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I have a Noma snow blower with an 8hp tecumseh engine. The model number on the engine is: HMSK80 155480S. Two winters ago I used this snowblower many times and it ran great. Lat year around this time I started it and it ran very rough. It would shutoff and not idle good. I ended up not using it at all last year. I want to get it going again to use for walkways. I drained the gas today and put in fresh gas. It would not start at all. Any suggestions of what i should try?
Thanks

Maybe just old gas/gunk in the carburetor. If you're confident in your skills, take it completely apart and clean it with choke and carb cleaner.

It's really not difficult to tear apart a carburetor, just some small parts that are pretty self explanatory as to where they go.

I am having trouble getting to the carb. I cannot get off the metal cover thats above the carb. There is a know that has a rod that goes through it and im not sure how to disconect it.

I f it has two year old gas in it the fuel system is going to have to be cleaned. If you cannot get the carb cover off then might be a good idea to take it to a tech. One way or another the fuel has to come out of the fuel tank, the carb, and the fuel lines. If the lines are still good inside then they can be cleaned. The primer bulb if still good can sometimes be cleaned and reused. The fuel bowl can sometimes be cleaned and reused. The rest of the parts in the carb can sometimes be cleaned and reused and sometimes need replaced. Clean the fuel tank out good or the gunk will be right back into your cleaned up carb. You will pretty much know what you have once the bowl is removed from the carb.

possum said:

I f it has two year old gas in it the fuel system is going to have to be cleaned. If you cannot get the carb cover off then might be a good idea to take it to a tech. One way or another the fuel has to come out of the fuel tank, the carb, and the fuel lines. If the lines are still good inside then they can be cleaned. The primer bulb if still good can sometimes be cleaned and reused. The fuel bowl can sometimes be cleaned and reused. The rest of the parts in the carb can sometimes be cleaned and reused and sometimes need replaced. Clean the fuel tank out good or the gunk will be right back into your cleaned up carb. You will pretty much know what you have once the bowl is removed from the carb.

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OK i drained the fuel tank but how would you recomend i clean it. Is there anything i should put in it. Also do you think I should try to find a carb rebuild kit for it?
Thanks

Let me tell you what I did with my 5HP Tecumseh to get it going. I pulled the carb from the engine entirely and soaked it in Simple Green. Check on it every so often just to make sure it doesn't mess with the brass/aluminum. Soaking for a day or three will loosen things up. Then go through all the holes and passages with blasts of carb cleaner to push anything else out. You can get a carb kit to replace the rubbers but don't use the metal pieces, that was a huge mistake for me. Long story short, my engine seized because the needle was slightly different, not even enough to notice unless you compared them side by side. Just use the needles, tube and any other metal pieces that came with your engine, only replace the rubber gaskets.

Once you have the carb clean, set the needles set to their default value. My HS50 was 1.5 turns out on the main and 1 turn out on the idle. Here's the service manual that should apply to yours if you need it:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/small_engine/Bolens Snowblower/Tecumseh Service Manual.pdf

Run Sta-Bil or Seafoam in the fuel to help prevent this issue again. Avoid ethanol as well. Good luck.

D2hornets58 said:

I am having trouble getting to the carb. I cannot get off the metal cover thats above the carb. There is a know that has a rod that goes through it and im not sure how to disconect it.

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the knob should just pull off that the metal cover is under.

im confused,the different inlet needle caused seizure?..ran it too lean?

I think it ran too rich most of the time but it could have ran too lean just before seizure. I always had hard starting and difficulty adjusting. Popped the original needles and stuff back in the carb and it runs like a champ and hasn't seized again.

twinfords said:

the knob should just pull off that the metal cover is under.

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The knob has a hook that goes through a loop on the other side of the cover. I cannot get the hook out of the loop to take off the cover.

tybilly said:

im confused,the different inlet needle caused seizure?..ran it too lean?

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Seized as in "Froze up"? I don't see how an out of adjustment needle would cause a failure like that. I guess anything is possible.

Engines will seize if running too lean. Something about delayed combustion or causing the engine to run hotter or burning off the oil in the cylinder. I'm not sure exactly. Mine seized up solid, had to get a 8 foot pipe on a ratchet wrench. It could have been something internal aside from the valves & piston but the engine runs great now and I've driven it full speed probably half a mile around my property with the augers going, no issues.

Anyway, I just wanted to warn about aftermarket carb parts :thumbsup:

Running too lean will cause the metal to expand which will cause the piston to stop moving. This can possibly cause the cylinder to taper or score the cylinder. You can bore out the cylinder if it's not too bad.

Anyway, usually when I clean a carb, I take it completely apart including the seals and gaskets. I move them to the side to keep carb cleaner off of them since the rubber seals will expand, rendering them useless. then I shoot carb cleaner through all of the jets until it looks like they're during properly. Reassemble the carb and see if it helped. Most of the time it does.

I need to work on my long winded replies, sorry.

D2homets 58 , if you have not pulled the carb off yet, here us what i would try first, drain all the gas out of the system, get a pt. of Sea Foam, put about 1/2 that pt. of Sea Foam in the gas tank., now fill the tank about 1/2 full with fresh gas, Now see if you can get it to crank, if it does let it run about 5 min. then shut it down and wait about 30 min. this will let the sea foam clean the carb. then recrank the motor and run a while, it should clear up and run smoth, worked for me, in the future you sould use a double dose of Marine- Stib in your gas, if there is not a fuel shut off, it would be a good idea to install a fuel shut off, when you are finished with the blower, shut off the gas and let it run out of Gas

LakeRat1

LakeRat1 said:

D2homets 58 , if you have not pulled the carb off yet, here us what i would try first, drain all the gas out of the system, get a pt. of Sea Foam, put about 1/2 that pt. of Sea Foam in the gas tank., now fill the tank about 1/2 full with fresh gas, Now see if you can get it to crank, if it does let it run about 5 min. then shut it down and wait about 30 min. this will let the sea foam clean the carb. then recrank the motor and run a while, it should clear up and run smoth, worked for me, in the future you sould use a double dose of Marine- Stib in your gas, if there is not a fuel shut off, it would be a good idea to install a fuel shut off, when you are finished with the blower, shut off the gas and let it run out of Gas

LakeRat1

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OK ill give that a try this weekend. I have not had time to pull off the carb so Ill try that first. Do most stores sell sea Foam Like bennys?? Ill repost after I try this. Thanks for the help.

Seafoam is pretty popular and easily found. If your carb isn't leaking then $9 (at most) for a can of Seafoam just might fix your problems for the cheapest amount of $$. Worst case scenario, you still have to pull the carb and when you're done with that, you have some nice engine-cleaning gas to burn.

natenkiki2004 said:

Seafoam is pretty popular and easily found. If your carb isn't leaking then $9 (at most) for a can of Seafoam just might fix your problems for the cheapest amount of $$. Worst case scenario, you still have to pull the carb and when you're done with that, you have some nice engine-cleaning gas to burn.

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Ya i would rather try sea foam before taking off the carb. But if I pour it in the gas will it help start the engine or does the engine have to be started for it to work?

It might modify the octane or something to get it started easier... maybe. If you can't get it started with the Seafoam in, maybe try to get it going with a little bit of starting fluid. It's not that great to use but perhaps getting the engine to run for a few seconds might provide enough suction to get the gas flowing through the carb with the Seafoam.

natenkiki2004 said:

It might modify the octane or something to get it started easier... maybe. If you can't get it started with the Seafoam in, maybe try to get it going with a little bit of starting fluid. It's not that great to use but perhaps getting the engine to run for a few seconds might provide enough suction to get the gas flowing through the carb with the Seafoam.

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Ya I was thinking about trying a little starting fluid if i cant get it to start but i can not find the air intake. I have looked all over the engine and cannot find it. Most things are covered on this engine so it must be behind something where i havnt looked yet.

The air intake will be the carb. Snowblowers don't have air filters, just an opening on the carb because the filters would get clogged with snow and there's very little dust in the winter time anyway. The carb is covered in a box so that the hot air coming off the engine warms the air that flows into the carb for combustion. This is to get the engine to run better with cold temps and also melt any snow that happens to get sucked in. Just do a spray or two up into that box but stand away from that area when you start it in case the engine backfires or something, you'll have a good flame

natenkiki2004 said:

The air intake will be the carb. Snowblowers don't have air filters, just an opening on the carb because the filters would get clogged with snow and there's very little dust in the winter time anyway. The carb is covered in a box so that the hot air coming off the engine warms the air that flows into the carb for combustion. This is to get the engine to run better with cold temps and also melt any snow that happens to get sucked in. Just do a spray or two up into that box but stand away from that area when you start it in case the engine backfires or something, you'll have a good flame

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OK i did see the opening in the carb. there is a knob that connects to that. Should i have the flap all the way open when running it?
Thank you for the help

Hmmm, that would be the choke knob. I think it might be best to open it all the way, spray and then set it to half choke and try to start it.

natenkiki2004 said:

Hmmm, that would be the choke knob. I think it might be best to open it all the way, spray and then set it to half choke and try to start it.

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ok ill give it a try this weekend and let you know if i get it started.

I needed new bolts to hold up the starter into place. I put the starter on today and tried to start it using electric start instead of the pull start. It started up pretty quickly and actually ran good. I let it run for a couple minutes and it seemed fine.

How does that correlate with the problem you had on the first page?

natenkiki2004 said:

How does that correlate with the problem you had on the first page?

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Before I was just using the pull start. When I put the starter back on I was able to start the engine. When I was using the pull start I couldnt get it started. Not really sure why it suddenly ran fine though.

Maybe you weren't pulling hard enough? Still, with a properly running engine and a couple of primes, pull starting even a 10hp engine shouldn't be that hard.

In any event, hopefully you've gained some knowledge and feel more confident with working on the engine. Glad it's working for you now, snow is coming :licking:

natenkiki2004 said:

Maybe you weren't pulling hard enough? Still, with a properly running engine and a couple of primes, pull starting even a 10hp engine shouldn't be that hard.

In any event, hopefully you've gained some knowledge and feel more confident with working on the engine. Glad it's working for you now, snow is coming :licking:

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Ya i did get it started the other day with the pull start but it would shut off after a few seconds. Thanks for the help