1 year old Toro 518 snow blower no start

A

antonmnster

Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
1,203
Location
Minneapolis
Really wasn't expecting 6" of snow today. (Had my Pilot Super Sports on this morning. SCARY! Ran out to the wheel shop before it started to really snow, but the drive home was horrible. I got stuck going DOWNHILL. Never had that happen before... anyway. Put the Blizzaks back on and I'm king of the road). But I digress.

Went to the garage to my on year old Toro 518 off the wall of the garage. I drained the carb this spring. Once I filled the tank gas started pouring out of the primer hole. Took me a minute to remember what that meant, but I popped the bowl off. Tried wiggling the float and spraying the needle with brake cleaner, but it wouldn't budge.

After much disassembly, I was able to get the carb loose enough to get to the needle well. It was STUCK. I cleaned it up, dropped a bunch of stuff and cursed a lot, but got it back together. No more fuel drip.

But also no start. Embarrassingly, I don't have the 22mm (3/4"?) deep socket for the plug. Safe to assume it's fouled? a different plug had spark. I'll grab a socket tomorrow. Shoveled the very wet snow the hard way.
 
Check your oil level and once you get the plug out pull the starter rope a few times. You may find the cylinder filled with fuel and the oil has lots of gas in it. My lawn tractor did the same thing but it did not have a pull rope and when I hit the start the engine tried to turn over and locked. I thought I was out of oil until I pulled the dip stick and oil/gas started pouring out. Once I got the carb sorted out and the oil changed I put a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder and it started right up but it smoked good for a few min. I installed a fuel shut off and now I check the oil before every start.
 
This isn't always the case but I only run ethanol free gas in all my small engines. That ethanol just causes so many issues especially with carbs even when it's "designed" for it. My small engines have been just unrelievedly reliable after the switch.
 
I dump at least 10ozs of MMO in my lawn mower / leaf blower gas tank's with plain non-ethanol gasoline before putting them away. Let'em run to get the MMO into the carb float bowl and soak the 2 stroke insides too. Dump it out in the spring, fresh gasoline, fires right up. Smokes just for a little while.
 
I think that the oil in carb jets of 2 strokes and 4 strokes
that have a dose of oil (2 stroke oil) keeps them from fouling.
Is the fuel valve open?

My 2¢
 
antonmnster said:
But also no start. Embarrassingly, I don't have the 22mm (3/4"?) deep socket for the plug. Safe to assume it's fouled? a different plug had spark. I'll grab a socket tomorrow. Shoveled the very wet snow the hard way.
Click to expand...
What are your symptoms of the “no start” condition. Is it back firing at all? A stuck valve can cause that. Spraying carb cleaner into the intake can help free up stuck valves. Also, did you check for spark?
 
My bet is that the needle/seat are corroded and need to be cleaned, it's possible that other passages in the carb are clogged also.

Is this a 2-stroke or 4-stroke? I know they make those Toros in both versions. The Chinese 4-strokes the carbs are about $15 on Amazon. One thing I have noticed with them is that it's somewhat difficult to drain out all the fuel, since the tanks have an odd shape and even though it runs out of fuel, tipping it a certain way can make remaining fuel in the tank work it's way to the carburetor. I have a 16" 2-stroke Toro PowerLite, and I use a double dose of Marine stabil in the fuel, and try my best to run it out of fuel every season. Seems to have worked so far.
 
jeepman3071 said:
My bet is that the needle/seat are corroded and need to be cleaned, it's possible that other passages in the carb are clogged also.

Is this a 2-stroke or 4-stroke? I know they make those Toros in both versions. The Chinese 4-strokes the carbs are about $15 on Amazon. One thing I have noticed with them is that it's somewhat difficult to drain out all the fuel, since the tanks have an odd shape and even though it runs out of fuel, tipping it a certain way can make remaining fuel in the tank work it's way to the carburetor. I have a 16" 2-stroke Toro PowerLite, and I use a double dose of Marine stabil in the fuel, and try my best to run it out of fuel every season. Seems to have worked so far.
Click to expand...

It's a 4-stroke.

I did my best to drain all the fuel out in March when I hung it up, but it makes total sense that some fuel in the tank made its way down. When I opened the tank to fill it the smell was really stale.

I'll dig into the carb more this weekend. I freed up the needle but I didn't check the jets.

My Briggs powered Toro mower, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care what I do to it. I just leave pump gas in it all winter and it starts first or second pull in the spring.
 
I store my snowblower with a few ounces of E0 gas, containing Stabil Marine. I do not run the carb dry before storage. This prevents corrosion inside the metal tank and keeps the carb happy.

At the beginning of winter I fill the tank with fresh E10 87 oct winter blend gas, drain the old fuel out of the carb bowl for a few seconds, and then start the engine.
 
I'd start by pulling the carb off and giving it a good cleaning using a spray carb cleaner. Does you carb have the electrical device on the bottom of the bowl that stops fuel flow? If so, if it's gummed up it may either need cleaning to free it up or the gum may have even ruined it. A couple years ago when I went to start my mower in the spring it wouldn't start. I cleaned the carb and still nothing. Sprayed a little carb cleaner in the intake and it fired up and would run until it burned the carb cleaner. Problem was that little electrical fuel cut off had gummed up and was bad. If you find that's your problem you can completely eliminate that piece by getting a bolt/washer like they used to put on small engine carburetors to hold the bowl on. They wanted something like $50. for the little electrical device. I took the bolt/washer off an old lawn mower I had and fixed it for nothing.
 
I pulled the carb off and cleaned out the jet. I'm amazed at how hard the deposits/corrosion are. I just soaked it in some brake cleaner and used a nylon brush to open it up. It's nostalgic to work on a carb, and much easier to take apart than my BMW!

Put it back together and it started on the first pull. Sounds a bit lean; maybe I didn't get all the gunk out. I put a bunch of seafoam in the tank and maybe it will straighten up with some use.
 
When the jets get plugged up with varnish or dirt, the only way to clean them out effectively is to poke through them with a stiff steel wire (I use the wire that is inside of twist ties) then clean the debris out with carburetor cleaner. Brake cleaner is really not effective at doing this.
 
I put Stabil marine in all my gas, at ratio recommended for long term storage. For my 4 cycle engines I also add some 2 cylce outboad motor oil at dilution of 200-250:1. Been doing that for about 18 years and no problem with any engine.
 
antonmnster said:
I pulled the carb off and cleaned out the jet. I'm amazed at how hard the deposits/corrosion are. I just soaked it in some brake cleaner and used a nylon brush to open it up. It's nostalgic to work on a carb, and much easier to take apart than my BMW!

Put it back together and it started on the first pull. Sounds a bit lean; maybe I didn't get all the gunk out. I put a bunch of seafoam in the tank and maybe it will straighten up with some use.
Click to expand...
Did you clean it out from the top? Unscrew the idle screw, pry plug out with flat screw driver. Poke a wire brush wire through the small passage in the tip. By the way, if you pull one wire from a wire brush, it's perfect for clearing passages on a carburetor.
 
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