Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I have an old Ariens snowblower that I am having some trouble with. Initially, I was not able to start the snowblower. So I pulled the spark plug and put a shot of starter fluid in the cylinder. The Engine fired right up, but died quickly. So I repeated this. Again it fired and died. I determined that no gas was getting to the engine so I tapped the carb float with a wrench because I thought it may have been sticking. Then, I put another short of starting fluid in the engine and it fired right up.

So I have the snowblower running, but the exhaust is getting very hot. After a few minutes the exhaust began to turn red. Also, when I rev up the engine I am getiing a short burst of flame once and a while. This is only at high throttle. I assume the problem is within the carb, but I did not want to mess with this without asking someone.

Any ideas?

It's not unusual for an exhaust pipe to turn red and be visible at night.  However, if it's real bright, it could also be a sign that your carb is running a bit lean.  Considering that you had to give the float bowl a bit of a crack to loosen up the innards, I'd speculate that you may have a varnish build up and/or contamination in the float bowl.  I'd  pull the float bowl off, inspect and clean.  Re-assemble and dump a couple ounces of Seafoam into your fuel.  Run that through and see if the lean condition is remedied.  By the way, did you pull the spark  plug to inspect the colour of the insulation around the electrode?  If it's white, you have a lean condition.  If it's a tan colour, it's  good.  If it's black (sooty) it's running rich.  Check the plug first.  You might not even have a problem.   

I am planning on pulling the float and cleaning tomarrow when I have good light. What is Seafoam? Is that the same thing as the carb cleaner additives you can add to your fuel or dry gas? The plug is black so I don't think that I am running to lean. Also, the exhaust pipe was red in the afternoon today.

Did you inspect the plug after a long hot run?  Checking it after a cold start will often show soot due to primed fuel being incompletely burned in the cylinder.  If it's black after a long hot run, your carb is in a rich condition or, possibly your choke is not fully disengaging.   So, if your machine is running rich and you have red exhaust, I wouldn't worry too much about the colour of the exhaust pipe.  I would however correct the rich condition.   

Black plug. Its rich enough. OK - then you either have LOW compression or late ignition timing.....DI