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

My 71 year old husband has always been very good about maintaining our machinery but on the last snowfall in the spring he blew it , forgetting to check the oil level on our snow blower before starting it.  Sadly the Tecumsech engine seized after 4 feet   . We really can't afford a new one and I've heard that if you put synthetic oil in and let it sit a while you may be able to get it working again. The snow blower is still like new otherwise and if the suggestion above is false I guess the least expensive route to go is to have a new motor installed. Does anyone have an opinion on the synthetic oil theory so I can figure out what to do? Winter is not far off and in the north country in a rural area like where we live a snow blower is a necessity.

plank1104 wrote:

71? Spring chicken...he should use a shovel!  

On a more serious ntoe, the mechanics here can talk to it, but seizing is usually pretty serious. If it is just the motor, a local dealer may be able to repair it. Not free, but probably managable. The good news if it really occured within 4 feet it is probably contained. Lacking oil is about the same as cooking without oil, but now it is the bearings sticking to the crankshaft rather than the eggs to pan.

Which make and model snow blower is it?

You might be able to swap motors.  I changed out a 3.5 HP on an old Toro in January with a 6.5 HP Greyhound from Harbor Freight.

It ran great last year from January until April for the few hours I put on it.  I have not tried to start it yet this year as I have been playing with an old Ariens I managed to get for a good deal.
I was doing my yard plus a couple neighbors each time it snowed, so it got a fair amount of use.

They sell them at $179.99, usually on sale for $129.99, sometimes and was recently for a while on sale for $99.99.  You can find 20% off coupons around too, so that ends up being $80 for a new engine.

These are considered Honda clones.  They are basically copycats of the Honda GX 200 design built by Lifan.  There seems to be a lot of good things said about them online and not much bad.

We would have to know a little more about your current machine and it's engine to know how easy of a change it would be.  Some snowblowers use 2 pulleys on the engine with gets a bit more complicated.

For the old Toro 3521 I have, it was a simple and easy change.  All bolts/belts/pulleys were direct swap.  My only problem was the chute crank rod was in the way which I solved with a 2x4 spacer as I was kind of in a hurry.

http://www.harborfreight.com/engines-generators/gas-engines.html?order=position&dir=asc