[AT] small engines

Ken Knierim ken.knierim at gmail.com
Wed Nov 14 19:57:05 PST 2012


Cecil,
    I dunno why the water would be in the tank. As I'm sure you're aware,
the white aluminum oxide powder is from the corrosion (newer carbs seem to
be more prone than older ones... different alloy perhaps?). Water in the
fuel will do this, and if it got mixed with the alcohol in the fuel, it
becomes corrosive. If you have half a tank of water, that sounds odd to me.

Is there enough of the carb left to get it to seal up? Can you clean the
dust, rust and crud out and try it again anyway? You're only out your time.
It may be trashed but you don't really know until you try it or know it's
leaking (and JB weld isn't a bad idea). These are pretty resilient and most
of the critical lines actually have (or used to have) brass orifices that
doesn't get torn up by corrosion. They've seen this kind of thing before
and in more than a few cases, they designed in some sort of a prevention
that helps alot. I've cleaned a few like that over time and been amazed at
what they could withstand. Otherwise, yeah, putting a new or used one in is
probably on the horizon... and having a bone pile to salvage from is wise.

There were some mowers with plastic carbs that were immune to corrosion.
Unfortunately, they bolted a steel tank to them and that WASN'T
corrosion-proof. And the rust was GREAT at plugging up the screens. :)

Hope this helps

Ken in AZ


On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 7:54 PM, Cecil R Bearden <crbearden at copper.net>wrote:

> We discussed small engines last week.    I am now trying to figure out
> what happened to a nearly new briggs & stratton engine on a diaphram
> suction pump that I use when I have to repair a water line.  The fuel
> was cut off and run out.  There was very little fuel in the tank.   I
> needed it today and I filled the tank with fuel and  could not start
> it.  I dropped the fuel bowl on the carb and found it full of white
> powder.   The float was packed with white powder.  In addition the fuel
> tank was half full of water.   I use the premium gas in all my small
> engines.  I cannot figure out where the water got into the fuel tank,
> and also what happened to the carburetor.  It is so corroded, that half
> of the aluminum is gone. I used it only 4 or 5 months ago.    What can I
> do to prevent this?   also where can I get a cheap carb.  Briggs wants
> about $50 for one.  These days that is probably cheap.
> Cecil in OKla
>
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