Engine Oil for Honda Engine

Adjust your valves.

Is this what you mean by valve?

Intake .006 Exhaust .008

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Here’s one the gear heads will enjoy. Volume up!

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Thanks for sharing the video, I will have to take it to a service shop and mention about the valve adjustment, that may be the cause I guess.

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You have oil in your combustion chamber causing the pull chord to lock up because there is too much pressure in the chamber for it to turn over. Valve adjustment is a good suggestion but it seems like this machine is new and the valves wouldn’t be off. Something that would cause oil in the chamber is the machine being stored improperly. If you store it vertically or on its side you’re putting oil in places it shouldn’t be. Another option is that you’ve overfilled the oil. Given these issues started after you changed the oil that is the most likely.

I’m not sure how oil got into the chamber but if there’s oil in the chamber then there’s oil in the carb. You can take out the sparkplug and rest the metal threads on a non painted piece of metal on the engine block to ground it. Crank the engine a couple times till the oil is gone, clean the oil off the plug and put it back in. Then you can take the carburetor off and clean it out with some spray carb cleaner and reattach it properly. Take pictures of everything before you start so you know where it goes.

Watch a ton of videos on small engine repair so you actually understand how they work if you decide to work on it yourself. Being you’re new to the mechanical side of things and this is an income source for you it would probably be better to take it to a shop this time around. After that you need to be able to work on your equipment yourself. If your machine dies at someone’s property you need to be able to fix it. If you expand your business you will need to understand how everything in your rig works because there isn’t a service center in every neighborhood. Part replacement and maintenance is a large portion of the job.

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I see, I have stored it level since I got it but when I did empty out the oil mixup I tipped it over on its side, so it would come out of the dipstick hole. ;/

You are absolutely right though about getting to know everything about how the rig works, definitely need to keep on watching more vids and reading up about it.

Hopefully you tipped it air filter/carburetor side up. If not, you likely have something lodged in the carburetor float/needle area. Check your engine oil level. If it is more full then what you originally put in there then gas is passing through the carb and into your crankcase…and likely the reason you are hydra-locking your engine.

Why in the world would you tip it over to drain the oil? Has drain hole in the bottom.

What do you mean when you say you disconnected suction pipe? Why?
Are you keeping the trigger open while you’re trying to start. If it ran fine for 45min find it hard to believe that all of sudden your valves out of adjustment. or you have oil in the carb. Easy to check the oil thing though. sounds more like you’ve got vapor lock. Keep the trigger open or your ball valve until you get water running thru it.

Just take the gun off, yiu wont jave to press the trigger.
Used to do that before i got my 8gpm and buffer tank.

If you are referring to after shutting machine down, then yes, I do that as well. I just let it flush down a curb at the end of the driveway.

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Took it to a servicing place today, embarrasingly they found no issues and were able to start it off numerous times. Next time I do a pressure job and it doesn’t start after using it for a while I am going to take it straight to them and see what they make of it. :sweat:

Hope you get it figured out, can be so frustrating

Buy another engine & keep that one as a back up. My first engine was a brand new Kohler with the same kind of issues. A used GX390 from the classifieds on the cheap was the quick fix & it’s still pulling the load.

I appreciate the video. Thank you.

Man adjusting valves on these engines is super easy. Get a little shim/valve clearance tool and some allens and that’s about it.

I don’t recall if the OP stated if it was a new machine or a used machine, but if this engine is new, it should go to an Authorized Honda small engine warranty service shop if it indeed is in need of valve adjustment. But if out of warranty, have at it!

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Good point :+1:

As long as they are not backed up 6 weeks. Valve adjustments are just routine maintenance, one notch above changing oil as far as difficulty.

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