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

Have a Yard Machines Snow Blower with 8 hp tecumseh snow king... when the owners manual says use 5-30w oil, it really means it.  Plus be sure to cover the engine with a tarp.  I live in Maine and a month ago, I got my machine ready for the winter, but failed to cover it, and then it rained, a lot.  Last night I tried to start it, again and again.  So I changed the gasoline and still nothing, I removed the spark plug and it barely turned over with no compression working against me using the pull start.  Last night I went online and read everything I could about issues with starting this engine.  Today, got some 5-30W synthetic oil and went to drain the old oil and nothing came out... so I poked a small screwdriver into the drain tube and found a blockage.  Put a hair dryer on the engine block and after a few minutes, a long chunk of oil covered ice came out.  After about 30 minutes the rest of the old watery oil came out.  I added new oil and it started right up.  Oh, and it never got above 10 degrees here today.  Not my favorite thing to do on a cold snowy day, but I needed the machine to work.  I could have saved a lot of time and cold if i would have paid the $5 for the tarp as soon as i pulled it out of the shed.