I bought a lawn mower today.  The salesman tried to sell me on an extended warranty by telling me that ethanol is causing small engine failures.  I never buy extended warranties but a search of the web indicates that it may be truth.  Has anyone found this to be true and if so, what steps do you take to prevent it?


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie...........I have a 21 inch John Deere with a Kawasaki 4.5 horse engine that's 25 years old and has never had anything except ethanol used in it.It still runs perfectly,uses not a drop of oil and has not had a dimes worth of repairs done on it.I also have 6 year old John Deere that has a 25 horse Kohler engine that has 900 hours on it.It also still runs like new and has had no repairs.It's also had nothing except ethanol used in it.

 

Paul,

Boonville,MO

Are they 2 stroke or 4 stroke?


Lawrenceville, GA

My small engine expert says that all small engine manufacturers are having problems with todays gas. Hard to make them run right. That being said, all mine seem to run ok.

Charlie, I have had problems related to modern gas in both two cycle and four cycle engines. My small engine guy told me about a product called Sea Foam for a gas additive. It seems to help.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

They are both 4 stroke.All of my 2 stroke equipment also works just fine with ethanol.

All this said,I am not a proponent of ethanol.I think this whole ethanol idea is nuts.

 

Paul,

Boonville,MO

I am on my second troybuilt mower with briggs engines, Other things went wrong but never had any problems with starting or running, My pressure washer does give me some problems after it has sat for a while, but nothing pulling the aircleaner off and holding the automatic choke open does not fix, same with the edger, all briggs engines. The weedeater is 2 cycle and no problems after 5 yrs. Most people do not do maintance on their lawn equipment and sometimes that is more of the reason for problems than the gas. No extended warranty for me.

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.

We had trouble with our 2 cycle leaf blower, the lawn mower man said after a couple of years because of the bad gas it's time to throw them away and get a new one.  Our 4 cycle lawn mower seems to keep on going, no problems there.  If you're worried about ethanol just run premium.

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

Glen, that's interesting, I thought Sea Foam was a product to keep the fuel system clean (clean injectors, remove varnish, etc and remove moisture, not as a fuel enhancement.

It can also be used in the crankcase to remove sludge and varnish.

Strange name but it seems to work.

"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

I've never tried the Sea foam but I try to use fuel stabilizer since some of the gas sits around for awhile. I also always try to turn off the fuel petcock when I'm done and let the carb run dry. These two things alone have helped all my restarts immensely. I despise is yard work.

       A  L  A  N   F  R  A  K  E  S   ~  Tulsa, OK