Slight rust on the flywheel won't affect anything. You have a 7 year old motor with an adjustable carb main jet ?? Even though you cleaned your carb, I still think there's something inside. A couple tanks of Sea Foam and you might not have that problem anymore. The main jet starts out at 1 1/2 turns, but your idle air screw should be about the same. Try this. Put the idle air screw at 1 1/2 turns. If it won't idle, there's dirt somewhere. If you can get it to run at high speed, back out the main jet until the engine just starts to lose RPM. Then turn it back in until the same. Adjust somewhere in the middle and favoring the rich side. If you can get it to idle, go from slow to high speed suddenly. If it stumbles, increase or decrease the idle air screw until there is a smooth transition from idle to high speed with a sudden throttle, like gunning your car engine.

OK, tackled the beast, found the bowl free of sediment and crap, what I expected due to running it dry, etc. The main jet seemed to be partially plugged, so I gently reamed it with a very fine gauge wire. Now I could see through it, before, not so well. Sprayed everything well with carb and choke cleaner. Also gave a few shots down the throat while the air cleaner was off. Reassembled, drug outside in the rain and it started right up. Smoked billowed, due to the carb cleaner then it settled down. Seems to have much more power at full throttle now, so that's a good thing. Still hunts, and now only wants about quarter choke to idle. From what I can discern from the Briggs diagram, the idle jet is inaccessible. I'm suspecting that it's partially clogged. While apart, looked for a good place to put an inline fuel filter. I have two types in my stock. One is about the size of a golf ball with long barbs, the other is about the size of ...three fifty cent pieces together with short barbs. The way the fuel line runs, neither would work. If I get ambitious, I could reroute the line out the right side of the carb (viewed from the rear) and put whatever I want there. That's a big IF.... :-) Mike, intriguing idea, I don't have any MMO in my barn, don't know why, have everything else. Going in town tomorrow and will pick some up. So, in conclusion, I learned more about this "EPA blessed Carb" and based on the way it acts now, the main jet was partially plugged. Still wants to be choked to be happy. Guess I can live with that, when I'm doing heavy tilling. For the light stuff, have a Mantis and a 10 year old Sears 2cycle which I can't seem to kill. Thanks for all the good input!!! Ev

UCL is highly recommended for ALL classic cars especially when they are not often driven. 1- 5 tankfills a year means that petrol (USAterm = gasoline, gas) is in fact always old, somewhat deteriorating and collecting condensed water. Nowadays one should absolutely avoid bio-ethanolized petrol because some materials (metalparts, seals, rubbers; from petrolfill-entrance to and including exhaustpipes) oxidate and or desintegrate because of the ethanol and waterattraction. In Dieselengines UCL lubes the Dieselpump which nowadays is not lubed by the Dieselfuel anymore because Sulphur had to be eliminated from this fuel The Sulphur in the olddays Dieselfuel, lubricated the Dieselcompressionpump better than the modern Dieselfuel does. UCL protects/has benificial effects, also when fuel is not streaming or dried up (a thin protective oily layer of UCLoil stays on all surfaces before the burningstage, when the gasoline has evaporated after some days of stand-still) : Less rust in fuel tank Rubber gaslines don't dry out Petrol- and Dieselpumpparts (electric AND mechanical pumps benefit); membranes are lubed Carburettor is lubed (critical for copper and other non-ferroparts) Inletvalves benefit Cylindersurfaces are lightly lubed during firing and also already during the coldstart. UCL implies that only oil that combusts properly and burns fully, should be used. ONLY, ONLY AND ONLY 2-Stroke Oil does that. It will not carbodeposit on internal engineparts. Some people use engineoil, ATF or whatever. DON'T DO THAT, EVER. ONLY 2-Stroke oil is specially designed for nicely burning with gasoline and Diesel! Use cheap, the simplest undoped 2-Stroke oil, it may be not, half or fully sythesized. Use NOT the stuff disigned for modern 2-Stroke engines, as it possibly contains agressive dopes (Bad for aforementioned materials) . For years now, I use 1 part 2-stroke oil on 200 parts gasoline (ratio 1:200) . DIESELENGINES: 1 L for every 60 L of Diesel (ratio 1:60). Try to ride your fuel tank as empty as you dare before adding fuel, FIRST add the 2-Stroke oil so it mixes by and with the flow of fuel pumped Expect to use 50 liters of petrol? First add 250 ml (1/4th liter) 2-Stroke oil (= 2-T). This is a small beerglass on an average fill. Better use a dispenser with marks, though.... 40? 200 ml 30? 150 ml 60? 300 ml So every 1 L of gas, first add 5 milliliter of 2-T. Ratio is then 1:200. Sometimes I underestimate the needed gasoline to fill-up and allready added the 2-T. No problem, one time I calculated I had made a mixture of 1:100 (that is double the prescribed amount of 2-T) and experienced nothing in particular that half year later. Remember, 2-Stroke engines use 1:25 - 1:50 ratio which is 8-4 times 'fattier'. Mind you, Dieselmixture can and should be : 1L 2-T on a fill of 60L Diesel I provide ALL my none-catalyst diesel- and petrolcars with 2-T. From my Peugeot 201 of 1931 to my Citroën CX Diesel 1982 and gasoline-engined BX E from 1987.

WOW! Now if that doesn't help me, nothing will. I won't even attempt to get the carb off. I have maintained this engine every season - new plugs, filter, oil and filter, etc. Actually, this year I decided not to change the plugs as it seemed like overkill. It's funny that the engine surges at high idle only. Low idle is perfect. I've replaced the fuel filter over the last few years with Home Depot/John Deere replacements. This year I splurged and bought a OEM Honda replacement. At the same time, I added a bottle of STP carb/fuel injector cleaner (I was unable to find Seafoam at Wal-Mart and Pep Boys) to a full tank of gas (5 gallons) and a quick run-through sounded 'better'. We'll see after I run it for an hour. But at least I now know that I won't even attempt to get to the jets as it sounds like it's not worth it. On another - related topic - I have two Tecumseh-powered Ariens snow blowers that were purchased within the last seven years. One is an 8hp and the other a 5hp that requires a mix. Both have required carburetor work - the 5hp only a year after purchase. I ended up bringing the 5hp one back as it was covered under warranty. (On the 8hp, I ended up replacing the carb with the 'pre-emissions' adjustable Tecumseh model I read about elsewhere in this forum. Works great.) The mechanic told me that many current engines have required early carb rebuilds due to 'crappy gas'. He even asked my what type of fuel stabilizer I use (Stabil) and suggested that he's also seen problems with anything other than the Briggs stabilzer. I guess I'll try that next season.