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The Snowblower Wars, Round Three
This isn’t really about snowblowers. It’s about my well-documented propensity for shooting myself in the foot and not learning lessons until I’ve been taught them three times.
Living in the tightly-packed suburbs on 6600 square feet of property, I don’t have a big driveway, so I’ve never needed big snow-moving equipment to clear it in winter. For years I had a Honda HS520 single-stage snowblower. It was an odd-looking little thing that resembled a tortoise with a snorkel on its shell. It was useless if the snow was deeper than ten inches or wet and heavy, and there were limits to how well it could drag itself forward on its rubber snow-throwing paddles, but its 20-inch width was great for blowing out between the cars, and if I needed to bring it over to my mother’s house, my wife and I could lift it into the back of the station wagon.

Initially it was Honda-reliable, which is what you want from a snowblower because pulling them apart curbside in winter really sucks. And like their vaunted lawnmowers, it usually started on one easy pull. But over time, its performance dropped. One issue was that if you pushed it beyond its limits and tried to keep hammering it into deep powdery snow, it would die and wouldn’t restart. I found that the baffle plate over the carb intake would clog up and starve the thing for air, though why this problem seemed to worsen over time was unknown.
But the other issue was my completely self-inflicted wound of not wanting to pay the equivalent of $28/gallon of something like TruFuel ethanol-free long-shelf-life gas specifically made for outdoor power equipment. (Note that, to the best of my knowledge, there is no ethanol-free pump gas available in Massachusetts. The locations that pure-gas.org shows are all either yard equipment stores selling little cans of TruFuel, or race shops selling big expensive cans of Sunoco race fuels, or airports or marinas where you can’t simply drive up in a car and fill a gas tank or a portable container.) Nor did I use fuel stabilizer. My rationale was that I routinely let over-winter storage of my cars creep from three months to more than six, and never once saw an issue with starting or running that I traced to old gas. Now, I’m not an idiot, at least not here—I’ve certainly experienced the gummy horror that can come from cars sitting for years. But for one winter to the next, I just wasn’t seeing it.

Not surprisingly, I was wrong, and old gas caught up with the Honda. In my defense, I think that one winter it didn’t snow enough to use it, so by the time I fired it up, the gas was closer to two years old. By the time its carburetor had gummed up and I pulled it and cleaned it and got one more season out of it, I was ready to move on.
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I bought a vintage MTD (Yard Machines) 24-inch snowblower from a retired guy who had a hobby-business of resurrecting snowblowers and lawn tractors and reselling them. He had a lot of energy behind the whole “They don’t build them like this anymore” thing that resonated with me. I paid more for it than I should have, but I liked him, his little retirement-passion operation, and the idea that this blunderbuss of a snowblower would run forever. And the electric start was great for my aging back.

Unfortunately, it was not my smartest purchase. Like the little Honda, the MTD would die when I used it to clear deep snow and simply refuse to restart, though if its fresh-air intake was packing with snow as the Honda’s was, I never caught it in the act. The seller said that I was working it too hard, and that friction from ice on the impellers was dragging on the engine and causing it to die, but I never saw any direct evidence of that. Several times I needed to either work on it outside in the cold or drag it into the garage and thread it past the vintage cars to work on it, the ultimate thumb-in-the-eye for something that you need to do its job.

Then, in preparation for winter a few years ago, when I pulled the MTD out from under the back porch and tried to fire it up, it wouldn’t start. I found that I’d mistakenly left it full of gas even though I swore I’d drained it. D’oh! I goosed it with starting fluid and it started, then died, the sure sign of a fuel delivery problem. I pulled the carb off, took it apart, blew out the jets and passages, but it made no difference. I mentioned it on Facebook, and a few folks chimed in that Chinese-made carburetors for Tecumseh engines are unbelievably inexpensive on Amazon—like fifteen bucks shipped—and are a quick solution to this problem. So I bought one branded “HOOAI” (like a soldier might say if he was talking about himself) and installed it. Problem solved.

Until last week. A decent-sized snowfall was predicted for Saturday night. I again rolled the MTD out from under the deck and again kicked myself when I found it half-full of fuel from last winter. I ran out and got a few gallons of fresh gas, topped off the tank, again connected the extension cord, again was surprised and disappointed when the electric start did nothing, again goosed it with starting fluid, but this time was thrilled when it stayed running. Okay, I thought—dodged a bullet this year. I put it in gear, self-propelled it up the hill from the back of the house, and staged it at the end of the sidewalk.
That evening, I had a gig in Providence, Rhode Island. I was concerned enough about the snow that I drove the Armada with its awful 13mpg fuel economy. The gig was in a coffeehouse up the hill from the Providence River in an area reminiscent of Beacon Hill in Boston. The narrow little roads leading there were steep enough that I imagined I’d need the four-wheel drive to get out of the curbside parking spot when the gig was over. But to my surprise, I came outside to find no snow. It wasn’t until I got off I-95 that the first flurries reflected in the Armada’s headlights, and by the time I pulled into my driveway, everything was full-on white. I couldn’t have timed it better had I tried.
The next morning, I was greeted with six inches of fluffy powder. Sleet was predicted for later in the day, so I wanted to deal with it before it turned to cement. Right then. I was prepared for this. I fired up the MTD, let it settle into an idle, took one pass of the sidewalk… and it died. It would restart with starting fluid but would only run for a few seconds.
Fuel delivery. Again. Likely clogged carburetor. Again. WHY CAN’T I LEARN THIS LESSON?
My wired-in Hack Mechanic reaction was to grab a few tools and begin pulling the carburetor off, or at least drain the gas out of the float bowl, but it was overridden by my brain telling me “You are getting too old to troubleshoot another snowblower curbside and have fuel soak through your gloves in 20-degree weather. Just shovel the damn driveway and be done with it.” I dragged the dead snowblower back to the end of the sidewalk and grabbed the shovel. Normally my oldest son (who lives with us) does that, but he’d just badly sprained his wrist slipping on ice while walking the dog, so it was just me. The snow was light and fluffy enough that I got things shoveled out without reinjuring my fragile back.
But as I finished, the sun came out and temperatures suddenly became quite comfortable. I looked at the dead MTD snowblower, sighed, and thought “Yeah, okay, what the hell, once more unto the breach.” I grabbed a few tools, pulled off the box covering the carburetor, and dropped the float bowl.
The whole thing was corroded, likely a combination of cheap metal and water that was attracted by the 10 percent ethanol fuel.

I unbent a paperclip and stuffed it up the port on the underside of the carburetor that went up to the needle valve, put the carburetor back together, and tried again, but it didn’t cooperate. Nope, done.
I went back inside the house, searched through my old Amazon orders for “carburetor,” and found the link to the HOOAI carb I’d bought two years ago. The price had increased to $19.
Click.
I went back outside, and in about 10 minutes had the two 11mm nuts securing the carburetor removed. I covered up the intake with aluminum foil to keep it safe from the elements. The replacement carb arrived the next day. I got it installed just as quickly, turned the petcock to let fuel flow in, and the MTD fired up on the first pull.

On the one hand, spending $19 every two years on a disposable replacement carburetor and taking maybe 20 minutes from start to finish installing it is a low price to pay for my own foolishness. On the other hand, $28 for a gallon of TruFuel is starting to look like smarter and smarter money spent. As soon as I run the tank dry, I’m in. I’ve probably got half a gallon of fresh fuel in it. Hey, a buck fifty doesn’t grow on trees, you know.
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Rob’s latest book, The Best Of The Hack Mechanic™: 35 years of hacks, kluges, and assorted automotive mayhem, is available on Amazon here. His other seven books are available here on Amazon, or you can order personally inscribed copies from Rob’s website, www.robsiegel.com.
Hilarious! Sounds just like my Dad, back in the day. He had the same mind block about leaving old fuel in snow blowers.
I miss getting the call, “Can you come over, and fix the @#^*!!! snow blower?”
Dad always made the visit fun.
There is no ethanol-free gas here in New Jersey, except for one marina 1.5 hours away from me. I’ve been buying the “4-cycle fuel” in cans from Lowes since I discovered it. $46.55 for 2.1 gallons with my card discount. It’s worth it to me just to not have to drain tanks and run carbs dry every year.
One thing they’re finding here in New Jersey is that the gasoline in the station tanks is also attracting water. It doesn’t seem to bother modern cars, but it certainly makes my lawn tractor hiccup a bit.
Maybe a diesel tractor with plow, wheel weights and chains would be better for you. 4WD would be a bonus.
We only live 1 mile from our local Mom & Pop airport and if you have a credit card you can walk out to the Av gas pump and can get all the 101 gas you can carry back to your car. That fuel lasts nearly forever.
I use hi octane Unleaded ethanol free in my 826 John Deere snowblower. It starts and runs every time doesn’t matter if it -25° here in Montana. I just run it dry of fuel at the end of season. I also bought one of the carburator kits for a Techumsa engine off of eBay and haven’t touched it in 3 years.
I’ve also got a John Deere 826 used when I bought my house 32 years ago. The 826 is the snowblower that cockroaches and Kieth Richards will be using after the nuclear holocaust – well built, rugged, and you can maintain and fix it readily. Feed it No-Corn gas and add StaBul at the end of the season (June, if we’re lucky in NoDak) and it’s good to go.
That was my same experience this winter in NJ. After watching countless youtube vids on snowblower fixes. I spent the 13 dollars for the same kit. Installed it and never looked back. Oh yeah this article just reminded me. Need to drain the gas.
I live at 10,500′ in Colorado so we get lots of snow. I have used the same Troy-Bilt 28″ 3-stage snowbloower for the last 12 winter season (6 months long here) without a problem. I just buy whatever comes out of the high-test hose at the local gas station and put in some Sta-Bil at the end of the season. Just lucky I guess.
After having to rebuild all 4 carbs on my Honda ST1100, carbs on my MTD snowblower, Polaris ATV, string trimmer, push mower, pressure washer and generator I’ve learned my lesson about what I use ethanol fuel in. It’s available here in Minneapolis at $5 a gallon, but worth it for the hassle of rebuilding carbs all the time. I use it in my 68 Camaro too. No issues with anything fuel injected (so far). My rule of thumb…. ANYTHING with a carb gets non-ethanol fuel and gets drained every year when put in storage.
Rob, you might want to save yourself some headaches by getting an EGO (or other brand) battery blower. My Niece lives in North Central MA, has to clear a far larger area than you do, and hers does the job very well. I know it spoils the fun of pulling carburetors off in 10 degree weather, but you can always get another old Bimmer or Lotus to soak up the free time.
Agreed. I’m in northern Utah and had a gas blower for years. Eventually got fed up and switched to a single stage EGO. Worked with light snow. Not so well with the heavy stuff. Two years ago I sold the single stage and bought a 2 stage EGO. The thing is a beast. Laughs at heavy snow. I’m so happy with it I start blowing neighbors walks.
Maybe I’ve been blessed, but the snow blower and mower always gets put away with the current season’s ethanol laden gas. I did try to be good with my pressure washer and ran it dry, which caused all kinds of havoc the next season. If I remember, I try to dose the gas with some Stabil Marine grade stabilizer, but honestly I don’t have any issues.
2 Stroke gear is entirely different. They get a steady diet of pre-mixed fuel from Stihl or Tru-Fuel.
I have a newer version of your old Honda. And a fairly long driveway with a bit of an incline. Fortunately, we don’t get much snow here in St. Louis. The Honda always starts on the first push of the start button, magically, since I always turn the fuel valve to off when I’m done using it, even if I expect to make another pass this year. Note the repeated use of the term always; my always is as reliable as yours. This year, our first snow started with 2” of ice followed by 5” of snow the next day. I knew I’d have to clear the ice as the Honda would never handle the 7” of combination slop. Pushing it uphill through the heavy ice made me rethink my decision to NOT BUY the next model up, which is two-stage and self-propelled. But I’m too cheap to upgrade now.
That little Honda with its rubber paddles reminds of the Toro Snow Pup my parents had in the 70s. It was a2 stroke and ran reliably until the 80s when they included it with the sale of the house.
I have a gas station selling VP racing fuel from the pump so I should probably spring for a couple of gallons of ethanol free gas for the mower. Fortunately my driveway is in direct sunlight most of the day so light stuff melts off and heavy stuff is only about 10 square feet of shoveling
Rob when you drop the carb bowl don’t neglect to clear the teeny holes in side of the bowl bolt. Next time you change your guitar strings save the clippings so you’ll have an assortment of carb cleaning wires. They work just like torch tip cleaners but don’t have the sharp cutting edges. Verify the petcock works and use it. Neither expensive fuel nor draining the tank is necessary as long as the carb has been run dry.
Ethanol free is the solution. I have a Troy Bilt that I bought used 9 years ago. I never drain the fuel. Every year, it starts right up. I pull the cord a few times slowly to get the oil circulating without starting the engine. Then I hit the electric start and viola!