That would require two pressure washers, which I now have. The damn thing
blew itself up again this weekend, right in the middle of my deck project.
I heard a pop and saw some smoke, the engine stopped, and now it won't start again. Despite my legendary frugality, I went out and bought an electric so I can keep working on the deck instead of spending the rest of the summer fighting with this engine.
Does anyone have any advice on how to troubleshoot a single-cylinder engine that, I suspect, keeps burning out spark plugs?
I heard a pop and saw some smoke, the engine stopped, and now it won't start again. Despite my legendary frugality, I went out and bought an electric so I can keep working on the deck instead of spending the rest of the summer fighting with this engine.
Does anyone have any advice on how to troubleshoot a single-cylinder engine that, I suspect, keeps burning out spark plugs?
The last one didn't appear to be fouled or burned externally. Cleaning and
gapping it had no effect. I'll pull out the most recent one later and see
if it is similar.
IG - A friend had a problem with power washer due to not getting enough throughput
of water. But not sparks and smoke and stuff.
Is the piston moving?
I haven't disassembled it enough to check that yet ... but when I was trying to get it started again, I did notice that it turned unusually freely. I assumed that was just because it was already warmed up, but a broken rod might result in the same effect, right? When I have time I'll look.
Ok, I removed the plug, probed the plug socket with a screwdriver, and gently pulled on the starter cord. The screwdriver moved back and forth with the cylinder. That would seem to indicate that the cylinder is not seized and the rod is not broken.
Here's a close up photo of the plug:
That doesn't mean you have compression. Put your finger over the hole while
you pull the starter. If you don't have pressure, you've got a problem in
the head or rings.
It looks like you're correct. No air pressure coming out of the hole when
I pull the starter. So if the cylinder is moving but there's no pressure,
does that mean the rod is intact but something else is broken (head or rings
etc) and air is blowing past the cylinder?
I'm assuming at this point that I've gone as far as I can without disassembling the engine block.
I'm assuming at this point that I've gone as far as I can without disassembling the engine block.
IG - exactly. Next test - put a little heavy oil in the cylinder and repeat
the test. If you've got a little backpressure, it's probably rings. If not,
valves.