winterizing lawn mower

[Paul Oman]

What is the best way to 'winterize' my lawn mower and other seasonal internal combustion engine yard tools for the next 5-6 months of winter?

thanks all - paul

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Clean everything. Burn all the gas in the tank and change the oil.

Some people advocate taking out the sparkplug and putting a squirt of oil in the cylinder, but I never have.

[Phisherman]

Two methods:

Empty the tank and run dry. At this point you could add a cup of kerosene to the tank if you remember to remove it in the spring. My father used this technique, works great and prevents rust.

Add a stabilizer to *fresh* gasoline, add to the mower, and run the engine for a couple minutes.

[J. Clarke]

If you want to do it "right":

First, find the manufacturer's recommendations for storage, and do what they say if it's in conflict with the following.

Give it a thorough cleaning. Grease anything that needs greasing and oil anything that needs oiling--the manual should show you these items. Put a little stabilized gas in the tank. Pull the air filter. Start it up, spray "fogging oil" (comes in a spray can and is labelled as such) into the intake until you get blue smoke out the exhaust, and run the gas tank dry--if it has a petcock then turn off the petcock instead of emptying the tank. If the carburetor has a drain, drain it. If it has a metal tank with a petcock, turn off the petcock and fill the tank with stabilized gas. While the engine is warm, change the oil. Pull the plug and spray some fogging oil in the hole, then put the plug back. Spray any bare metal with Boeshield (you can get it at Sears or Woodcraft or order it online). If the tires are inflatable inflate them to the correct pressure. Put it on a couple of blocks or something so that they weight's not on the tires.

[ransley]

Best is run gas tank dry, buy a fogging oil, it foams and coats the whole cilinder with oil, pouring in oil wont get the whole cilinder, you actualy run some in the carb first before it dies and it coats all the parts from rusting. I kept a boat motor outside for years not using it, it started first crank, it will smoke alot at first. second best is fog it as it die. If the carb has any fuel left in it, it will form a varnish. 3rd best run tank-carb dry. In spring first start with a cup of 2 stroke gas if you have it, it lubes immediatly.

[Steve Barker DLT]

STA-BIL in the tank, fill the tank, run it for 15 or so minutes, then change the oil and park it. Never store a carburator dry.

s

[jack]

I bought some fogging oil at a garage sale, but never used it. The instructions say to spray it in the cylinder, but nothing about the intake. Whats the point of that?

[Bob F]

I turn the choke on as it runs out of gas, more and more, until it just won't run anymore, to make sure I burn out as much gas from the carb as possible.

[Ashton Crusher]

I never do a thing to any of my IC stuff and never have a problem starting any of them next season. I just park em and walk away. Of course, they only last 15 or 20 years doing that.

[ransley]

For 30 years and 25 pieces of equipment the only time I had a problem was when gas was left in a carb, the gas will dry and leave a coat of varnish screwing up a carb, but of course you do things your way that are not recomended by any manufacturer

[ransley]

Poor instructions, you are right.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Why?

[Steve Barker DLT]

The whole point is to put some lasting lube on the cylinder wall so it doesn't rust. No need for it in the intake really.

s

[Steve Barker DLT]

rubber and paper gaskets shrink and crack. ACTUALLY for a simple overwinter storage, really nothing needs to be done. It takes gasoline 3 or more years to varnish anyway. I'm with the guy who just parks the stuff. As a matter of fact my lawnmower set outside last winter and started within 3 or 4 revolutions of the crank this past spring just like it does every time.

s

[ransley]

I agree over winter is minimal and likely its ok, but my Sthil carb was ruined in maybe 1yr, its a pain to need a repair when you need a tool, and what dries out expands again quickly, i just like running dry but different things work

[ds549]

i winterize my mowers the way we do outboard/inboard marine engines in the shop . run some stabilized gas thru it ,then spray fogging oil in the intake till it kills or makes the engine miss. this coats the valves and cylinder. then we drain the carbs and fill with fogging oil.works pretty well. some of the marine vacume fuel pumps call for some fogging oil in the for storage also. in the spring,just drain the carbs and fire it up..... but wether you choose to run your carb dry or leave gas in it,make sure that last tank has stabil in it... i hear guys saying their gas doesnt gum up,but in my area i see MANY carbs gummed up after sitting just one winter with gas in them. lucas

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[Blattus Slafaly]

All you have to do is start it once a month and let it warm up then shut it off. Saves a lot of screwing around for nothing. I've done that for decades and never had a problem.

[salty]

You were doing okay until you recommended storing the engine with dirty oil in it. Used oil isn't just dirty, it's acidic.

[Steve Barker DLT]

the reason to change the oil BEFORE storage is because of all the contaminates and acids in the oil that will attack the aluminum parts. THAT's the reason einstein.

s

[Steve Barker DLT]

Again, Einstein, the reason for the 15 minutes is to warm up the oil. We don't want to try and drain cold oil, now do we?

s