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

Backfiring is caused by the winter fuel and the overlean fixed jet that the govt. requires in today's standards. In the motorcycle community when Harley was using the fixed jet Kehin carbs on the Evo Block ead engines in the early 80's it was standard practice to use a carburetor jetting ream in order to richen the mixture and the backfire and blueing of the exhaust pipes diminished. Harley eventually went to computer controlled fuel injection which is not an option for us.

On blowers as the engine breaks in the problem will diminish a little  but it is something we have to learn to live with.You certainly haven't gotten a "lemon" and will enjoy good service from your machine.

Just a point of interest- When the ope engine manufacturers were first forced to go to fixed jets by the govt. many of us who bought Tecumseh powered units spent the $80 for the old style adjustable jet carb which were still available for the snow engines and the lean run issues went away. Since Briggs had been out of the snow market for about 30 years the new design they introduced for blowers had a new carb with no old ajustable variant available that would fit. The result  is if you got a Briggs you just have to deal with those issues. Interestingly some Briggs owners will report none of these issues with their fixed jet units. This can be explained by the gas available where they live and the altitude at which the engine performs . Honda's don't experience this problem because they manufacture their carbs with several sized fixed jets available.They usually match the engines to the area in which they are sold. I have a pressure washer with a GX Honda that I boought off the net(not from a local dealer).It back fired like crazy until I got my hands on a high altitude jet (rich mixture)and then the problem went away.

Marc