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

  Yep, those side slashes look like shark gill slits, aggressive and waiting for more revs to suck in air.

 

  On the scout for a Borat-like machine and came across a similar but unfortunately 3hp version.  Pretty sure it’s the same model Craftsman as Borat’s with a HSK600.  I wondered what that big case was all about and it’s not much.  It’s an empty cavern in there with the peanut size 600.  Tons of room. 

 

   Twenty dollars, electric start, augers fine, and it fires up with gas in the throat.  I put out a couple of emails looking for an 850.

 

   The red one is Murray 3hp HSK600.  Ten dollars.  Got that apart and it seems fine.  Augers are full, 95 psi compression and the carb cleaned right up.  Starts fine and runs well. It needs a chute hold down bracket in the front but that’s about it for flaws. 

    It was a surprise to find a carb bowl access plate on the bottom cover.  But after seeing what was required to get the bottom cover off for carb access it makes sense.  Getting the bottom cover off requires taking off the belt cover and they used bolts rather than sheet metal screws.  The bolts are hard to get to.  So I think the carb bowl plate was added to give the mechanic a shot at cleaning the carb somewhat and not have to go through taking off the covers.  A carb cleaning on this would probably be $200 at a shop. 

 

    The Craftsman cover is ringed with scads of bolts and looked like a hassle which is why the red Murray got done first.  Not looking forward to taking off the Craftsman covers. 

    

   I'm not a great plug read so the comments are not saying your off as much as bouncing what my take for feedback. 

   My understanding is the grey/brown dry ash chould extend for 1/2 the horizontal section of the shank.   That's generally what I see.  Your plug has the ash extend way past the curve down the verticle section.  That seems to me hot but just how hot and the effect I'm not sure.  If it were me I'd look at leaning up.   I think this might be your first look at the plug so just what is there and due to the rev bump unknown.  Maybe the extended ash happened before.  

    The plug has not been in there that long with extra revs so might get worse or stay as is.  Nothing alarming.  It would take quite a bit of run time before a more indicative plug would show itself even if it's running hot.

Update:  I've never come across anything that differentiated between two or four strokes.  I would think the oil would if nothing else change the ash color.   Have you ever come across anything like that?

" My understanding is the grey/brown dry ash chould extend for 1/2 the horizontal section of the shank.   That's generally what I see.  Your plug has the ash extend way past the curve down the verticle section.  That seems to me hot but just how hot and the effect I'm not sure."

Not sure where you get/got your instructions for reading spark plugs but from my experience,  you might be "reading" too much into it. 

The key to reading the plug is the colour of the area exposed to the combustion process.  Tan is the desired colour.  How much on each component is of no concern as long as they're all tan. 

From the picture I provided, it's pretty clear that it's all tan, which indicates an engine that's running properly.   As you are aware, I pretty much specialize in two cycle engines and I have to say that the spark plug in the HSK850 is about as good as it gets.  There should be very little variance between a properly running four cycle engine and a properly running two cycle engine.   If the fuel to air mixture is correct and the spark plug in the correct heat range, the plug should look similar to the picture of the one I've posted. 

I've seen what hot  plugs and lean conditions can do to a two stroke engine.  I've fixed more than a few snowmobile engines that had holed pistons from too hot of a plug to too lean a fuel mixture.  It's not a pretty sight.   I'm more than happy with the condition of the plug in the Craftsman.  Particularly since it's been pushed for hours with no sign of a problem yet.

You want to see ugly?  Check this out.  It's the plug from my B&S 305cc Kool Bore snow engine.  Can't say for sure if it was the oil but I had been running nothing but Mobile 1 5w30 synthetic in it.  I changed to a 5W30 high mileage conventional and after running it for a season, the plug looked  better last time I pulled it.

Here's a good link with lots of spark plug reading info:

  http://www.theultralightplace.com/sparkplugs.htm