Amsoil

Honda 2000* Hard Starting Carb Cleaning

One man's experience with his Honda 2000* generator hard starting issues.

One man's experience: I decided to start my little Honda 2000 portable generator to exercise it. It would not start and as we all know Honda equipment normally starts on the first couple of pulls. Apparently I had left untreated gas in there while it was in storage. After draining the gas and refilling it with new pump gas it still would not hit a lick? It was time for the big guns. I drained the carb float bowl, removed the spark plug and sprayed AMSOIL Power Foam into the float bowl and air intake and then let it set. FYI, I pulled it a couple of times while I was spraying in the foam and nothing spewed out of the spark plug hole; the best that I could ascertain is that it was stopped up!

Anyway, after letting it set with the Power Foam in the system for 15 minutes I pulled the starter rope and immediately I smelled the welcome aroma of the Power Foam coming from the spark plug hole. I inserted the spark plug, tightened the drain plug on the float bowl, set the switch to ON, pulled the starter rope a couple of times and it fired right up.

However: This time I filled it with non-ethanol gas treated with AMSOIL Quick Shot (AQS) and Gas Stabilizer (AST) and the next month when it was exercise time it fired right up like a Honda is supposed to do.

Update: It's been several years since I cleaned the carb on this little generator. I went back to pump-gas a couple of years back and always treat it with AMSOIL Quick Shot and Gas Stabilizer. AND! I disconnect the fuel shutoff and run the system dry; THEN I drain the float-bowl. This is an early model 2000 and it does not have the fuel shutoff on the rotary switch so I have to disconnect the electrical connector to run it dry. My newer model Honda 2200 has the fuel shutoff on the switch. I still drain the float-bowl on the carb after each use if there is a chance that I won't be using the generator for a few days.

Speaking of ethanol-free gas, there is a website called pure-gas.org that lists stations across the USA and Canada that sell ethanol-free gas. I was driving miles to get the stuff and on that site I found a tank farm, closer to me, that sells ethanol-free gas to the general public. Last I looked they had 13,547 stations listed across the USA and Canada. FYI: There's an App for that! Pure Gas

 
 

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