On May 20, 8:44*am, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Wed, 19 May 2010 07:47:46 -0700, jamesgangnc wrote:
Plug's don't go "bad" all that easily.

Yeah, I agree there (well, apart from the stray apostrophe

But I won't argue that these motors are not for everyone.

The main issue I think is that it doesn't take much for them to go from
working to dead - bigger IC engines tend to degrade gradually, but the
smaller ones can work one day and be utterly dead the next.

You have a carb problem. *Debris or water has gotten into it. Something
is clogged or stuck.

I agree that's the most likely. It still sounds odd that there's no
gasket between carb and engine.

Oh, one thing I heard recently was that some Ryobi engines have just a
plastic crankcase cover, and the screws that hold it down work loose -
it's the crankcase pressure which drives the carb's fuel pump, so once
the crankcase seal goes bad the pump in the carb stops operating
properly. Not necessarily relevant in this case, but it's something to
keep in mind when working on the small Ryobi stuff.

cheers

Jules

I think some of them even have plastic crankcases these days. I heard
once that honda has used carbon fiber pistons in some racing engines.
Composites have come a long way.

Loose bolts just about anywhere are a problem for 2 strokes as they
have sealed crankcases and rely on that to transfer the fuel/oil from
the carb to the crankcase then into the combustion chanber. I had one
that the cylinder to crankcase bolts had loosened. In any case
problems vary and engines can deteriorate or die in one shot. Depends
on the problem. Fuel issues are common in these smaller engines
because people don't use stabilizer or continue to use gas that is too
old even if it had stabilizer in it. And the fuel gets contaminanted
easily because it is poured form container to container or left open
to absorb water.

There's really two schools of thought here. Buy something of moderate
quality and plan on occasionally fixing a minor problem because it's
the last one you will buy for 30 years. Or buy a low end 2 stroke or
an electric one and just throw it away when it develops problems. If
you cant' fix it yourself the second path is probably the recommended
way to go as taking anything to the shop these days will easily result
in a bill that is a sizable fraction of the original price. Unless
you're in the commercial end of the business, plan on using it for
many hours daily, and paying maintenance is factored into your use.
Then you want to buy top of the line quality.