Oh, my aching Eska. Help!

[stfcatfish]

Hey experts:<br /><br />Here's one for you. Just bought a 5 hp air-cooled Eska (Sears), 60s vintage, with so few hours on it the original paint is still on the kotter key holding on the prop's pin.<br /><br />Problem: The motor won't keep running for very long. Had it out first time yesterday, and was eventually able to keep it running at trolling speed by adjusting low-speed mixture knob to 4 on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the leanest. It ran at full throttle whenever I needed it to. <br /><br />Today, with no other adjustments, wouldn't stay running more than one or two minutes at a time. Had it at full speed to get to a spot and it would run a bit, then not. It would start, run, kill. Over and over again. Only way to get it to fire and run was to push throttle to full speed and take choke completely off.<br /><br />Got it home, dropped it into water in a garbage can and started her up. Same thing. Pulled the plug and it was soaked with gas. Dried it off, opened throttle all the way and pulled it a few times to dry out the cylinder, put the plug back in, fired right up, ran for a few minutes, logged down and, stalled. Plug was soaked again. No matter how lean I made the high speed mixture (assuming that it's at its leanest when the screw is screwed in tight), it still killed and the plug was still soaked. Tried a number of mixture adjustments, same deal. And it would only start at all with the throttle wide open so the primary valve was letting in as much air as possible.<br /><br />Fuel is regular unleaded with air-cooled Penzoil 2 cycle oil mixed 32:1. On motor, it calls for 1/2 pint of straight 30 weight mixed with each gallon of gas, which is VERY rich, and doesn't take into account today's oils. Spark plug is Champion J8C.<br /><br />We won't even go into the sore shoulders and skin missing from my fingers and blisters from repeatedly trying to start the girl on the water. Gotta love paddles, eh? <br /><br />Thoughts? Please reply to stfcatfish@yahoo.com. Thanks!

 

[Squeakit]

Re: Oh, my aching Eska. Help!

Hi stfcatfish: I assume your Eska/Sears has a Tecumseh powerhead, and probably a pumper-style carburetor that allows you to use the motor with an exteral tank as well as a built-in internal tank. If this is the case with your engine, you need to get a carb rebuild kit from Sears and replace all gaskets and fuel pump elements. The fuel pump element in this carb will crack with age and flood the engine, causing symptoms like yours. Try this, and you'll probably be OK. You should also replace the water pump impeller, as it is very important in these air-cooled engines to keep the lower leg from getting hot and frying the powerhead. Good luck!