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

I know this is off topic, and I apologize in advance. I couldn't find a heading for generators so I'm hoping to get some help here. I have a Honda EG2500 generator that is about 6 years old. I run it every month or so, loaded for about 30 minuets. It starts on the first pull every time and puts out good clean power. The problem is that after it warms up a few minuets it will intermittantly put out a cloud of smoke without any change in load. It doesn't sound like it's lugging down. The govenor sounds steady. It last less than a minuet and then runs clean and clear for about 10 minuets, then does it again. The oil level is fine and does not seem to be going down. The oil is fresh and the gas is fresh. I always use sta-bil in the gas and run it empty at least once a year to keep the gas fresh.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Tom

Blue smoke or black smoke? 

Blue indicates oil being burned in the combustion chamber.  Black smoke = too much fuel.  If it's intermittent blue smoke, I'd guess that oil is accumulating in the engine head in the area of the valve stems and as it gets to a sufficient amount, it begins leaking past the seals.   It could also be a sticking oil ring leaving excess oil on the cylinder wall but I would be more suspicious of the leaking valve seals.  if so, and you're that concerned about it, you will have to change your valve seals.  That means taking the head off, removing the rocker arm mechanism, valve springs and valve then pulling the seals.  Black smoke means you have a carburetor issue causing excess fuel to enter the combustion chamber.    If it's black smoke, run some Seafoam through the system a few times to see if it does anything.  If not, pull the carb apart and clean it.   

Thanks borat. It's a blue smoke so I guess I'll go after the seals. Is it doing damage to run this way?

ttt1953 wrote:

Not likely any damage will occur.  I had an air cooled engine 1987 Suzuki ATV for twenty years. It's seals leaked for the last ten. I sold it to a buddy and it's still running fine.  If the machine had been run and left to sit overnight, the cloud of smoke that came from it upon start up the next day was much worse than a two stroke.  The best thing to do was to start it then move up wind from it for a minute or so.   Once it's warmed up, the smoking  would stop.   If it is your seals, they might just be dry from the machine sitting unused for extended periods of time.  If you were to run it for a couple of hours under load, the hot oil might rejuvenate the seals. 

Well if it ain't really broke, I probably won't try to fix it. I do run it under load every month or two for about 30 min. I'll try loading it up and running a full tank through it.

Thanks for all the info.

Tom