is that a characteristic of the L-head? I've always been a B&S guy as the Tecumseh on a pushmower I had didn't make it 6 years with perfect maintenance, I just need to tweak it a little it sounds like.
Any other suggestions for a Snow thower noob would be greatly appreciated.
