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.

carlb wrote:
Same here. 

I use to own that engine and sold it to the guy who put it on his pontoon boat. 

Strange thing is that very engine had once bent a connecting rod on me coming home just before dark after an evening of walleye fishing about 30 years ago.  

My luck, I was at the far end of a lake three miles from camp, it was getting dark and as usual, there was nobody else out there but me.  The engine calfed on me about two miles from camp.  The good news was that it was fairly calm, I had a good set of oars, was at the age where I could have rowed for hours and still had a couple cool brews with me.  It was pitch black by the time I got to the camp and the folks were just getting their boats ready for a search party.   Needless to say they were very happy to see my boat pull up to the dock.  Not happy to see me so much.  More like joy from not having to search a fairly big lake in the dead of night.   

I put a new connecting rod and piston in that engine and it's been running great ever since.    

OT...New Yorker. Mind posting some pics of the unit with the light mods, side skids, etc.....

Actually the engine is aluminum with a steel cylinder liner and not as jrtrebor wrote:

mobiledynamics wrote:
I am about to go out and take it out of summer storage, and clean it, then I'll take a few photo's and see how to post them.