Snowblower vapor locking?

[Pike2350]

Last year (2021) I purchased a Toro Ssc2000 single stage snowblower on KSL. It has worked pretty good and done fine this year with all the snow.....that is until today. I usually use TruFuel 50:1 mix for the lack of ethanol. I have used the remainder of my weedeater mix that was also 50:1....but majority is ethanol free mix.

It ran fine this morning for quite a while (2 hours as I did my larger driveway and a few neighbors) I noticed o. The last one it started to act low on gas (occassional sputtering if I tilted it) I figured that made sense for as long as I had been using it.

I took it to my parents house to snowblow there after adding gas. It did fine for a while. As I was wrapping up it started acting as if it were out of gas. It wouldn't restart. I thought that maybe the fuel filter was plugged. I ran to Ace and picked up a new spark plug and fuel filter. It ran fine after that. I then took it to a rental of mine and it ran fine for about 30 mins. It then started acting starved for fuel again. It got so bad it would die and I could restart it but it would die within 10-15 seconds. I gave up on it and finished the rest with a shovel. I went to another rental and it started up fine.....however it only ran for about 15-20 mins this time...again acting as if it was out of fuel....but it was about 99% full.

I thought the fuel filter and apark plug fixed it but I was wrong. My next suspicion is vapor lock. I have no idea about engines foe the most part...and even less on small engines. What would be causing this? The setup is stock as far as I can tell. The little I know about vapor lock(if this is the problem) is that the gas is heating to a gas before ignition. How is that possible?

Any ideas?

 

[jeeper]

My guess is the gas cap is not venting. You are sucking the fuel tank until the negative pressure holds the fuel back.

Small engine vapor lock in my experience is that the hot motor wont start once turned off... but will keep running once the fuel line is full of good gas again.

 

[DaveB]

The motors need fuel, spark, and compression to run. When it dies pull the plug and check for spark. Then see if the plug is wet or dry. If it is very wet it is getting too much fuel, if completely dry it is not getting gas. The last thing is a compression test. Sometimes the coil that makes the spark can stop working when hot.

 

[Hickey]

Last year (2021) I purchased a Toro Ssc2000 single stage snowblower on KSL. It has worked pretty good and done fine this year with all the snow.....that is until today. I usually use TruFuel 50:1 mix for the lack of ethanol. I have used the remainder of my weedeater mix that was also 50:1....but majority is ethanol free mix.

It ran fine this morning for quite a while (2 hours as I did my larger driveway and a few neighbors) I noticed o. The last one it started to act low on gas (occassional sputtering if I tilted it) I figured that made sense for as long as I had been using it.

I took it to my parents house to snowblow there after adding gas. It did fine for a while. As I was wrapping up it started acting as if it were out of gas. It wouldn't restart. I thought that maybe the fuel filter was plugged. I ran to Ace and picked up a new spark plug and fuel filter. It ran fine after that. I then took it to a rental of mine and it ran fine for about 30 mins. It then started acting starved for fuel again. It got so bad it would die and I could restart it but it would die within 10-15 seconds. I gave up on it and finished the rest with a shovel. I went to another rental and it started up fine.....however it only ran for about 15-20 mins this time...again acting as if it was out of fuel....but it was about 99% full.

I thought the fuel filter and apark plug fixed it but I was wrong. My next suspicion is vapor lock. I have no idea about engines foe the most part...and even less on small engines. What would be causing this? The setup is stock as far as I can tell. The little I know about vapor lock(if this is the problem) is that the gas is heating to a gas before ignition. How is that possible?

Any ideas?

The last Toro I had was a similar model. I sold it to Jeeper a few years ago. A year before I sold it I had some serious running issues. I found a carb on Amazon for $25 bucks and it ran great after that. It was super easy to swap.

 

[Gravy]

Check the valves. Easy to do. Too much valve lash = hard to start hot. Starts easier cool.