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

Most Common Damage Done to any and all snowblowers is NOT preparing the engine and machine for the summer months.  The most necessary part of this is to prevent the unused engines one engine piston rings from rusting themself to the cylinder wall.  The solution is simple and easy if you posess the tools and the technical know how to change a spark plug.    Go to a local drugstore and buy a plastic syringe, tell them you need it to feed liquid medicine to a sick cat.  Then go home and remove the spark plug from the engine on your snowblower.  Fill the syringe with ordinary clean fresh motor oil, and empty it into the engine cylinder, then pull the starter cord a few times to distribute the oil on the cylinder walls and the piston rings, then  replace the spark plug.  Now Pull the cord slowly until it provides the maximum resistance, and then stop pulling.  This will effectively have closed all the engine valves and will keep the warm moist air of summer from getting into the engine cylinder.  This must be done every year once the threat of snow is gone.  April Fool's Day is a good day to remember if you've done such chores.

The other things are less important since they will not be so damaging, but drain all the gas out of the tank, the carburetor, and the lines.  Cover the machine with a plastic cover that allows air movement, like a piece of woven plastic or most housewraps, so long as yoy store the snowblower in a garage and out of the sun.  

Remember that snowblowers have no air filters so it is common for moisture-water to be injested during a snow storm.  For this reason I put the machine in the garage and run it until the gas runs out once I have shut off the fuel line.  My old snowblower required that I install an In-Line fuel shut-off valve because the $ 1100.00 bucks I paid wasn't sufficient for MTD to have included one when they built my Sears Craftsman Snowblower.  So if your engine has no fuel shut off, you too should install one yourself.    Oh, and always use gas that has sufficient fuel stabilizer in it, and always use fuel that is less thyan six months in the can even if it does have stabilizer in it.  Thenattempting to start the snowblower when you awake to the blizzard won't throw you into a state of panic.

That's an interesting point. My 2-stroke, glow-plug engine in my RC truck runs on fuel that's primarily methanol, if memory serves, with 15-20% nitro, and I think it's synthetic oil. As you said, I used after-run oil after every use, per the manual, due to the water-absorbing qualities of the fuel. I haven't run it in a long time (~6 years or so). I tried the engine recently, it's been stored in my basement, which is pretty dry (I run a dehumidifier in the summer). The engine had always turned freely when I'd checked it before, but this time it wouldn't move. I was afraid it had finally rusted up. But with slowly working it back and forth, I got it to start moving (I think the oil was just sticky, it never felt like anything was grinding or gritty), then warmed it with a hair dryer, and then I could turn it over normally. Added some more oil through the plug hole, and put it away again. The after-run oil had me a bit nervous this time, but it seems to have done its job.

I probably won't start adding oil to my OPE when I put it away. But it wouldn't hurt to leave it on the compression stroke, at least (that takes 2 seconds). I use stabilizer in everything. But I might try also running machines dry before putting them away. I typically just leave the stabilized gas in them.

Before I put my 69 camaro away for the winter I fill the gas tank with gas and stabil,  warm it up good, fog the engine, drain and replace the motor oil, disconnect the battery, remove the air cleaner and duct tape a plastic bag over the carburator and both exhaust pipes.

Carl

I don't even do my outboard engines.  If I lived in a salt water environment and stored the engine in a salty damp location, I might consider it.  However, if I don't see corrosion/oxidization issues on the exterior of the engine, I'm certainly not going to be too concerned about the internals which are much more protected. 


There are numerous directions in manuals for all machines that seldom if ever are done by owners.  Look at every manual you own and tell me how many of the excessively numerous maintenance instructions you actually carry out?   Personally, I feel that a lot of the directions in the maintenance schedules of manuals is to intimidate owners to make them bring the machine to a service department.  Thus generating revenue for dealerships and the industry in general. 

When I was young and naive, I did the oil the cylinder(s) thing until I had far too many machines that the process was far too onerous.  So about twenty years ago I simply stopped doing it.   If I add up all of the cylinders I would need to oil, it would come to approx. 60 or more.  

Over the years, I have opened up some machines for various reasons and have found absolutely no ill effects from ceasing oiling the cylinder.  I've worked on old outboards owned by people who shouldn't own them due to mechanical ineptitude and never noticed anything unusual in them either.  One that comes to mind was a 1964 Chrysler 20 h.p. outboard  that had a head gasket so bad that when I pulled the plug on the top cylinder, it was working like a water pump.  Took it apart to fix the head gasket.  Guess what?  No rust in the cylinder despite the fact that it had been passing water through it. 

There are far too many people advocating maintenance procedures that bear little, if no consequence if not performed.  We're constantly being bombarded with dire warnings and maintenance failure fears that bear very little importance other than generating revenue for the industries that will benefit from unnecessary and wasteful practices. 

Experience has taught me many valuable lessons.  One of them is to develop the confidence to be able to determine what really matters and what doesn't. 

 

Geno,

I spent in excess of 15,000 dollars to build the engine in my 69 camaro and while there may be no ill effects to not taking some precautions,  It only cost me a can of fog and three plastic bags and some duct tape to give myself a little peace of mind.

It really doesn't take me long to do it since i do it the last time i take  it out for the year, which is normally mid to late November.  It will come out to play again in late March / early April.

This year I wish i had waited a little longer to put it away since it has been very warm here up until the last few days.

carlb wrote:
Looks good to me.

Nice job there. Thanks for the picture. Its now self explanatory.

I have to Laugh at the negative remarks when I did no more than post a basic instruction that was part of the owners manual for every snowblower I ever owned.   Snow blowers don't have air filters as a rule, they do injest water and moisture in normal operation to a far greater degree than say a lawn mower, and the rust does get to the piston rings after years of improper storage.  Oh, and small engine repir is not only for you Einstein's, normal people do it all the time, we just read the manuals before we do, unlike you.

New_Yorker wrote:
I'll tell you what. 

If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn't be doing it.

thanks for the replies to my earlier question about the "why" of fogging..
makes sense now..
thanks,
Scot

New_Yorker, you're right, snow blowers do operate in a different environment, and I'm sure they do ingest some of the snow that's in the air. But, at the same time, the combustion chamber is awfully hot. I have to expect that any moisture that gets sucked in, even if it's just as you're shutting down, boils off/evaporates very quickly, and doesn't hang around. Moisture that comes in during storage, especially if outdoors in a damp environment, with the engine's valves/ports open, may be a different story, of course. Though my experience (for what it's worth) hasn't shown any problems from that.

I realize you're just helping to clarify what's in the manuals. And I'd agree there's no harm in doing it. I'd add a fuel shutoff to my machine if it didn't already have one. I will be adding a fuel filter, since that strikes me as another very inexpensive way to avoid problems caused by a piece something in your gas, which could leave you with a dead machine during a blizzard. If the plastic Tecumseh Snow King tanks (for, say, the 8 hp engines) have built-in fuel filters, that would be good to know, before I add one myself.

But I think there are a number of other fairly-easy aspects of snowblower maintenance (besides oiling the cylinders) which will also help make the machine last longer. Such as lubricating the appropriate parts of the machine, spinning the augers on the shaft (with the shear bolts removed) every once in a while to ensure they haven't rusted in-place (ideally also greasing them, if possible), replacing the scraper bar and skid shoes before they wear out and you start grinding away the underside of the bucket, etc.