2 gas motors that hate the cold

Have a Honda mower that does not like any temp below 50. The blower is pretty good but we had a snow last year & the temp. quickly fell to about Zero and that thing refused to start. Any advice?

Ether, I would not use it unless you have to, but it does work.

Thinner oil

Carb might need adjusted or the compression isn’t that good

I have a magnetic mount block heater that I’ve used in the past for poor starters when cold. If there’s any metal on the motor where it’ll attach to, it works pretty well and it usually doesn’t take alot of time to work.

I had a honda mower that would not start if it was colder than 55F. I would pull the air filter off, and either hand choke it by covering the intake or squirt some gas in the carb to get it to start. It was fine once it fired up for the day.

Honda’s are known for poor cold starting/being extremely cold blooded. It needs a good choke, or gas in the carb, either etc. sometimes but normally once it is going and warmed up it should be fine…..just a PIA to get going. If you look at the forums even their EFI ATV’s can’t start when it is cold out…mine really struggles with it

tim hurley wrote:

Have a Honda mower that does not like any temp below 50. The blower is pretty good but we had a snow last year & the temp. quickly fell to about Zero and that thing refused to start. Any advice?

I’m not a fan of using starting fluid unless it’s an occasional use and absolutely necessary. Too much potential for overzealous use and engine damage.

You have a couple of options.

1. Change to 5W-30 oil and use pure synthetic. This oil will be thinner when the engine is cold and with splash-lubercated small engines, this is important. The oil slinger and other parts that drag in the oil sump are slowed down greatly by the thick/cold oil and this prevents the engine from spinning fast enough to start.

There are still some old-school shops out there that put staight 30-weight motor oil in all air-cooled engines. This makes them almost impossible to start below 50.

I would try this solution first because often times it fixes the problem well enough that no other solution is required.

2. Replace the main jet with a larger size to run a richer mixture. This can also require the replacement of the emulsion tube. This involves some knowledge and some trial/error but going up a jet size or two can greatly improve hard starting.

Going this route is probably best done by a shop or someone with strong DIY knowledge. But in the long term, it’s the correct permanent fix for this problem.

Small engines these days are designed to run the leanest mixture they can get away with because of all the CARB/emissions BS. This can make them really hard to start and this is why these days even a warm engine will often need the choke on to restart, the things are just running SO damn lean.

I spray a small amount of Sta-Bil fogging oil in the air intake when starting. That seems to work well for me.

A Good reason to get a heated garage.

Some great ideas-thanks-especially like the 5w30 sythetic & the magnetic heater.
Thanks

I’ve used WD40 to start engines in the past instead of ether. Not as hot or dry. The WD40 has some lubrication to it.

Zip into the carb I assume.
One more WD40 use!

Manual primer off Amazon for 10 bucks. I do this on my snowmobile and prime it a few times then choke and pull. It will fire second pull then. Before the primer it was 10 pulls to push that much fuel to the carb

Blower has a manual primer that does not seem to work, always hard (is a Viagra joke coming?)

tim hurley wrote:

Blower has a manual primer that does not seem to work, always hard (is a Viagra joke coming?)

Well Tim I know several viagra jokes if you want hear them.

tim hurley wrote:

Blower has a manual primer that does not seem to work, always hard (is a Viagra joke coming?)

Well if your primer doesn’t work then That would be the first thing to look in to. If your not pushing fuel up the line then it won’t start, and or start really hard. Just like my sled, it wasn’t pushing enough fuel until pull 5 or 6.

MX1825 wrote:

I’ve used WD40 to start engines in the past instead of ether. Not as hot or dry. The WD40 has some lubrication to it.

Used to do this on my old farm truck

If I went out there right now it would start in 2-3 pulls-only has a problem when below zero-so a block heater or thinner oil could do it.
Btw-nice mess of crappies

tim hurley wrote:

If I went out there right now it would start in 2-3 pulls-only has a problem when below zero-so a block heater or thinner oil could do it.
Btw-nice mess of crappies

Yeah both those ideas are great. Block heaters are really nice to have around. I wonder if that carb has jets, if so that could be the reason as well.
And thank you.

Does my blower have jets?
Do all carbs have jets?
What is a jet?
So how would a jet ONLY be effected by below zero cold?
I can see how dino oil would be effected by cold-tell me more about the jet.

tim hurley wrote:

Does my blower have jets?
Do all carbs have jets?
What is a jet?
So how would a jet ONLY be effected by below zero cold?
I can see how dino oil would be effected by cold-tell me more about the jet.

Jet is what lets the correct amount of fuel into the engine, with the EPA standards these jets are as small as possible trying to make CARB standards in other words very very lean. Cold weather starting requires much richer fuel mixture to start, the small jets cannot supply enough fuel for cold starts. Using extra gas or combustible rich-ens the mixture enough to let the engine fire.

tim hurley wrote:

Does my blower have jets?
Do all carbs have jets?
What is a jet?
So how would a jet ONLY be effected by below zero cold?
I can see how dino oil would be effected by cold-tell me more about the jet.

Exactly what Tom said. Jets play a HUGE factor with weather swings. My dirt bikes need to be re jetted to run right if I ride them on the ice compared to riding in July. Starting, throttle and idle are all connected to proper jetting. I wasn’t sure if that little honda blower would be like a yz 250 or not.

Schooled on jets-thanks

Rejetting for cold weather use is becoming increasingly common as power equipment is being rigged to run super-super lean to meet crazy emission standards. Also, altitude matters as well, and many small engines are manufactured in/near port cities in China where they are tuned to run at 0-100 feet altitude so even MN at roughly 800-1000 feet can be higher than the stock jetting is set up for.

Just to add when it comes to changing jets, sometimes other parts need to be changed in conjunction with the jets or other adjustments will need to be made. For example, Honda/Chonda (Chinese Honda clones) engines may require the emulsion tube to be changed when moving to a richer jet size. This depends on how large of a change is made when changing the jet size, sometimes it is not required. You may also need to make other carb adjustments if changing jets.

There are aftermarket kits available for many common small engine models that include a range of jet sizes, an emulsion tube and/or other parts (if required).

tim hurley wrote:

Schooled on jets-thanks

The very small jets is why you see an increase of issues with these engines does not take much build up to start to clog those jets.

To add older carbs had what was called an accelerator pump so when the throttle was moved it would quirt extra fuel so the engine did not bog in transition with sudden vacuum drop from opening the throttle plate.

Needed a carb for my T8 ,Yamaha wanted $285 dollars got one from overseas for $68 it had high and low speed adjustment and an accelerator pump that T8 never ran that good before.

Starter fluid works wonders…….

tim hurley wrote:

Have a Honda mower that does not like any temp below 50. The blower is pretty good but we had a snow last year & the temp. quickly fell to about Zero and that thing refused to start. Any advice?

Grouse your 1st, FIRST reccomendation on this was thinner oil. Might try that, starter fluid? Might try that too. This is all for my ONE time last year when it would not start. Thanks!

bigcrappie wrote:

Starter fluid works wonders…….

Yep, it works wonders alright. I’ve seen a few engines where the ol’ starter crack wondrously worked the connecting rod right out the side of the block.

It also works wonders on 2 stroke engines because most guys don’t even think about the fact that if you’re using stater crack, you’re essentially running the engine without oil. It’s fine if the engine takes off right away and starts running off its own mixed fuel, but keep hitting it with starter fluid to force it to run and there go the rings…

Starter fluid works wonders…….

Yep, it works wonders alright. I’ve seen a few engines where the ol’ starter crack wondrously worked the connecting rod right out the side of the block.

It also works wonders on 2 stroke engines because most guys don’t even think about the fact that if you’re using stater crack, you’re essentially running the engine without oil. It’s fine if the engine takes off right away and starts running off its own mixed fuel, but keep hitting it with starter fluid to force it to run and there go the rings…

[/quote]

Yeah we try to not use any starting fluid besides on a few older diesel motors. I’ve seen more then a handful of engines grenade due to a little starter spray. Another reason we always used wd over start fluid.

The knocks a motor makes when started on starting fluid can be painful to listen to. I only use it in extreme conditions. Otherwise there is always a better option