Startup After 15+ Years Sitting

Kejo

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Hey All

I have a Honda HRA214 that I purchased new in the early '80s. Put it away around 2003 when we moved into a condo, planned to sell it but never did. It has been stored in a heated garage in a dry cold climate the entire time. Now I have occasion to use it again, and I'm wondering what the startup procedure would be?

I know I drained the gasoline tank and carburetor. I did not change the oil - about 3 times a year I would recall this and feel guilty about it, but never enough to get out there and change it. The manual also says to put 3 tablespoons of motor oil in the cylinder - I can't recall if I did that or not. Probably not.

Anyway, just wondering what advice you experts would have for me in regard to a proper startup procedure. This is an excellent machine, never had any major problems, and I hope to get years more service out of it.
 

7394

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1) remove spark plug, & add the teaspoons of oil in hole, now..
2) replace spark plug, or clean & check gap of old plug, if good condition. (But don't install it yet.)
3) drain & replace oil with fresh oil as per engine manual spec.
4) gently see how engine turns over, if freely, hold thumb on plug hole spin to see if it has compression. If so, spin it several times with spark plug removed to circulate New oil.
5) check for spark
6) clean air filter & if it's a foam re-oil it. Do NOT oil paper filters.

If all checks out, add some fresh 100% gas & install spark plug & try to start it.
 

jp1961

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Putting some oil into the cylinder is just done to prevent the cylinder walls from rusting (assuming the cylinder has a cast iron sleeve). There would be no need to do it now.

Just check the oil level in the crankcase add fresh gas and fire it up.

You may want to change the oil after letting it run for a bit and get hot.

Regards

Jeff
 
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shiftsuper175607

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Hey All

I have a Honda HRA214 that I purchased new in the early '80s. Put it away around 2003 when we moved into a condo, planned to sell it but never did. It has been stored in a heated garage in a dry cold climate the entire time. Now I have occasion to use it again, and I'm wondering what the startup procedure would be?

I know I drained the gasoline tank and carburetor. I did not change the oil - about 3 times a year I would recall this and feel guilty about it, but never enough to get out there and change it. The manual also says to put 3 tablespoons of motor oil in the cylinder - I can't recall if I did that or not. Probably not.

Anyway, just wondering what advice you experts would have for me in regard to a proper startup procedure. This is an excellent machine, never had any major problems, and I hope to get years more service out of it.

I have a Honda HR214, never stored it.
It is a great mower.
You may have to pull the starter rope twice instead of once to get it to start after 15 years.
 

upupandaway

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....Just check the oil level in the crankcase add fresh gas and fire it up.......

Jeff

What i have done is tip it 90deg in all 4 directions - mostly forward to get oil in the cylinder(not the combustion end of course), quickly before pulling the cord. At least i can know most every internal surface has some oil. At least some oil getting around make it easier to pull start but mainly less strokes running without oil the better.
 

Kejo

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Thanks for the advice, guys. So far I've cleaned the exterior, sharpened the blade, pulled the spark plug and cleaned it, checked for compression (good), added a little oil to the cylinder, gave it a few good pulls to get things moving, cleaned the air cleaner, and checked for spark.

I wanted to add the oil to the cylinder just to make sure I didn't break something if there was rust. Didn't add much. Probably will get a little smoke on startup. It pulled quite easy so I think the internals are rust-free. The air cleaner is as clean as I could get it, but it needs replacement, the outer covering is starting to disintegrate. When I checked for spark there was none, so I probably need to look at some of the electrical components.
 

7394

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Thanks for the advice, guys. So far I've cleaned the exterior, sharpened the blade, pulled the spark plug and cleaned it, checked for compression (good), added a little oil to the cylinder, gave it a few good pulls to get things moving, cleaned the air cleaner, and checked for spark.

I wanted to add the oil to the cylinder just to make sure I didn't break something if there was rust. Didn't add much. Probably will get a little smoke on startup. It pulled quite easy so I think the internals are rust-free. The air cleaner is as clean as I could get it, but it needs replacement, the outer covering is starting to disintegrate. When I checked for spark there was none, so I probably need to look at some of the electrical components.

Precisely why I posted to add some oil in cylinder, that cylinder was dry as a bone. Good !!!

As far as no spark, try another spark plug or clean up the connections first.
 

Kejo

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Got back to this little project after a break. I put a little oil in the cylinder, replaced the spark plug and the air cleaner, sharpened the blade, put gas in the tank and set the throttle on choke. Guess what? This thing started on the FIRST pull !! I was a bit amazed. Got a good puff of blue smoke, as expected, on startup. I engaged the blade and took a few quick passes on the lawn, running it maybe 5 minutes total. Tested the self-propel feature and it worked just fine. Shut down once in the middle and re-started, just to check the warm start. First pull start again.

So overall I'm pretty happy. Only one little niggle that bugs me. I continued to get some blue smoke the entire time. I was expecting it to go away, but it was still there after 5 minutes of running.

Tomorrow I'll start it again, warm it up, and change the oil (oil looked good, by the way). Any thoughts on the blue smoke? Thanks!
 

7394

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Blue smoke generally means burning oil. Have you changed oil yet ?
 
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