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Hello, I am working on a Briggs and Stratton 18 HP Vanguard engine in a 10k generator. Model number 356445 0208-G1 10110311. Engine runs lean, it surges slightly and the spark plugs are practically white. If I close the choke slightly it clears up nicely. The generator is ten years old with little use. So far I have drained and flushed the fuel tank and line, it wasn't terrible. I then removed the top half of the carburetor and cleaned the pilot jet, main jet which is located in the side, and removed the float and needle to clean the seat. I blew out all the passages and cleaned the float bowl. Overall the carburetor wasn't that dirty or corroded. Reassembled and filled tank with non-ethanol 92 octane fuel. Still runs on the lean side and again closing the choke slight makes it run so much better. I have drilled out jets in the past but was wondering if anyone has any first hand experience with this concern with this engine? It does a have an idle adjustment screw with a plastic lock on it that I haven't touched yet. So any input would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou!

get a trigger spray bottle and fill it with WD 40 or similar.
remove the blower housing and saturate the manifold and carb with it slowly from the engine back.
If there is an air leak it will suck in the WD 40 which will make the engine miss a little & blow white smoke

Dirty carb. This is a standby product sitting for untold days/months/years. You need to strip the carb down entirely. Might take 4 cleanings to get her alive proper. Strip it down and put it in the wife's dishwasher on HOT pot scrubber mode with a quart of pure ammonia. Spray it all out again with carb cleaner. Don't spray any plastic or rubber parts with carb cleaner. Blow all passages out with an air compressor/blow gun nozzle.

You should never have to drill out any jets. Most all OPE runs on the rich side. I would love to lean out a bunch of mine a bit. Plugs would run cleaner.

slomo

Your "wasn't terrible" comment to me meant it was filthy. Any dirt or varnish in there, other than fresh fuel is filth. Need to remove the pilot jet and clean it all out.

slomo

Get a set of oxy/acet welding tip cleaners, and run them through the main jet particularly, a tiny layer of varnish builds on the inside of the jets reducing its diameter and reduces fuel flow, you can see through the jets and they look clear but are slightly diminished in diameter due to build up. Have had the problem on my own equipment and other folks. Worth a check, works for me. You aren't making/drilling the jets bigger, just scraping off the varnish to bring them to their correct size. Something like these

Old gas will put a varnish coating on parts of the carb interior due to the ethanol. Non-ethanol is a fix too late. Obviously, this "coating" includes the interior of the jets, which get smaller due to the varnish. The smaller jetting orifii then lean out the engine.

The best thing is simply get new jets... if they screw out. The brass is machined so finely that you never want to use abrasives like torch tip cleaners. Maybe the hardest thing would be round wooden tooth picks (the long, fat fancy ones for h'orderves) dipped in carb cleaner. If the generator is seeing a lot of run time, then you could also dope the fuel with StarTron, which is a cleaner and stabilizer. But that might take take too long.

If you decide to open the carb back up, then pay attention to the smaller jets. They are the ones that clog first and are effected the most by the varnish.

PS. If you do use the high class h'orderves sticks, then decorum dictates you should hold your "pinky" in the air.

A tip cleaner is a fixed size, designed to clean out a cylindrical component, a tooth pic doesn't get in and clean the walls of the cylinder, it just chamfers the opening as you try to force the bigger sized log into the small hole. If you have time and money, order/buy new jets, or a whole new carby, if not get some tip cleaners. Each to their own though. YMMV

i use these/

Nice!

100 td said:

A tip cleaner is a fixed size, designed to clean out a cylindrical component, a tooth pic doesn't get in and clean the walls of the cylinder, it just chamfers the opening as you try to force the bigger sized log into the small hole. If you have time and money, order/buy new jets, or a whole new carby, if not get some tip cleaners. Each to their own though. YMMV

Carburetor Pilot Jet Clean Wire Tool File Carb

Carburetor Pilot Jet Clean Wire Tool File Carb

specbolt.com

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Those are the file type cleaners which are not recommended because the can enlarged the jet. Non file type are recommended. And Briggs recommends the toothpick

100 td said:

Get a set of oxy/acet welding tip cleaners, and run them through the main jet particularly, a tiny layer of varnish builds on the inside of the jets reducing its diameter and reduces fuel flow, you can see through the jets and they look clear but are slightly diminished in diameter due to build up. Have had the problem on my own equipment and other folks. Worth a check, works for me. You aren't making/drilling the jets bigger, just scraping off the varnish to bring them to their correct size. Something like these

Carburetor jet cleaner.Also a Tip and nozzle cleaner .Oxy acetylene ,LPG | eBay

Carburetor jet cleaner / Tip and nozzle cleaner.

www.ebay.com.

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Torch tip cleaners are abrasive. Meaning they can and will, enlarge any soft brass jet. This leads to a richer running engine and fouled plugs. Not recommended.

Try it on your $70,000 car injectors and see.

slomo

Also the name, torch - tip - cleaner means they are made for............ Didn't see carb jets anywhere in the name. Don't be all caveman.

Toothpick or a bristle from a nylon brush.

slomo

slomo said:

Torch tip cleaners are abrasive. Meaning they can and will, enlarge any soft brass jet. This leads to a richer running engine and fouled plugs. Not recommended.

Try it on your $70,000 car injectors and see.

slomo

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Did you try it on your $70K car injectors?

Scrubcadet10 said:

Did you try it on your $70K car injectors?

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Quite likely eh?

Scrubcadet10 said:

Did you try it on your $70K car injectors?

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I flew in an Maserati specialist all the way from Milan, Italy.

But he insisted on flossing my injectors with spaghetti !!

Born2Mow said:

I flew in an Maserati specialist all the way from Milan, Italy.

But he insisted on flossing my injectors with spaghetti !!

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LOL!

Torch tip cleaners are FILES
They are not and never have been approved for cleaning jets because if not used with a great deal of finesse they will enlarge jets.
That is what I use them for , ENLARGING jets that run way too lean ( all Cal models ) .
Several years ago some clot who sells junk on Evil Pay had a load of them they could not sell so they listed hem as "carb jet cleaners"
This was then jumped on by all of the Face Book fools who post stuff they have no idea about in a futile attempt to appear to be an intelligent life form above that of slime mould.
Even since then they have become carb cleaners by the strength of urban myths
Now I have been using them for 50 years so have developed a good feel for them but even so I still have accasionally made a round hole oval

Since oil threads have been beat to death i say we start a new one about torch tip cleaners for passageways and jets. Please check all guns and knives at the door. "My jet cleaner is better than your jet cleaner."??

Hammermechanicman said:

Since oil threads have been beat to death i say we start a new one about torch tip cleaners for passageways and jets. Please check all guns and knives at the door. "My jet cleaner is better than your jet cleaner."??

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For those really bad jets I use a chainsaw file.

I purchase most parts from Jacks or Messicks because they are B&S OEM parts. Carburetor rebuild kit at top of page is most likely from china.

Those who gas weld regularly will have a stack of tips where continued cleaning has made the hole too large.
With the Dillion gun I use the only tip I replace is the 0 tip because the 0 eventually becomes a 0.5 and the 0.5 becomes a 0.75 then a 1
Gas is a not less errosive than liquid fuel so the thing that enlarges the tips is the tip cleaner
A correct size drill will clean jets a lot better than tip cleaners ever will.

What was that joke which was wet my pants funny when I was 4
"eat poo because 50,000,000 flies can't all be wrong "
Now replaced with
"use tip cleaners because 50,000,000 brain dead idiots can't all be wrong"

bertsmobile1 said:

Torch tip cleaners are FILES
Now I have been using them for 50 years so have developed a good feel for them but even so I still have accasionally made a round hole oval

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bertsmobile1 said:

Now replaced with
"use tip cleaners because 50,000,000 brain dead idiots can't all be wrong"

Click to expand...

ROFLMAO!

Scrubcadet10 said:

For those really bad jets I use a chainsaw file.

Click to expand...

For the bad ones i use a hammer drill with masonry bits.

Scrubcadet10 said:

For those really bad jets I use a chainsaw file.

Click to expand...

A tribal medicine man introduced me to putting maggots in the float bowl, where they eat all the scum out. After a day or so, you can put gas back in the engine and crank it up. Then little crispy critters come flying out the muffler.

His home was only a hut made of sticks, but he did have a great looking lawn around it.

mechanic mark said:

Results

www.briggsandstratton.com

https://www.amazon.com/DEF-Carburetor-Overhaul-Stratton-Horizontal/dp/B07W4ZCJV1

Briggs and Stratton 845017 CARBURETOR - Jacks Small Engines

Briggs and Stratton 842881 Carburetor Overhaul Kit - Jacks Small Engines

I purchase most parts from Jacks or Messicks because they are B&S OEM parts. Carburetor rebuild kit at top of page is most likely from china.

Click to expand...

I know it's advisable and necessary to use OEM parts in certain situations, and I'm not knocking the use of, but those B & S prices are criminal (like most OEM products LOL)!

Next up is a carbide bur and die grinder. Get those jets clean.....

slomo

Put em the lathe and run a boring bar through them!

How about using torch tip cleaners?

slomo

Plasma cutter. Only way to go.

100 td said:

I know it's advisable and necessary to use OEM parts in certain situations, and I'm not knocking the use of, but those B & S prices are criminal (like most OEM products LOL)!

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A comment like this can only come from some one with little knowledge or understanding of the cost involved in warehousing & distribution of a massive number of spare parts.
B & S parts are disproportionlly cheap , Kohler parts are at around the correct price & Kawasaki parts are a touch on the deer side but in their case it could be just a lack of volume thing.
One big reason why the market is flooded with highly subsidised very cheap Honda knock off engines is because none of those companies have any parts back up sucking up their profits from selling the complete engine.

as an illustration Lucas added the warehousing costs to every part they had in the warehouse on a monthly basis.
So when they closed down, they offered parts at the wholesale price to various car & bike clubs then the general public.
A silicon plate 6 V rectifier that was 40 p back in 1960 was valued at $ 475 in 1984.

The last warehouse I ran, it cost $ 4.50 per item to be picked , if it was a hand pick and double that ( or more ) if it was on a pallet that had to be pulled out with a fork lift.
Then the invoicing cost was $ 2 ( for a single item ) and the delivery drivers were paid from $ 0.50 to $ 2.50 for a metropolitan delivery and this could go up to $ 25 for interstate deliveries.
At the other end the retailer has costs involved with placing the order and passing it across the counter to you.
The local mower shop divides the number of sales per day into the actual on cost of the counter staff & worked out it cost them $ 3.65 per sale.
This is why Amazon sales are so cheap because they have forced down the picking cost to a few cents by virtually enslaving the pickers , remember they have gone on strike several times and why Amazon is spending millions on developing robotic picking so they can sack all of the order pickers.
Most of their warehouses already use robotic replenishment of the pick face which is easy as everything is a standard pallet.
And of course the ordering is done by YOU so the cost of generating the order & picking slip is a few pennies .

And then there is the price of actually making the parts
People not involved in manufacture seem to think every part is made by santa's elves from pixie dust so costs nothing to make and Rudulf delivers all the finished parts to the warehouses for free as a backload after delivering materials to Santa's workshop for christmas present manufacture.

So......what you're saying is all the parts are not made of pixie dust by elves? I think you are wrong on that. Just the other day when the Easter bunny dropped off my Stens order he said the elves had just renegotiated their contract. Also, china just got done rounding up another 100,000 pixies and ground them into dust.