Screwed up a B & S engine

[D._Frederick]

I have a 5 hp Briggs engine on a wood splitter that has not been run for over 10 years, during this time I have tried to keep the tank full of gas. I need to use it to split up some storm damage from past winter, but now find the inside of the tank covered  with a gritty stuff from the gas. The guys that say to keep the gas  tanks full are wrong!

What can I use or do to clean the tank, it does not appear to be rust. Thanks for your help.

[pineywoods]

The guys that say to keep the gas  tanks full are wrong!

What can I use or do to clean the tank, it does not appear to be rust. Thanks for your help.

Remove the tank, put a handful or 2 of small clean rocks and couple cups of diesel fuel in it. seal up all the openings. Shake well. (Bungee cord it to the agitator on mama's clothes washer, and run it through a couple cycles with the water turned off.  )  Rinse well with diesel or gas. If anything is left it won't matter.

[zopi]

go get a honda...oh you said it was old..it's probably worth saving...

[Polly]

i keep gas in my generator and saw all time but i put sta/bill in it when i know it is  going to set awhile this will work for at least 6 mo i dont know about a couple years  : 8)

[mrcaptainbob]

Rocks do work, but I prefer some bolts and square nuts. Whatever you use, count them before you put them in. You may end up having to clean out the carb, too. Before you turn the engine, squirt a small amount of penetrating oil in the spark plug hole. Hand turn it a couple times. Let it sit overnight. Certainly change out the crank case oil, making sure there's no water in there. Fresh gas, fresh battery (Hopefully it's electric start!), and you should be okay. Let it warm up at slow speed for a bit, then gently advance in stages. Shut it off when warm and recheck the oil. If it's not milky, you're good to go....

[Don_Papenburg]

MAKE SURE  MA IS GONE and will not be back before you can get the tank out of the washer .  give your self some time to clean up incase you forgot to tighten the fuel tank cap. ;D ;D ;D ;D

[John Woodworth]

If it's residue build up from rotten fuel use Acetone to clean the tank, you will most lilely have to clean the carburetor as well, again use Acetone. Your chances of it starting up are very slim, Acetone makes a wonderful fuel system cleaner with a mix of 2.5 oz per ten gallons of gas.

[Slabs]

The guys that say to keep the gas  tanks full are wrong!

What can I use or do to clean the tank, it does not appear to be rust. Thanks for your help.

I've got to echo Piney's statement about not keeping the tanks full, especially with the "new-and-improved" fuels that are being forced onto us now-a-days.  They just don't hold up over a period of time.  I don't like to keep fuel more than a couple of months and am skeptical even at that short peroid.  The new octane-enhancers seem to "go away" rather quick. 

The 5-hoss could have a float carb or a pusle-jet.  If it's a float there could be quite a bit of corrosion in the float bowl and the main metering jet.  Get in there and make shure all ports are clean and clear.  If it's a pulse-jet, you may be luckier in that no fuel is stored up in the carb but some residue may be in the diaphragm chamber.  Either case, give all parts a good douche with Chemtool or your favorite carb cleaner.  The pulse-jet metering chamber in the tank may need some extra attention and the pickup and main jet will have to be cleared of any corrosion and gum from the stagnant fuel, and believe me, the fuel will be stagnant.  Eat the hide right off your fingers.

Anyway, good luck and keep us posted with your experiences.

[D._Frederick]

An update, the engine has the pulse- jet fuel system. I got the tank off and  desided that I would try tumbling with nuts in the tank. I made a plate to bolt to the tank where the carburator was and welded a 3/8 rod at right angles to it. I bored a hole through a 2 x 4 to act as a bearing and will spin it with my variable speed drill.  Will give it a try and see what happens.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on it till I find out if Briggs have parts for this engine any more.
I see that Harbor Freight has a 6.5 HP engine on sale for a $110. My neighbor bought one last year to power his hose reel that pulls in 1500ft of 4inch tube. said it ran all year with no problem. Any way that 100 bucks will not by many Briggs parts.

[rebocardo]

$50 will buy you a carb kit, gasket kit, coil, air filter, and then some from Tulsa warehouse on E-Bay. I have rebuilt a bunch of basket cases for cheap using their cheap B&S parts.

[baronthered]

if you got an air compressor and air drill or impact gun find a socket to fit the crank and let er rip if she's stubborn about starting. I have an old B&S like that and just a second or two of that is all she takes.

[Modat22]

Ya know keeping gas in an engine or not is a no win ether way.

If you keep gas in the engine for a long time you get varnish and other things falling out of suspension of the gas.  If you empty the gas chances are good that diaphrams, and other rubber like parts in the carburator will dryrot.

the sure thing is to rotate the gas out and start the engine every 6 weeks or so, but I'm lazy and will never do that myself.

[D._Frederick]

Baron- I had cleaned the points and put fresh gas in tank but would not fire, so used starting fluid. It fired and would run if I held the choke 2/3 out. I tore the tank and carb off and found that the pick-up filters were varnish over. Parts are still avialable so with $20 I will have it running.
With Mrcap- tumbling idea, most of the grit is gone, will get some of the chemical that the neighbor uses to clean his milk pipes and it will be down to bare metal.

No more leaving gas in small engine tanks, still have couple of gas tractors I need to work on the fuel systems. If and when I get them to run will use LL100 in the tank, its going for $3.40 a gallon but will last for years.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  SeaFoam.    It works great!  StaBul is good as well.

  on those small screens I have taken a straight pin and poked a few small holes and the thing ran fine.

[Slabs]

if you got an air compressor and air drill or impact gun find a socket to fit the crank and let er rip if she's stubborn about starting. I have an old B&S like that and just a second or two of that is all she takes.

That little trick cost me a crankshaft!!

[rpg52]

For 6-8 months of sitting, I put a in-line fuel shut off on all my small engines, run the carb empty.  In the spring, fill with fresh gas, re-open the shut off and it usually works fine.  Longer, it is likely better to drain.  The carbs are really sensitive to old gas, it seems likely the fresh gas dissolves the gum in the tank.  Before I learned this trick, I was taking carbs apart every spring. 
Ray

[beenthere]

Slabs
re: crankshaft
How do you figure that happened?

[D._Frederick]

RPG,

I have a Vanguard B & S and it has a shut-off and a drain valve to empty the tank, works well. The B & S pulse jet system does not have any way to shut gas off. If I had mig welder, I would put a train cock in the tank.

[highpockets]

I have a 1979 Husky 65 saw that I noticed starts every time. I have put on spark plug and a fuel line on it.  I often wondered why my saws would sit for months and still start. When my 1997 Honda 300 four wheeler got where it would not start with temps below 40, I got concerned. I just happened to lean over the tank to check the level and smelled it.  I drained the gas, and put in new fuel. It started great. Now I keep a little chain saw oil mixed with it.  I also learned that the 20 hp Honda engine on the sawmill will start after sitting for months.  It too gets a shot of chain saw oil.  So now everything gets a slight amount of oil in it and I am happy.  They say Stabil works well, but I'll stick with what works for me.

[rebocardo]

> The carbs are really sensitive to old gas

Yea, what I noticed in the B&S is the needle for the float is what usually gums up first. The setup itself is sort of lame. You either get no gas or flood it.

[beenthere]

Bought a wood splitter in Jan. 1985 (  time goes by so fast  )

It has a B&S 8hp engine that sits most of the year, and other than Stabil these last few years, always sits with a full tank of fuel. Have had zero starting problems, - usually on full choke for just one or two pulls, then runs well. Have never had the engine torn down other than the mice nested one year and ate the insulation off the spark plug wire, and replaced the starter rope.  Problem with the muffler female threads in the head, but finally made a bracket to support the muffler so it isn't hanging off the connector pipe.

But it gets used every year, which may help the carb situation.

[John Woodworth]

Acetone it the most versitle fuel system cleaner you can find for cleaning a fuel system, cleans the varnish out and in most cases will get something running, all you have ti do is get the fresh gas Acetone mix into the screen, might have to set overnight but if you can get it running and just let it run will clean the whole system.

I use it on a regular basis in everything I own, 2 cycle, 4 cycle and diesel, the only thing that comes close to it around here is Seafoam which is also top of the line.

[Slabs]

Slabs
re: crankshaft
How do you figure that happened?

My impact wrench is a pretty good one.  Low on hours but over 30 years old.  I figger that the impulses were too much for the crank at the end of the flywheel nut threads and that's where the parting occurred.

Also, I gotta echo rebocardo's comment about carbs being  sensitive to old gas.  It seems to be much more corrosive now-a-days!

Hope nobody else has that experience.  By the way, it was a Tecumseh 5-hoss from a Western Auto leaf shreader-bagger with a one inch output shaft (on the end away from the break.  One of those motors that aren't  really plentiful at Small Engine Warehouse since I apparently got one of the last ones.  Engines that size  are more commonly 3/4 inch shafts.