I'm just wondering if running a snow blower in the summer would harm the engine because of insufficient cooling? It seems to me that you have much the same kind of Tecumseh or Briggs & Stratton engine on a snow blower as you do on a rototiller.
Some don't have an air filter, because the lawn dirt is (in theory) under snow. I know mine does not have air cleaner. So, dirt in the air is a concern.
I don't winterize or summerize any of my outdoor power equipment. Snow blower, leaf blowers, lawn mower, trimmer, etc. Instead, I start them up once a month and let them run until they've reached normal operating temperature.
I look at it this way: depending on the weather, any one of those items could easily go 3-4 weeks without being used. If a lawnmower can sit for a month during summer without being used, then it can sit for a month during the winter without being used. The same goes in reverse for my snowblower.
I've had more trouble with all the other suggested methods for storing OPE that I find much easier just to start 'em all once a month. It's been working for me for about 4 years so I'm sticking with it.
I don't do anything at all. Stop using it in the fall, start it up in the spring. I have a 2 cycle string trimmer that I sometimes don't start for a year or 2. Starts fine when I want to use it. Who makes up these time wasting rules?
I didn't know it was a rule. I just do what works for me. On those rare occasions when I've left OPE without starting for full season I've had problems, so I settled into once a month...more or less. It's not like I set an alarm or anything. When I'm out doing other things in the yard, I'll grab a piece of equipment and run it for few minutes. I like being outside, regardless of the weather, so it's not a big deal.
I think I know why you feel you've had good results by starting all your small gas engines one per month.
Small gas engines use splash lubrication. Basically, the crankshaft splashes oil all over the inside of the crank case, including the cylinder walls under the piston. It's that oil film that helps to provide good compression when you start any of your small engines.
Piston rings by themselves don't provide sufficient compression to start a gasoline engine. Piston rings are smaller than the grooves they ride in, and that allows some of the hot combustion gasses on the power stroke to get behind the piston ring and push it outward tightly against the cylinder wall.
It's the pressure of the hot combustion gasses pushing the compression ring outward against the cylinder wall that provides the tight seal needed to get the most power out of the engine. But, until the engine starts, you have to rely on the oil film on the cylinder walls to help seal around the compression rings to give the engine sufficient compression to start.
By starting your engines once a month, you're continually recoating the cylinder walls with new oil so that the next time the engine is started, there's still enough oil on the cylinder walls to provide good enough compression for the engine to start.
You could do the same thing by simply shaking a small gasoline engine (like a leaf blower or chain saw) immediately before you start it at the beginning of the season, or taking the spark plug wire off of a rototiller and pulling the recoil starter a few times just to splash some oil on the cylinder walls. That is, instead of starting the engines every month, why not simply do something to splash oil onto the cylinder walls before you start them for the first time each season.
The idea is simply to re-establish an oil film on the cylinder walls before trying to start the engine for the first time in the season. Without doing that, the oil film will drain away over the course of several months, and it won't be sufficiently thick to provide a good seal around the compression ring, and you'll have trouble starting the engine cuz of lack of compression.
I'm 30 years into my mowing business. All my equipment is left alone for 3-4 months each year. It used to be that I'd not even drain the fuel at the end of the season, tho that is no longer the case. No issues whatsoever.
I start the generator on the first weekend of every month and let it run to operating temperature, maybe 5 minutes. During the summer I also start the tiller and during the winter the snow blower gets started on generator wakeup weekend.
Hey! I learned something new. I had no idea that snow blowers had no air filter. I understand the reason and I wonder if the cooling air flow over the engine is restricted so the engine can run hot enough for efficiency? If a homeowner around here possessed a snow blower, it's sure sign that he is an alien Yankee who moved here with all sorts of exotic items not see here in Alabamastan which is much closer the the equator of this planet thus having a warmer climate(usually). Al Gore changed our climate in order to convince people that they must be taxed for the utilization and production of one of the basic building blocks of all life on Earth. ^_^
All of the automatic residential generators I installed exercised once a week at a time of day determined by how the timer was set. Those generators ran on natural gas so there was no concern about stale fuel. It was done to make sure it would be ready for an emergency. I don't guess there was any emergency need for a snow blower to run at any time except for this winter. ^_^
Funny thing, I've never seen anything in a snowblower manual that said you had to to that. I run the fuel out of mine and leave it all winter. Been doing that
15 years and the only problems I've had were if I forgot to empty the fuel. Any gearbox has gears that are covered in oil. What bad is going to come to them?
The ethanol and/or overall difference in gas gives me occasional grief. I've had to pull the carb off of a thing or two . I don't remember gas 'seperating' in the past, as it does now. And the ethanol plays a role as well I'd suppose. Either way, it's pretty easy to just run everything dry at the end of the season.
replying to nestork, Wedge wrote: Never had an issue with anything not starting because there wasn't a film of oil and lack of compression. If that were really true, you wouldn't be able to start brand new machines for the first time that sat for who knows how long after manufacture before being sold.
replying to Bill, Wedge wrote: Not necessary. If that were true, people would have problems with brand new machines. Machines very often sit for many, many months after manufacture before being sold. They can sit for far fewer months between seasons and they'll be just fine.
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