24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle?

   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle?
  • Thread Starter
#21  
I have picked up this product Sea Foam that will stabilize, clean injectors, clean carb, dissolve water etc etc on ethanol gas motors and it was recommended to me by a friend who works at NAPA. I was going to buy some regular Stabil and he told me this Sea Form was better. Any of you tried it yet. Maybe this will clear out the SURGE if it ever comes back. :confused:
Gilles
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle? #22  
More than likely it's your carb. I've had the same thing happen on an older Kawasaki, a newer Honda, and an older Briggs Vanguard. I treated them with Seafoam which worked pretty well. It took several heavy soaking treatments and then a couple tanks with double doses though. The Honda still surges a little.
My problems started when I stopped using as much gas but still bought 10 or 15 gallons at a time, and it was stored too long (even with Stabil). Now I only buy 89 or above, and only enough to last a month or 2.

I have picked up this product Sea Foam that will stabilize, clean injectors, clean carb, dissolve water etc etc on ethanol gas motors and it was recommended to me by a friend who works at NAPA. I was going to buy some regular Stabil and he told me this Sea Form was better. Any of you tried it yet. Maybe this will clear out the SURGE if it ever comes back. :confused:
Gilles
It worked for me.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle?
  • Thread Starter
#23  
Thanks F850, I can't see it doing any harm cause the company that makes it and a few people swear by it. We will wait and see how my Kawasaki will run like next year.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle? #24  
The best products you can buy for your fuel problems are made by these companies:

Castle - Highway 95
B3C Fuel Solutions - Ethanol Shield or Mechanic in a Bottle
Gasoline Medic - Gasoline Medic or Carburetor Rescue

I have seen these products tested side by side with Stabil (all different variations), Seafoam, Startron, K100, and a couple others that I don't remember. I've used all of the brands I have mentioned, as well as sold all of the brands. The top 3 I listed are superior.

I'm not sure if the problem you have is the same as what we encounter here in the states, gasoline is regulated at 10% ethanol content. That along with age and moisture are the biggest problems. I feel more comfortable buying 87 octane and treating it than I do 89, 91, or 93 where available. They all have that same 10% ethanol, but the 87 is most likely sold through more commonly. Some of the higher octane choices, depending on your gas stations, may actually be older gas sitting in their tanks if it is not sold off as fast as the cheap stuff. Buying old "premium" gas isn't as good as "fresh" regular IMO. There's no way to know in either case, it's all a gamble at the pump today.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle? #25  
Please don't run 91 octane very long on these. An ATV engine on a Kawasaki ATV is a completely different animal....to begin with its water cooled and not air cool so your comparing apples with hamburgers. I do recommend sea foam once a year and stabil at every fill up orstorage for longer than 1 month, my brigs and Stratton 24hp enginee did the same thing-sent it to the dealer and all they did was adjust the carb-73 bucks.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle?
  • Thread Starter
#27  
I would like to know too. My dealer suggested I use 91 octane gas to get the surging out and it did.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle?
  • Thread Starter
#28  
The best products you can buy for your fuel problems are made by these companies:

Castle - Highway 95
B3C Fuel Solutions - Ethanol Shield or Mechanic in a Bottle
Gasoline Medic - Gasoline Medic or Carburetor Rescue

I have seen these products tested side by side with Stabil (all different variations), Seafoam, Startron, K100, and a couple others that I don't remember. I've used all of the brands I have mentioned, as well as sold all of the brands. The top 3 I listed are superior.

I'm not sure if the problem you have is the same as what we encounter here in the states, gasoline is regulated at 10% ethanol content. That along with age and moisture are the biggest problems. I feel more comfortable buying 87 octane and treating it than I do 89, 91, or 93 where available. They all have that same 10% ethanol, but the 87 is most likely sold through more commonly. Some of the higher octane choices, depending on your gas stations, may actually be older gas sitting in their tanks if it is not sold off as fast as the cheap stuff. Buying old "premium" gas isn't as good as "fresh" regular IMO. There's no way to know in either case, it's all a gamble at the pump today.

Some of those products you describe are not available in Canada. I was surprised to find Sea Foam.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle? #29  
Please don't run 91 octane very long on these.


I would like to know too.

Well, no answer yet so I will answer my own question. I didn't want to jump to conclusions about the reasons.

Here's my guess at the reason: There is a very common misconception out there that higher octane gas "burns hotter" and has "more power".

This is false.

The reason for the misconception is that high performance engines require higher octane fuel, thus higher octane fuel gets associated in our minds with higher performance. Since high performance cars need high octane fuel, it must be more powerful, right? And if it's more powerful, it must burn hotter!

Seems reasonable, but it's completely wrong.

Octane is a measure of resistance to ignition, nothing more. It's not a power rating, it's not a temperature rating. A high performance engine has higher compression, thus is more prone to pre-ignition than a lower compression engine. Thus, higher octane fuel is used to prevent pre-ignition. The fuel does not burn any hotter, and does not provide more power. The power increase is from the compression increase, not the higher octane.

You won't hurt your engine one bit by running higher octane fuel. In fact, it's beneficial. The ONLY reason not to run the higher octane fuel all the time is COST.

Higher octane fuels often have better detergent packages, too, but that's a marketing decision, not a direct result of the higher octane. That's probably why switching to 91 has helped a few gummed up engines.
 
   / 24 hp Kawasaki engine purging at low idle? #30  
Please don't run 91 octane very long on these. An ATV engine on a Kawasaki ATV is a completely different animal....to begin with its water cooled and not air cool so your comparing apples with hamburgers. I do recommend sea foam once a year and stabil at every fill up orstorage for longer than 1 month, my brigs and Stratton 24hp enginee did the same thing-sent it to the dealer and all they did was adjust the carb-73 bucks.

Higher octane fuel burns slower. It burns so much slower in fact, that some engines won't run on it. It can make an air cooled engine run hotter though slightly. A typical mower engine has about a 7-9.1 compression ratio so there is no real advantage to running higher octane fuel unless it has less ethanol additives.

I don't think there is any danger in running it but the extra cost for mid grade to premium is not worth it on a mower engine benefit wise.

Cheaper to use 87 octane fuel and add ethanol additives-I have a motorcycle, Honda ATV, push mowers and lawn mowers for many years and used nothing but 87 octane until ethanol came out with 0 issues. Ethanol started to give me headaches on all of them until I added ethanol enzymes and stored the engines with no fuel in the carbs.

Higher Octane gas would just make my trips more expensive in the woods or on the road or maintaining my yard :)

In summary-from my experience there was no clear advantage to paying 20 cents more a gallon on any of my small engines and I gained no increase in efficiency, HP on any of them including my motorcycle which gets about 52 mpg. My Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 liter Hemi will ping a little more on 87 but I never changed to mid grade....been driving it since 2007 that way with 112,000 miles on it. MPG never changes.

I guess if you got money to burn and want to provide your tools with the best of the best then that's your perogative.
 
 
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