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

I bought a Toro221QE last year, had no issues last winter. This year before I started it up, I siphoned all the old gas out of it and loaded fresh gasoline and 2cycle engine oil that I had bought from HD last year (unopened bottle). The blower starts without any problem, but after about few minutes it slows down throwing snow and eventually stops. Any ideas on what might be going wrong with it. If I start it up again I can go through the same routine but will slow down on throwing snow quicker and again stop. Appreciate any ideas on what might be the issue.

I've heard of this symptoms before.  The problem could be very minor.  Try loosening the gas cap and let it run again. The engine may be fuel starved from clogged vent in the gas cap.  If that's the case, call your local Toro dealer and explain it to them.  Hopefully they give you new gas cap without hauling in the snowblower.  Good luck.

Thank you for the suggestion. I have not had a chance to try it out just yet. I will give it a go and let you know.

Hopefully that is all I there is to it.

Thanks

Just to be sure that I had the right mix I siphoned all the gas out and poured in new 50:1 mixture of gas and oil.

Next I tried your suggestion and I did not see any difference the blower was still dying once I engaged the control bar after running for few minutes.

So (I suppose this is a newbie mistake) next I moved the choke back 1 click to midway position, all of the sudden there was no smoke and engine started running smoothly.

I don't remember if I ever did that last year (moved the choke back after starting up the engine.). Is this normal operation ?

Thanks for the help.

kaka55 wrote:
Two cycle engines are particularly fussy about being choked when no choke is required.   Once the engine is running, the choke must be turned to the off position.  Otherwise the engine will flood itself and stall.

You should be running that thing after its warmed up WITHOUT choke. Prime it and start it with choke and after a minute start to reduce the choke. It will smooth out if all is right.

Lesson learned. Thanks

Awesome, looks like that's a pretty minor issue with an easy fix.