If it ran good in the past your carb might need to be cleaned. I'd try running sme Sea Foam or something similur through it first. Steve

the best thing is to remove carb and clean;no addative will replace a good cleaning.................

I've had a couple clear up with sea foam but I sure wouldn't count on it. Another thing is to add Stabil to your gas and try to get gas with no ethonal for your small engines. Steve

I've seen the sea-foam at autozone stores,and wondered how good it could be...........they want almost 8$ a can..............I figure I could get about 5 cans of carb cleaner at wal-mart, for the 8$,so that's what I go for................and just take the bowl off,take out the main jet,and spray the jet with that. That usually takes care of 95% of the carb problems I run into.....................

I am a Honda trainer... What seems to be the problem is the pilot jet. You can order a poster from any Honda engine or Power Equipment dealer that explains in a cutaway diagram. Honda has three different posters for their gx series, gc series and gxv530 carbs(only Mikuni carb that Honda utilizes.) The rest are keihin carburetors. The part numbers are TE420, TE425 and TE430.

I get a lot of calls regarding the same problem that you are experiencing. The problem is the dealers work on a ton of other brand small engines and their pilot jets are traditional looking. The GX series keihin carb has a black plastic throttle stop screw that goes Horizontal. Underneath the black plastic throttle stop screw is the pilot jet which is in the vertical position. IT IS NOT A SCREW BUT A PLUG!!!!

Nine times out of Ten when the engine is hunting under throttle the pilot jet is clogged on a keihin carb. The procedure to fix the problem is simple... Unscrew the throttle stop screw and pry the pilot jet up and out with a small screw driver. Next, take carburetor cleaner and spray the pilot jet nozzle and carburetor passageway clean and clear of any dirt.

Sea foam is not the greatest product to use for off season storage. Sea Foam has isopropyl alcohol as one of the three ingredients... That is like putting Iso-Heet in your lawn mower for storage. Iso-Heet takes water and moisture out of the fuel tank. Good for -20 below when you are driving your auto/truck everyday. But, if you store your lawn equipment or any engine for any period of time what the isopropyl alcohol stays in the fuel tank and is mixed with fuel. Currently, I am working on my neighbors Snapper 1855 garden tractor that she used Sea Foam to stabilize the fuel. I unscrewed the fuel cap and guess what it smells like alcohol or E-85 ALTERNATIVE FUEL. I would drain the fuel system every year and put the gas out of all of your equipment into your auto/truck fuel tank and burn the gas through driving to the store. You also could use stabil too!

akrenz,
I've had great success using seafoam as a cleaner & decarb for small engines. I don't trust it either for long term gas storage, but use specific products meant for that. I wonder if your neighbor properly measured the seafoam in her tank or just dumped a bunch in. Lawnmower tanks are fairly small & it's easy to add too much.