Caller Bob wrote:
Same shit with my Toro lawn mower, only 3-4 years old and a bitch to start. The ethanol thing is a sorry ass excuse. If they know Ethanol is here to stay, Briggs and Straton needs to design their engines to play nice with Ethanol...fucking Jap crap, they just want you back at the store buying a new one every 5 years.
I agree that the newest equipment , like yours and Bagels', (Bagel's/Bagelses?) the manufacturer should have all-ethanol ready items installed on the engines. How the EPA concerns for the small engine emissions have affected the starting or performance, and the planned obsolescence, that's a whole different topic.
In the one case I personally have experienced, it was quite a stretch to expect the manufacturer to have foreseen the issue: the ethanol reactaed with the rubber boot holding the carburetor to the engine, and attacked the aluminum encapsulated in the rubber. This caused the aluminum to swell and crack the rubber boot, which then broke, allowing the carb to become disconnected from the cylinder. The extra air allowed in through the break leaned the mixture out, and in a two-stroke engine, usually led to piston/cylinder failure. In my case, I caught it before the major damage occurred, but still had to replace the carb boots.
Another problem was that the very small fuel lines in a leaf blower and chain saw swelled due to the ethanol in the fuel, effectively closing themselves off. Just had to replace all the fuel lines, and both ran fine after that.
If only my own clogged arteries could be replaced so cheaply and easily...