Renewing a used OPE engine

[chefwong]

What product/products do you use on a neglected OPE engine ?

Just purchased a possibly 7-10 year old snowblower....to add to my stash. Body was 90 mint....engine starts fine on 1st pull and revs just fine...It's got a GX160 engine.

Carb seems fine but I plan to remove, dip, and clean it out regardless.
Engine Oil - Thinking I'll just spike a super concentrated oil with some Seafoam.

I've yet to actually seafoam a OPE engine ......any benefits.

Love to hear your war stories/techniques.

 

[flatlandtacoma]

Originally Posted By: chefwong
What product/products do you use on a neglected OPE engine ?
....engine starts fine on 1st pull and revs just fine...It's got a GX160 engine.

What is neglected about it? What are you trying to fix? If you think the oil wasn't changed in a while, you could do a couple of shorter ocis. Other than that I would leave it alone unless it is giving you trouble.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

Originally Posted By: chefwong
I've yet to actually seafoam a OPE engine ......any benefits.


Can't think of any benefits, but adding solvents to oil on an engine with no filter sounds like a bad idea. Why take the risk of loosening up stuff into the oil that can't get filtered out? If the crud isn't hurting anything tangible where it is, dissolving it and putting it into circulation where it could get into places you don't want it sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

[TomYoung]

Originally Posted By: flatlandtacoma
Originally Posted By: chefwong
What product/products do you use on a neglected OPE engine ?
....engine starts fine on 1st pull and revs just fine...It's got a GX160 engine.

What is neglected about it? What are you trying to fix? If you think the oil wasn't changed in a while, you could do a couple of shorter ocis. Other than that I would leave it alone unless it is giving you trouble.

Totally agree with Flatland Tacoma and though I understand wanting rock-solid reliability from this kind of tool, would completely suggest that you are more likely to cause problems rather than prevent. If the carb is in adjustment, I would only spray it with a little carb cleaner, or maybe go more conservative and make that WD-40. Change the oil with a high quality multigrade in whatever the engine is specced for, or even with a lower "W" rating and call it a day. Less is more.

 

[oggb]

If this thing is splash lubricated like a lawn-mower engine then it's probably a bad idea to be tossing anything but oil in the... oil...

 

[dwendt44]

Just run some carb cleaner in the gas, done.

Change the oil with some good oil, repeat after a couple of hours.

Maybe a new spark plug.
Nothing more needed.

 

[boraticus]

The only thing I've actually seen a gasoline fuel additive clean is my wallet. I've yet to see any dramatic or conclusive evidence that any of the additives that I've tried for gasoline engines did anything.

I've seen mechanical fuel injection systems improve starting on a diesel engine from using a fuel conditioner but never seen anything "real" happen with gasoline additives. Save your money.

Dipping a carb in carb cleaner might take some crud off of the carb's exterior but it's unlikely that it will do anything useful inside. The carb has to be completely disassembled, the jets cleaned as well as all galleries and passages within the carb must be known to be free of dirt. A can of WD-40, very thin piece of wire and compressed air are your best friends when cleaning a carb.

If the engine and carb are working fine, do an external cleaning of engine/components, change the oil, do a check of the rest of the machine and go to work.

 

[Virtuoso]

Originally Posted By: boraticus
If the engine and carb are working fine, do an external cleaning of engine/components, change the oil, do a check of the rest of the machine and go to work.



That's it! Don't waste your time with anything else if the machine is functioning properly.

 

[Scienceman]

Also look at the spark plug.

 

[Steve S]

Don't mess with something just to be messing with it. I have learned the lesson years ago.

 

[boraticus]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
Don't mess with something just to be messing with it. I have learned the lesson years ago.


Oh yeah....

Been there done that, too many times. Fortunately, I grew out of that stage long time ago.....

 

[engineerscott]

Originally Posted By: boraticus
The only thing I've actually seen a gasoline fuel additive clean is my wallet. I've yet to see any dramatic or conclusive evidence that any of the additives that I've tried for gasoline engines did anything.


I in general agree with this with one exception. I have seen Chevron Techron make an engine go from surging/sputtering/refusing to idle to running smoothly in a remarkably short time. So fast that I wonder if perhaps what was going on was that ethanol/water had fallen out of solution in the fuel and maybe the techron was causing the fuel to re-absorb the water. It's possible. However, whatever the actual mechanism I have seen Techron make an engine go from running badly to running smoothly on several occasions. I've never seen similar results from other injector/carb cleaner additives. That said, I don't use Techron on a regular basis. I may run a bottle through a tank of gas in one of our cars once in a blue moon, and I only use it on OPE when I've got something that is running poorly.

 

[boraticus]

Originally Posted By: engineerscott
Originally Posted By: boraticus
The only thing I've actually seen a gasoline fuel additive clean is my wallet. I've yet to see any dramatic or conclusive evidence that any of the additives that I've tried for gasoline engines did anything.


I in general agree with this with one exception. I have seen Chevron Techron make an engine go from surging/sputtering/refusing to idle to running smoothly in a remarkably short time. So fast that I wonder if perhaps what was going on was that ethanol/water had fallen out of solution in the fuel and maybe the techron was causing the fuel to re-absorb the water. It's possible. However, whatever the actual mechanism I have seen Techron make an engine go from running badly to running smoothly on several occasions. I've never seen similar results from other injector/carb cleaner additives. That said, I don't use Techron on a regular basis. I may run a bottle through a tank of gas in one of our cars once in a blue moon, and I only use it on OPE when I've got something that is running poorly.


The poor running conditions does sound like water in the fuel. Putting enough alcohol into the fuel to absorb it will help move it through the fuel system. That's for sure.

Fuel injection systems might benefit from the occasional cleaner being run through them. I have never seen any advantage from running an additive through a carbureted engine and particularly in OPE.

Below is the MSDS data for Techron. Not that naptha is the primary ingredient as it is with most other additives.





2. COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS ______________________________________________________________________
100.0 % CHEVRON TECHRON Concentrate CONTAINING
COMPONENTS SOLVENTS INCLUDING:
AMOUNT
> 20.00%
LIMIT/QTY
AGENCY/TYPE
NA
ACGIH TWA OSHA PEL
SOLVENT NAPHTHA, LT. AROMATIC Chemical Name: SOLVENT NAPHTHA, LIGHT AROMATIC
CAS64742956
STODDARD SOLVENT Chemical Name: STODDARD SOLVENT CAS8052413
NONE
100 ppm 2900 mg/m3
HYDROTREATED, DISTILLATE, LT.

Chemical Name: DISTILLATES, HYDROTREATED CAS64742478
INCLUDING TRIMETHYLBENZENE-1,2,4
LIGHT NONE
25 ppm
100 ppm 150 ppm 100 ppm 100 LBS
50 ppm 50 ppm 5,000 LBS
NA
ACGIH TWA
ACGIH TWA ACGIH STEL OSHA PEL CERCLA 302.4 RQ
ACGIH TWA OSHA PEL CERCLA 302.4 RQ
Name: BENZENE, 1,2,4, TRIMETHYL < 8.00%
XYLENE Chemical CAS1330207 < 3.55%
CUMENE Chemical Name: BENZENE, (1-METHYLETHYL)- CAS98828 < 1.50%
Chemical CAS95636
Name: BENZENE, DIMETHYL-
COMPOSITION COMMENT: All the components of this material are on the Toxic Substances Control Act Chemical Substances Inventory.