Engine surges
Hi Johnny,
I think the heart of your problem lies with the ethanol content in today's gas. It has at the very least 10%. The problem with gas containing ethanol, it only has a shelf life of about 30 days. What happens is the ethanol absorbs water from moisture in the air. The ethanol and water bond together and have a higher density than the petroleum based gas on top. It is exactly like oil floating on water. When this happens the octane rating of your gas drops dramatically, that's problem number one. Problem number 2, let's say your generator has a 10 gallon tank. Each gallon containing 10% ethanol, 1/10th of a gallon times 10. After about a month or two in a humid area you have a full gallon of water and ethanol sitting on the bottom of your tank. The best generator in the world will not run properly with this garbage sitting at the bottom. Problem number 3 ethanol is a strong solvent, it will deteriorate your fuel line. It will gum up the inside and make the exterior brittle. I would strongly suggest that you replace the fuel line with Tygon or any other ethanol safe fuel line and replace or install an inline fuel filter.Check out the website pure-gas.org to see if ethanol free gas is available in your area. Here are two products that I strongly recommend Sea Foam and Sea Foam Deep Creep. I would completely drain the tank on your generator, install the new fuel line, spray a liberal amount of Deep Creep into the fuel line and let it sit for about an hour. Then drain the fuel bowl, fill the fuel line again with Deep Creep and let it sit for a little while. With the fuel bowl off, you should be able to lift the float and have smooth action with the float pin, no sticking the Deep Creep should flow smoothly when the float is lifted, after this is done re-assemble the carburetor and attach the fuel line to the tank. Add enough gas to run the generator for about 20 minutes and then use the Sea Foam. I have had stunning results from Sea Foam, I am not affiliated with this product it just works great and that is why I recommend it so strongly. Try to get the spray can of Sea Foam because that will be the easiest way to get it into the carburetor while it is running. Bring the generator outdoors after you have added a little gas to the tank remove the air filter from the carburetor and start the engine. Spray the Sea Foam directly into the carburetor, do not spray so much that it stalls the engine. After a spray or two you will get a feel for how much you can spray without stalling. Now the fun begins. Sea Foam removes carbon fouling from the engine and cleans the jets in the carburetor and it does this incredibly well but it produces an amazing amount of smoke, this can be very alarming at first but do not worry this is absolutely normal. You will be stunned by how much carbon gets burned out. Close the windows in your house and tell your neighbors in advance so they don't call the fire department. There will be that much smoke. Intermittently spray and let the fouling burn out. Do this about four to five times then spray a bit in the gas tank and let the generator run until it is empty. After the generator is empty add a little Sea Foam to the crank case oil, read the can for the proper amount. Store the generator empty. Sea Foam has stopped valve tapping, erratic float problems, rough idles and hard starting issues for me, It is an amazing product. I know that the desire to have a full tank in the generator for when the power goes out is very strong but it will cause you nothing but grief in the long run. You are better off finding gas cans that are air tight, they will not allow moisture to be absorbed into the ethanol and you will have a much longer shelf life. When the power comes back on I use a kerosene pump to empty my generator and then I run the engine dry.By using this method I have an extremely dependable machine that starts on the first pull every time even after sitting for over a year.Sorry for being so long winded but this is what really works and for those that also read this post who are not mechanically inclined, the long winded explanation gives them a clearer idea on how to solve this problem. Good Luck,Michael Burke
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