1. Best parts cleaner (especially for carbs) by far is a can sold by Auto Zone. The can contains a perforated basket to hold the parts which can be lowered into the can and prevents the parts from being lost. NO RUBBER PARTS can be immersed, as they will swell up to the size of a Volkswagen! The stuff looks like somewhat thinned pancake syrup and has its own (not unpleasant) odor.

2. Oil in the gas: DON’T second guess the manufacturer’s recommendation. If that is not available, use only oil labelled TCW-III for 2-stroke engines. Sold by Wal-Mart & others! Use at least 5 ounces/gallon of gas. Too much oil will not hurt; too little will.

Much harder to mix than you would imagine. Only safe way is to fill your container about 1/3 full of gas, add the correct amount of oil for a full container of gas, shake the bejesus out of the mix made so far, then add the rest of the gas and shake again. In the time it took to read this, somebody, somewhere who thought he knew better did irreparable damage to his engine by running it underlubricated! Don’t be that stupid; it is expensive.

3. Ethanol in the fuel is really, really bad, especially for older engines. Hard to avoid it these days! The problems are two-fold: 1. it holds water in suspension, so its corrosive powers are distributed everywhere, and 2. it can be hard on the elastomers, especially over time.

DON’T STORE THE ENGINE WITH FUEL IN THE TANK AND IN THE CARBURETOR. WHEN STORING, RUN THE ENGINE TIL IT’S WARM (SO IT WILL RESTART EASILY), STOP IT AND PUMP OR DUMP ALL THE FUEL FROM THE TANK, RESTART THE ENGINE TO RUN OUT ALL REMAINING FUEL, AND AS THE ENGINE STARTS TO SAG FROM NOT ENOUGH FUEL, SLOWLY PULL OUT THE CHOKE TO KEEP IT RUNNING AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. PULL OUT THE STARTER CORD SLOWLY UNTIL YOU ARE SURE THE ENGINE IS AT TOP DEAD CENTER ON THE COMPRESSION STROKE AND STORE IT THIS WAY.

No small engine manufacturer ever recommended long term storage with fuel in the system. In fact, quite the opposite. Why would you think you know more about their product than they do? The gum and deposits from old fuel are only soluble in sandpaper! Sta-Bil does work, but it is expensive. By following my own advice, I can spend the money on beer!

FYI when viewing the carb looking straight in at the mixture adjustment screws and the fuel pump cover at the top (cast aluminum) and the metering cover at the bottom (stamped steel) the high speed needle is at the right and the idle at the left. About 1 1/2 turns out to start with for each!

Roy :What are the high idle and low idle settings for the carb?

It would also be a good idea to check the spark plug to make sure it isn’t covered with oil now as well. If it is, you should be able to just clean it up with a paper towel and it’ll be good to go.