How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???

Rivets

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
What is the ambient temperature around you now. I’ve seen if it is below 60 degrees the way you state you have to start the unit is normal. Second, with today’s gas these units are very touchy with their fuel/oil ratios. I advise my customers to use Opti synthetic 2-cycle oil, which works in a variety of conditions.
 

evh

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
Right now it is 35 degrees. So I am starting to think what I am experiencing is normal. I will be heading out in the next hour and will try a cold start and note everything I do and how it behaves and report back. My gas is clean (sealed clean can - likley 10% ethanol) and relatively fresh < 4 months old, sealed up, Stabil, and Quaker State's 2-Cycle oil. Not a higher end version (i.e. no synthetic).
 

Rivets

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
Being 35 degrees you’re doing good. Only thing is at 4 months I consider that old, tell customers if it is over 30 days, dump in your vehicle and get fresh. Two cycle fuel is only used in a one gallon can to keep it fresh.
 

evh

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
Ok, the link below is about a 2 minutes video of me starting it this morning. You should be able to see the video from my DropBox folder. Let me know if you can't.

- It is about 40 degrees outside
- You will see me turn on the gas valve and then fiddle with the controls
- I prime it 3 times
- Starts on the first pull
- (1st Die) Starts to die and I prime it twice, it continues
- (2nd Die) Starts to die and I prime it once or twice again, it continues
- (3rd "Almost" Die) Starts to die a third time but it fixes itself, it continues
- (4th Die) Starts to die and I prime it once
- It no longer dies after this point. I would say the engine sounds mostly normal about 1:40 seconds after being started

My question is this what you would consider normal?

 

Rivets

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
With these temperatures I would consider it close to normal, using old gas. If it came into the shop this way, I would recommend as I stated before, clean and rebuild the carb. Remember I am working in a shop, the customer doesn’t think it is running right, so I’m would be telling the customer I’m pretty sure I can make it start and run better by rebuilding the carb. It would be his decision whether to wait til the weather warms up and try it, or just rebuild it now.
 

evh

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
Rivets, thank you for all your help. Yes, I think we are close to normal now. I am going to stop fussing with it now. Take care.
 

1saxman

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  • / How Important Carburetor "Plugs" - Gold Machine 10546 (1996 vintage) "L" type of engine/carb???
You are describing a lean start. Does it have a 'choke' position on the throttle, and are you using it to start and warm up?
 
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