The joys of using corn syrup for fuel.

Do you have a Snow Blower, how about a Lawn mower, perhaps a chain saw or a Motorcycle? Chances are you have corn powder in your fuel system. I bought a new Snow blower last year, it worked great, it is an Ariens Single-stage Sno-thro 22" - 522ec with a 5hp Tecumseh engine. This year...nothing. We opened it up and found the carb bowl, jets, needle valve and float caked with white globules. This is Corn residue. Even with the unit run dry last year the corn in the ethanol cakes everything.

So at work today my crew disassembled the unit. They took apart the carb and cleaned it, we changed the spark plug, the fuel filter and some line. They got it to run, but not for long. The unit starts and runs for about two minutes then starves out. So tonight one of the techs is taking it home. He says he has done four others this year and they all suffer from the same thing, corn syrup disease.

So, if you have a piece of power equipment you can expect it to be gummed up. The answer, I have been told today, comes from the marine industry, it turns out they have been plagued with ethanol problems since day one. Fuel stabilizer does not work for storage, even run out of fuel the corn "grows" in the fuel system. It actually eats into the aluminum housings. The marine industry uses a stabilizer that contains a corn eating enzyme. This seems, so far, to eliminate the corn issue.

klay