by KE4AVB » Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:57 am
Sounds like a fuel vaporization problem which is nothing can be done about. I see this on several smaller engines here where the tanks are bone dry after a few months.As Lee said it best to install a fuel shut off and run the engine until the carb is dry. Now some carbs won't be completely and can gum up doing this.
I also had a problem with several Courages this year with fuel boiling in the fuel lines as they changed out to Summer blend fuels late this year here. I ended up having to buy a temp gun to find the problem. The fuel in the lines were reaching 140+F. This was mainly caused by the 400F air off the muffler blowing over the line. The solution was to insulate the fuel line.
I did ran into a Kawasaki FH680D-CS04 this year that had the same problem but a lot worse as it would do it overnight. At first I thought it was a choke problem but it was closing fully. Found very little fuel in the carb the next day. Needed to crank until the carb is refilled. I thought I had a leaking carburetor but I could not find any leaks during three bench tests. The fuel stayed in the carb during under normal work bench temps, it was just the hot engine was flashing off the fuel.
Personally I don't use starter fluid instead opting to just the regular fuel the engine runs on or some 2 cycle mix. Starter fluid should only be sparely use on diesels, even they get hooked on it. Starter fluid washes away the cylinder lubricating oils. On the Ford service truck I used at work back in the late 90's the starter fluid actually damage the injector pump from the back pressure.
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