# Snowblower tune up with Seafoam Motor treatment.



## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

I was having issues with my blower idling really rough. Its an Ariens with the 8 HP snow king engine. I did all the usual stuff, changed the oil, plug, etc but it was still missing/stalling/rough idle. I called my local engine shop, they wanted 159 for the tune up and 40 bucks transportation back and forth. After reading on the Ariens forum i ran a can of this Seafoam stuff (its a carb cleaner/lubricant/stabilizer) 50:50 with high test gas, and now its purring like a kitten. This stuff is amazing:

| Canadian Tire

It smokes a bit as it runs through, but after that runs as it should.


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

I love the Sea Foam stuff.
It cleaned out the intake on my New Yorker 440.

I did the pour-it-in-carb method for that, but now I pour a can in the gas tank every other year.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Do not run regular fuel in small engines unless you are very careful to use stabilizer and keep the fuel tanks full. I switch to premium along time ago to get rid of the ethanol woes or the need to do fuel treatments. 

Don't run your carbs empty either. It dries them out


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## Moosehead (Jan 6, 2011)

Ya they make good shit. I've used the engine treatment but my fav is the deep creep lubricating oil.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I've used it in a few cars. Works good. 

Ditto on the premium fuel in small engines that aren't used constantly.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Father-in-law and I both swear by Seafoam and have used it for years on small engines, power sports equipment and all types of vehicles with good success. Worth every penny and many mechanics and small engine techs love the stuff too. We use the regular stuff and the upper cylinder cleaner/lube also.


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

In Ottawa you can ask Blue Rabbit how much they charge but it would be less than the 159 I would think. I use an electric snowblower, so I dont have to worry about any of that shit...........


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## johnnyshaka (Nov 2, 2014)

zdogma said:


> I was having issues with my blower idling really rough. Its an Ariens with the 8 HP snow king engine. I did all the usual stuff, changed the oil, plug, etc but it was still missing/stalling/rough idle. I called my local engine shop, they wanted 159 for the tune up and 40 bucks transportation back and forth. After reading on the Ariens forum i ran a can of this Seafoam stuff (its a carb cleaner/lubricant/stabilizer) 50:50 with high test gas, and now its purring like a kitten. This stuff is amazing:
> 
> | Canadian Tire
> 
> It smokes a bit as it runs through, but after that runs as it should.


If it snows tomorrow I'm going to be really pissed at you!


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

Great stuff for small engines and it's on sale at CT starting Friday. Also works great in inboard and outboard motors if their running rough. I use it regularly on all my engines.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Guitar101 said:


> Great stuff for small engines and it's on sale at CT starting Friday. Also works great in inboard and outboard motors if their running rough. I use it regularly on all my engines.


Be careful. Some late model OB's may not like it


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Scotty said:


> Do not run regular fuel in small engines unless you are very careful to use stabilizer and keep the fuel tanks full. I switch to premium along time ago to get rid of the ethanol woes or the need to do fuel treatments.
> 
> Don't run your carbs empty either. It dries them out


I run regular in everything. No stabilizer or anything like that. No problems. The tanks on the lawnmowers might have a cup of gas in each. The snow blower has maybe a half a tank. Same with the bikes. Maybe once a year I'll run premium. Everything starts as it should.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Electraglide said:


> I run regular in everything. No stabilizer or anything like that. No problems. The tanks on the lawnmowers might have a cup of gas in each. The snow blower has maybe a half a tank. Same with the bikes. Maybe once a year I'll run premium. Everything starts as it should.


Perhaps you dont have ethanol in your reg & mid grade fuels out there. In Ont, both reg & mid have at least 10% ethanol which turns to water if left too long. So for all of our outdoor power equipment, it means roughly 6 months of sitting between seasons. The problems don't show immediately, it usually takes several years for issues to show. Most people see a slow decline. Harder starting every year. It also depends on mix ratios. The leaner the mix, the more problems


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Scotty said:


> Perhaps you dont have ethanol in your reg & mid grade fuels out there. In Ont, both reg & mid have at least 10% ethanol which turns to water if left too long. So for all of our outdoor power equipment, it means roughly 6 months of sitting between seasons. The problems don't show immediately, it usually takes several years for issues to show. Most people see a slow decline. Harder starting every year. It also depends on mix ratios. The leaner the mix, the more problems


Nothing runs mix except the chain saw. I think the regular gas here has ethanol in it. They are all old but still start second or third pull. If I ran some sort of cleaner thru them they probably blow up.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

Scotty said:


> Be careful. Some late model OB's may not like it


Can't comment on anything "late model", I'm retired but I used it in my Stihl chainsaw and now I can set it down without it stalling. When I gave my son some for his inboard which was running a little rough, it was running much better after 5 minutes of idling. If your experiencing any of this, it's worth a try.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

I run regular as well, (in machines that dont stipulate 91) without issues. I do run some stabilizer through at the end of the season, religiously. and yes, some of them require premix.

I also store my machines relatively close to empty. In my experience, being able to run a fresh tank of gas when the season starts again results in much better performance than the "top the tank" in the fall method did.
My personal belief is, depending on use, most small engine carbs should be cleaned at about the 10 year mark, regardless of owners habits. one method may make it 9 years, another may make it 11, but I doubt theres much statistical significance to the practices.
as they say, YMMV. Id love to see a scientific comparison that proves it one way or another, not just theoretical/philosophical. ie take a team of say 20 loggers....make half of them use reg the other 91. then, in each half, split them again and have 5 of the reg guys and 5 of the 91 guys store the machines empty and the remainder store full. at the end of 2-5 years, open up the carbs and weigh the debris. im unaware of any such study. until then, any belief is just that, and no more valid than mine, which is, that every Christmas Eve, the pixies at Briggs & Stratton sneak into my garage and meticulously disassemble and polish up my carbs while I sleep.

never tried seafoam. but have heard good things elsewhere as well. if the shelf life is good (stabilizer goes milky after a couple years), might make sense keeping some on the shelf.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Electraglide said:


> Nothing runs mix except the chain saw. I think the regular gas here has ethanol in it. They are all old but still start second or third pull. If I ran some sort of cleaner thru them they probably blow up.


I am really surprised you have not had any problems. I put the stabilizer in all my small engines. I didn't put it in my pressure washer a couple of years ago and now it won't start. Same problem I had with my boat.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> I am really surprised you have not had any problems. I put the stabilizer in all my small engines. I didn't put it in my pressure washer a couple of years ago and now it won't start. Same problem I had with my boat.


The gas in the one lawnmower is what's left from last year. Maybe you should go to equipment etc. that runs straight gas.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

I have a big gas can that is the only one I take to the gas station. It gets stabiliser in it on every fill up. I decant from that can to the lawn mowers and snow blower and to the cans I have for the 2 strokes I have (mini tiller, chain saw, weed whacker). I use Shell Bronze regular unleaded and I don't think it has any ethanol....at least it is not marked at the pump as such. Never had a problem with fuel.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Electraglide said:


> The gas in the one lawnmower is what's left from last year. Maybe you should go to equipment etc. that runs straight gas.


The thing is, my pressure washer is straight gas. It's the ethanol they put in the gas these days that causes the problem. Maybe things are different in your neck of the woods.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Jim DaddyO said:


> I have a big gas can that is the only one I take to the gas station. It gets stabiliser in it on every fill up. I decant from that can to the lawn mowers and snow blower and to the cans I have for the 2 strokes I have (mini tiller, chain saw, weed whacker). I use Shell Bronze regular unleaded and I don't think it has any ethanol....at least it is not marked at the pump as such. Never had a problem with fuel.


 There's very very very few gas stations around that don't have ethanol in their low and mid grade. It's not always stated on the pump . 

Somebody sent me a link regarding pure fuels somewhere I'm gonna dig it up and see if I can't post it. 

Was getting my generator ready for fall/winter as it isn't uncommon to have no power for a day or three after a severe storm and it's running like crap. It was one that I acquired by inheritance, and it had some carb issues when I got it. Except for a two day power outage last winter, I don't think it's run 24 hours and it's life before that. I was going to pull and soak the carb in Pine-Sol, but I think I'm going to put the sea foam to the test and see if it will clean the crap out of the passages. I think I'll also put a fuel filter in it for good measures.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> The thing is, my pressure washer is straight gas. It's the ethanol they put in the gas these days that causes the problem. Maybe things are different in your neck of the woods.


As far as I know there's ethanol in the gas here. Could be all the things I have, lawnmower etc. are at least 10 years old if not older. There is almost no maintenance done to them. On occasion I'll top the oil up and ad a bit of gas to the tanks. That's about it. Winter prep for the lawnmowers is pushing them onto a corner of the yard and putting the bags on top of the motors. As far as I know they've been putting ethanol in gas for a long time.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Here is the link to stations who offer ethanol free
Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Scotty said:


> Here is the link to stations who offer ethanol free
> Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada


Thanks for that Scotty. I guess a good thing would be to put premium in at the end of each season and you don't have to worry about ethanol or run premium all the time for the difference in cost. I don't use that much gas in my mowers and snowblower anyway.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Steadfastly said:


> Thanks for that Scotty. I guess a good thing would be to put premium in at the end of each season and you don't have to worry about ethanol or run premium all the time for the difference in cost. I don't use that much gas in my mowers and snowblower anyway.


No problem, glad to help.
There's nothing wrong with running ethanol fuel's as long as you're using it frequently enough so that the ethanol doesn't break down to water. ( or with use of stabilizer for intermittent use. ) myself, I prefer to run premium because I never know how long it's going to sit. I always keep a good amount of fuel on hand and sometimes lose track of which can is the oldest. And I think you're right, the cost difference is minimal


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

What a dilemma ethanol has produced. It was meant to lower emissions but if you don't like it and put high octane gas into a car rated for lower octane, you are increasing the pollution from your vehicle. 

High octane gas is meant for engines with higher compression ratios. It burns slower and relies on the higher pressures for complete combustion (low octane gas in a high compression engine results in premature detonation, also called pinging. New engines have a ping sensor and retards the ignition to combat this) so putting it in a car meant for regular octane gas means incomplete combustion and unburned hydrocarbons are being released into the atmosphere as a result.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Anything I have with a carburetor gets hi-test. But that's a small list - motorcycle (gone), lawn mower, power washer, generator. Carbs are getting rare. And I put Stabil in for the last tank of the year to get through the winter. A mechanic friend suggested it years ago.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

This is a good reminder for me to put some stabilizer in my lawn equipment now. Probably only a couple more runs this season.

The other debate that gets brought up often is the oil changes....to do at end of season or start of season. I was in the start of season camp, but recently read on B&S site that they recommend it done at end of season. In their opinion, oils (new) are able to get through the winter ok , while there may be more harm in leaving old oil sitting long term and sediment settling etc. That's good enough for me.


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

Diablo said:


> This is a good reminder for me to put some stabilizer in my lawn equipment now. Probably only a couple more runs this season.
> 
> The other debate that gets brought up often is the oil changes....to do at end of season or start of season. I was in the start of season camp, but recently read on B&S site that they recommend it done at end of season. In their opinion, oils (new) are able to get through the winter ok , while there may be more harm in leaving old oil sitting long term and sediment settling etc. That's good enough for me.


Should we start the debate on synthetic vs. conventional oil in small engines?^)@#

I'm a big fan of synthetics for snowblowers, and I know that most of the mix oil for small 2 strokes is now synthetic (I use Husqvarna XP) and seems to work very well.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

zdogma said:


> Should we start the debate on synthetic vs. conventional oil in small engines?^)@#
> 
> I'm a big fan of synthetics for snowblowers, and I know that most of the mix oil for small 2 strokes is now synthetic (I use Husqvarna XP) and seems to work very well.


I'm still working through some quarts of dino that are on my garage shelf, after that, I'll just go with whatever the manufacturer recommends.
Small engines use so little oil that I can afford to be magnanimous with them 
Plus CT has pretty good sales on synth. Stock up!

The thing about oil is, it's hard to know what works....until it doesn't. But even then, it's not uncommon for 2 strokes especially to need an unexpected tear down every so often. The nice thing is, it's sooo much cheaper than when a 4 stroke needs work. But it's getting to be that mowers are pretty disposable if anything serious goes wrong with them after the 10 yr mark.


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