I was given a Toro snowblower with not much information from the original owner except a vague "the wrong fuel was put in it so I was told it was ruined" explanation. The cap on the fuel tank says it's supposed to be a 50:1 mix, so my first though was they put regular gas in. But, the fuel that was in it visually looked like it was, indeed, a mix, but it would not start even after verifying it was getting fuel and spark.
I decided to take a little regular gas (un-mixed) and put it in directly in the carburetor to see if I could prime it and/or get any kind of life out of it. Fired right up and ran for a few seconds until it used up the fuel I dumped directly in. So I figured "Ok…maybe there is just something wrong THIS fuel in the tank". I disconnected the fuel line and drained it out and put in some fuel that I knew was 50:1. Still wouldn't start. Put a little regular gas in the carb again and it fired up. I then tried to put a little of the 50:1 directly in the carb also to see if it was a fuel delivery problem, but it would fire up with the mix.
What's the deal? It'll run on regular gas but not mix? I haven't found anything on the interwebs like this. Is this an indication of something?
Best Answer
Here is what I discovered - the machine just appears to be really particular about having fresh gasoline. As I noted above, I put some fuel in that I knew was 50:1 that it still wouldn't run on, but I think it may have just been that it was a bit to old. It would run in my trimmer alright, but not the snowblower. I mixed up some completely fresh/new 50:1 and it would run on it.
However, the carb is definitely clogged. I pulled it off and couldn't get anything to drip through the jet. So, I'm either going to try to unclog it, or I'll just buy a new one