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?

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