Honda engine doesn’t seem to run right
- Thread starter NH73
- Start date
I don't know anything about Hondas. My Chonda hasn't broken yet so I dont even know about that. Generic advice remove plug ,if dirty clean or replace same with the air filter, Use a full tank with some Berrymans Chem Tool. Chances are a tank of fresh gas is all it needs. If you can't get it to clear out, get a new carb for it .
Check spark plug, check valve lash. Then clean the fuel tank out,go through the carb.
EDIT ,yes as Eddie below says , do this in steps. Stop when It runs right.
EDIT ,yes as Eddie below says , do this in steps. Stop when It runs right.
Last edited:
One step at a time though.
These are the pictures I got. The person guessing that he put about 100 hours on it, but of course there is no hour meter. Oil looks good, but added some. Pulled the spark plug. This is what they looked like. Air filter looks aged, but not clogged.
Attachments
That plug gap looks weird
Time for a new plug. My Toro does the same thing after a couple years, although it starts good cold it usually doesn't start good hot when the plug looks like that. I'm guessing it's to cold of a plug for that engine but that's what the manual calls for, BPR7HS, the same engine a few years back called for the 6HS which is hotter, not sure I want to run a hotter plug, it's still under warranty.
Last edited:
Put a new spark plug in it and see if that helps. I use E3 spark plugs in my OPE. They seem to work good for me.
just my $0.02
just my $0.02
Thanks everyone for there advice. I stuck it away as I had too many other priorities ahead of this. Now that I worked through those, I decided today was the day to work on it. No point in not having a generator ready. So this is what I did. Drained gas tank and carburetor bowl. Gas looked nice and golden. So that tells me that needed to go. The spark plug is out of spec, thought it would be better to replace that and air filter. I thought about getting fresh gas and running Mechanic in a bottle through it. Or any better idea? Manual calls for either a NGK or Densco spark plug. Which is better. And what is the best long term storage solution for this?
Do these spark plugs perform better or is this a matter of opinion? The other thing is that often a new plug will be better than a worn out one and that often what people compare to. I see AutoMechanic gave you a laughing emoji.
Probably opinion like many other replies on this board in general, but I do have several pieces of OPE that have E3’s in them along with 2 vehicles. I’ve had no issues with them.
Just my $0.02
As with most things it comes down to confirmation bias. If you condemn something in your mind it doesn't mater what the results are.
From a physics perspective E3 plugs have a point. If it maters or not to a low performance small engine is debatable. As you have said it may simply be a worn out plug and anything is better.
From a physics perspective E3 plugs have a point. If it maters or not to a low performance small engine is debatable. As you have said it may simply be a worn out plug and anything is better.
I'd use NGK for sure which seems to work the best with Honda's. I even put them in my Briggs opposed twin but when I had it at the shop last but they yanked those out and replaced with Champions... needless to say I was not a happy camper as they weren't in there for very long, not even for a few months and I didn't ask them to replace those either. I had it there for a carb. issue which they didn't even install the linkage correctly, they had one of the rods turned around the other way, it has a hard starting condition when it's hot and most likely the coil as it's a common problem on these.
I ended up finding someone off eBay who uses an ultrasonic cleaner and then rebuilds them, when I was re-installing the carb. I was having trouble getting it to work properly and found pictures online of how the linkage works, at first I just reinstalled it the way they had done which was obviously wrong. I don't even know if I needed to have it gone through again by someone else but at that point I couldn't really trust any of the work they had done.
For the hydro the guy told me he got out what he could and refilled it with gear oil... it has an Eaton unit which takes 15w50, I ended up doing the same as what he had done but refilled it with that oil instead, you have to remove the deck but it actually does have a drain underneath but then you're allowing air in the system and have to bleed it out which I'll probably do one of these days.
I ended up finding someone off eBay who uses an ultrasonic cleaner and then rebuilds them, when I was re-installing the carb. I was having trouble getting it to work properly and found pictures online of how the linkage works, at first I just reinstalled it the way they had done which was obviously wrong. I don't even know if I needed to have it gone through again by someone else but at that point I couldn't really trust any of the work they had done.
For the hydro the guy told me he got out what he could and refilled it with gear oil... it has an Eaton unit which takes 15w50, I ended up doing the same as what he had done but refilled it with that oil instead, you have to remove the deck but it actually does have a drain underneath but then you're allowing air in the system and have to bleed it out which I'll probably do one of these days.
In my years of experience in the OPE repair business I found that a new spark plug rarely (VERY rarely) will correct a run problem. 99 times out of a hundred a spark plug will either work or it won't. Go ahead and replace it but don't expect that the engine will run any better. On any OPE that sits for long periods, a run problem is almost always carburetor related, especially now with E10 and lean-running emission control designs. The newer engines are right on the edge of not running at-all due to the fact that they run so lean. A gasoline additive will almost never work to clear-up the problem, it is going to take the removal and cleaning/rebuilding of the carburetor to fix it. Furthermore, replacing the carburetor with one of the cheap Chinese carburetors is a hit or miss proposition as many of them are very poorly made with very poor quality control (you get what you pay for?).
Last edited:
Put the hotter one in. If it blows up put the 7 back in before you take it to service. I run a 6 in my Honda mower and have been for 8 yrars now, no issues, and I don’t have the above described plug issues.
I agree. Usually the easiest way to clean out the jets is to get it running without an air filter and once it’s running out a finger or rag or something to seal off the air intake and force it to suck fuel from the jets. Hondas often plug the idle jet circuit when sitting. It will run but not perfectly
