Recent content by Smithsonite

I'll add one more - one that keeps me from buying Stihl altogether: Buying parts is a ROYAL PITA! I get that they want only "Authorized Stihl dealers" working on their stuff to keep quality in check ... but if I'm shelling out $500 for a piece of equipment I G** DAMN better have the option of...

From the symptoms I figured the valves were too tight. Didn't expect a rocker to remove itself from the pushrod, but that's not the first time I've heard of that. Seen it in person many times when my shop was open. Mostly on newer equipment. Anyway, glad you got it back running, and THANKS for...

Whenever I had one struggle that hard to turn over with a STRONG battery and good connections, it was tight intake valves. There's probably a compression release on the intake cam, and with tight valves it stops working. Once you get the valve clearance correct, it'll whip right over at normal...

I didn't read through all 4 pages, so I'm sure this has been touched on as the 2nd comment alluded to, but, any time a mower engine suddenly stops, 99.9% of the time this results in a sheared key. This throws the ignition firing out of time. There's also the possibility that it violently kicked...

Yep, heat, no matter the form, is a battery killer.

That's not what I've experienced servicing thousands of batteries of every size for the past 3 decades both professionally and for my own stuff. They ALWAYS self-discharge at a higher rate in warmer temps. That's just the nature of chemical reactions. There's no fudging or cheating physics. The...

Not to pee on anyone's fire, but my experience has shown the exact opposite. Warmer temperatures cause batteries of any kind to self-discharge at a higher rate. Makes sense, since when you try and start your car at zero degrees, it cranks slower - not just because of thick engine oil, but the...

80 & 100 are recommended by Amsoil right on the bottle - they leave it up to you to decide. They stake their reputation on it. Some people aren't comfortable with either and mix at 50:1 - that's fine - it's your money as I said. If you want to use double the necessary oil, totally fine. Same...

If it works, why not? As I mentioned many posts ago, I've been running the same Echo SRM-210 trimmer on it since 2003, trimming 2.5 acres of land, and going through a minimum of 1 tank per use (sometimes 2). I ran a small engine & auto repair shop for 14 years, and used it at 100:1 in all my...

I've run 100:1 in saws 40 years old. ONLY with Amsoil Saber, though. I wouldn't dare do it with much else ... aside from maybe one other brand whose name escapes me at the moment ...

Back in the day when carbureted cars did this, we called it "dieseling" ... because that's essentially what was happening - fuel was igniting by high compression caused by excessive carbon deposits, or igniting from glowing carbon deposits. Either way, it was no longer a spark-ignition engine at...

I'm betting on a fuel cap vent with asthma.

Only other thing if not carbon would be a piece of head gasket not machined correctly, sticking into the combustion chamber and glowing red. Actually one more thing. Wrong type of spark plug with the wrong heat range. If a projected resistor plug were to get hot enough it could definitely cause...

It also has MANY modifications. Carb mods, reeds, porting, pipes, higher compression, different pistons, crank balanced, etc.. I got the squish set within .001" of where I wanted it, and run the timing advanced farther than anyone else with the same bike dares. Runs absolutely perfect. I figure...

My RD350 consistently gets 38 MPG. I spent a LOT of time tuning.