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

December is here and I'm anxiously waiting for some good snow to arrive.  I've been bit by the 2 cycle bug recently.  I have the Toro 421QE, which is the 4 cycle version of the 221Q.  I thought it may be redundant to pick up a used 221Q so I've been looking into getting a Toro Powerlite.  Plus, I can hang the Powerlite up on a wall.  the 221Q is too big and heavy to do so.

Anyways, anybody got a recommendation for a compact SS two-cycle?  If not, please provide a 7 step sure fire way to cure the 2 cycle habit.  :)

Thanks all for the tips.  I found this Powerlite is a 2007 model,  with a Tecumseh HSK635 - 1723C engine.  Looks like the scraper bar and rubber paddles will have to be replaced.  It can probably go another winter season but since I'm working on it, might as well replace them.  I'll get a new belt and spark plug as well.  There are nuts and screws here and there that are corroded, I'll break those lose and replace them.  Not fond of Toro's choice of fasteners hardware, seems to rust too easily.  I haven't bought any parts yet, but should be able to get it back in top shape for less than $60 estimated, maybe a little more if I'm picky.

No plans to modify it yet, although bumping the RPM is fairly easy to do.  I was surprised to find out that the engine is part of the structural frame.  The lower handle is the frame!    Not sure how well the engine and the frame will handle the extra power.    I was so used to seeing how well built the Honda HS621 is and this Powerlite was an eye opener. 

It was late tonight so I didn't feel like doing any work on the carburetor.  I was just looking around and see which parts needs to be replaced and which needs some paint touch up.  The Powerlite is very simple in design, extremely compact and so lighweight.  I was able to easily lift it and fiit it in the back seat of my car.  This is a perfect machine to leave on your wooden deck, especially if you have a few stairs. 

MN_Runner wrote:
Yes, this machine is about 4 years old and has one owner with the typical homeowner use, so it's not too beat up.  Everything looks original so the wear items like rubber paddles and scraper bars are at their service limit and need to be replaced.  It's a fairly inexpensive machine for me to play with. 

Anyways, good luck on getting the 221Q with the price you're waiting for.  Don't wait too long, there aren't many new ones sitting around.  I'm sure you rather get something brand new to you for a few bucks more. 

RedOctobyr wrote:

The Powerlite has good power to its size.  Also the rotating mass of the auger assembly is very low, so it's very efficient.

I did looked into getting the Ariens SS a few years ago, I think the Simplicity was very similar, with the fancy molded auger.  I don't think Ariens or Simplicity makes these snowblowers, they are probably made by someone else because mechanically, they were very similar.  The machines were very well built, nice solid handles.  The molded auger kinda of turned me off due to cost of replacement and heavy mass that didn't have powerful engine to drive it. 

I haven't bought any parts yet, just estimating that will need to spend about $60.  I have no tools to do compression check on the engine so I'll just get it running and that will be it.  The snowblower is only 4 years old with light duty homeowner use so I'm fairly sure it's still has good compression.

Does that machine have an auger engagement lever or does it turn as soon as the engine is fired up?

Five years old is pretty fresh provided it wasn't straight gassed.  As long as it was properly lubed, the engine should be fine.  The old 1997 Craftsman I bought used had around 120 psi.  That's pretty much factory spec.  Pretty good for a fifteen year old machine. 

Don't be afraid to mix a bit more oil than what the manual specifies.   Especially if you crank it up a bit.   I run most of my premix around 35:1 to 40:1.  Never had a problem yet.  Not even a fouled plug.

Did you inspect/fix the recoil yet?  I'm interested to know what the cause of the problem is/was.  

borat wrote:
The Powerlite doesn't have auger engagement bail.  There's a belt tensioner that is always spring loaded so the auger spins when I pull the starter cord.  I can't tell the health the engine by pull start, there's an automatic decompression to make it easy to turn over. 
I don't have tools to measure compression.  Is there any tell tale signs like excessive smoke?  At least the engine is not locked up from being straight gassed.  I think the engine should be very fresh.  Like I said before, one owner, light residential duty, single car wide driveway, not very big area to clear.

I haven't open up the recoil assembly to determine what's wrong.   I am planning to buy a new cord and put it in while I have it apart.  The weather has been fairly warm so I'm enjoying the weather outdoors with the kids so I've been a little lazy in any mechanical work at night.  :)

If I experiment running higher RPMS, I will definitely use more oil than recommended.  From my days of RC nitro metthane car engines, I tend to run the engine a little rich just to get a little safety margin.  I don't have much time these days for those tempermental high output RC engines.  I spend more time cleaning them than running them.  :)

aa335 wrote:
Heh, well put. "the fancy molded auger" is a pretty good way to describe it. It is certainly expensive to replace, which is unfortunate. The machine was sold under at least 1 other brand name, there were green ones sold as Lesco, which were covered in the SS322 recall. They might have been sold under another brand as well, of course, which simply wasn't covered by this recall.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00059.html

I don't think a worn 2-stroke should smoke any more. A worn 4-stroke smokes because the oil in the crankcase is getting past the worn out piston rings, making the engine smoke. In a 2-stroke, the only oil is already in the gas, so I don't think that a worn engine would smoke differently. It would still be down on power, of course. The simple & fairly easy way I know to check a 2-stroke's condition is to pull off the muffler, and look at the side of the piston and the cylinder. You should not see vertical scratches/gouges, it should still show a smooth crosshatched pattern.

borat, good point about the oil ratio. I just mixed up a fresh gallon with Stihl Ultra at the suggested 50:1. I should have used a bit less gas and gone for, say, 40:1, especially for higher RPM's. Unfortunately, I have the little 1-gallon-mix bottles, so I can't easily add more after the fact. I do run my old Stihl 032AV chainsaw a little rich, to be safe. The magic of adjustable carbs! My saw is 51cc, and revs to 13,000 RPM, but of course the piston and things still weigh quite a bit less than those in my 98cc snowblower engine, so that helps keep the loads under control. Plus, of course, it was designed for 13,000, and I'm not ramping it up to 18,000 :)

aa335, sorry to go on a slight tangent, but you caught my eye with the RC nitro engines comment. About 10 years ago I bought an RC nitro-powered Team Associated RC10GT stadium truck. Had a .12 in^3 OS engine, I eventually upgraded it to a .12 Mugen engine, which added a bunch more power. That thing was a ton of fun. I haven't run it in about 5 years, unfortunately. Those engines do make a mess of the car :) About a year ago I got into RC electric helicopters, they're a blast. Started with a coaxial toy, then got Blade mSR fixed-pitch, then a Blade mCP X collective pitch. The mCP X will do flips, loops, flies upside down, etc. And it's only about 10" long or so, not counting the main rotors. I'm working on hovering inverted in different orientations. I upgraded the stock brushed motor to a brushless setup, it raised the main rotors RPM from about 3800 to almost 6000. It's kind of a little beast now, and has the power to try a lot more aggressive stuff. Sorry, my apologies for going OT.

RedOctobyr wrote: RedOctobyr,

Those molded augers were supposed to have free lifetime replacement policy, to the original owner.  I don't see that policy holding up when the machine is discontinued.  Too bad though, it's a solidly designed machine with lots of potential, if they put a decent high output engine into it.  I don't see how a tiny HSK600 98cc engine should be strapped to a 22" wide auger, a heavy auger.


That's okay to be OT, there's not much snow to stay on track anyways.

I used to have Mugen MBX4, T-Maxx, Revo, HPI Savage, and HPI electric touring cars.  My favorite was the MBX4 buggy, 60 mph rocket, keeps going tank after tank, burned the clutch a couple of times.  I run it continuously without shutting down between refueling.    I've given up on gas powered RC, too much cleaning and maintenance, especially on the sub .15 engines or 1/10 scale RC.  I've already have enough trouble keeping RX and TX batteries charged.  I think I spent more $$$ on RC than my OPE equipment.  If I get back into RC, I'd going all electric (lipo and brushless), switching battery packs is easy.  NO oil mess to clean up, no more expensive denatured alcohol, no tweaking the hi / low screws to get it running right.  Those new 2.4 gHZ DSS  bind-n-drive radios are nice.  Plus I want to enjoy running RC with my kids, not spend too much time working on them.

I dabbled with the RC helis, started out with a coaxial Blade CX2 and now 120 SR.  Flew it in the house a couple of times the last couple of years.    Nice and cheap to get started into RC heli without the fear factor, but seems to be too fragile.  When my skills improve, I might look into something faster and more durable.

I finally took some time to take a look at this Powerlite tonight.  The recoil rope was hanging out 12 inches so I was able to wind up the pulley 2 more turns to take up the slack.  There was some crack on the starter pulley but it will hold up so I can try to start the engine.  I took off the carb bowl, everything looks clean.  Gave the pull start a yank, the engine starts up on the second pull.  That was good news.  Then I noticed that some dark fluid like oil was dripping out of the spark plug, so I immediately shut down the engine.  The spark plug was not even tightened.  So I removed and checked the plug, it was dark brown, not sure how long the previous owner had been running with the plug loose.  Anyways, I added more fresh gas and restarted it, this time letting it run a little longer.  Everything seems to be running fine.

I'm not going to sink too much time or money into this machine.  I'll just get a new belt, rubber augers, scraper bar, and a spark plug.  Just the essentials so it operates in peak form, so no restoration to near showroom condition.  I'll restore a BMW 2002, but not a Toyota Tercel.    There's just nothing about this machine that excites me other than the tiny Tecumseh 2 stroke engine, everything else is just low rent materials and build quality.  It's a fun and easy machine to work on, but I got a little annoyed of all the pesky rusted fasteners.

I'll keep this machine around to play with increasing  the RPM and see how it performs.  It's a lightweight machine so I'm not sure it throw snow further or cut through EOD a bit better, or just bounce around.

   A bit off topic but you guys mentioning the RC stuff made me curious about some of the terms.  Googling arond go me to UTube and I came across RC jet powered planes.  Never knew there was such a thing as micro jet engines complete with pre-ignition starters.  The first one I tripped on was a RC of a SR71 Blackbird and amazing. 

trouts2 wrote:
There's some crazy RC stuff, like a large scale B-52 bomber with multiple jet engines on the wings.  It takes two guys to fly these things.   That's some serious hobby.  It makes Honda $8000 snowblower looks pale by comparison.