Strange blower problem.

[jasonw]

I am having a strange problem with my blower. I don't think the brand matters in this situation so to avoid the "this is better than that" debate I wont mention it. The blower is a hand held 4 stroke. As of late it has been very very hard to start, normally by the time I get it running I am to wore out to use it. I found yesterday that after removing the air filter it ran like a champ, I cleaned and dried the filter and put it back on today and it would not start, took it off and it runs great. The filter its self is super clean now so I dont get what could be causing this. There is a bit of blowby as well, would the blowby entering the carb case it to not want to run? Its not a lot of blowby, just a fine fog. When the filter cover is off it blows to opened air, that's the only thing I can think of that is different with the cover on or off. I broke down yesterday and picked up a good old trusty 2 stroke unit just because I can no longer deal with the unreliability of my 4 stroke but I love this thing and would like to fix the problem.

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White Company

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Is it possible that when you are starting it, there is not enough suction to pull air through the filter with the choke on? Could that mean a compression issue?

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[jasonw]

It does it even with no choke, I can open the filter, warm it up "30 minutes +" and then when I close the filter cover it bogs down and dies and wont restart, daylight is still clearly visible through the filter.

[jymie]

You may be experiencing a problem because of ethanol, that issue has come up for me with a trimmer, my mechanic has told me the lines are all shot and the carb is plugging up. He advised me that I need to start using stabil ethanol treatment for my stuff or I'm gonna have some real problems down the road. Ethanol in gas is a death nail for small engines.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

I know with the cheaper brands for no apparent reason theyll have problems. I had a few cheap brand hedge trimmers. I would tune them up and have them all ready to go. Use it one time. Pull them out a few weeks later and have starting problems. These were left empty. The better stuff even with gas sitting in them dont have problems. It really is a pita. To use a piece of equipment 3 times and have to clean the carb 3 times. Anyways I had a similar problem. This thing would take 20 mins to start. Run and then when you turned it off do it all over again. So I chucked it into the back of the trailer. I havent seen it since. Problem solved.

[krzys666]

i know my redmax 7100 had the a similar issue.
it would start alright but attach the horn for the air filter and it would lose about 800 rpm. my mechanic said he had the same problem on a few others as well but all 7100

[Steve]

Can you test the compression somehow to see if it is within the range it should be?