Newbie needing help fixing my power washer

Hi folks,

Happy to find you - this is an impressive resource! I’ve searched, but haven’t been able to find an answer to my questions about my North Star 156701 pressure washer with a Honda GX390 engine I purchased on Craigslist last year. After years of dealing with a slew of crappy electric machines, I decided to move up the food chain. We have an older home, and want to prepare it for painting. Years ago, I rented a washer, and it did a great job of blasting the painted and peeling bricks and wood.

Anyway, I used it last year a couple of times for the usual stuff. Yesterday, I fired it up, started right away and before I knew it, it was spewing blue exhaust and quit. Opening a couple of oil caps - and gas came pouring out. It wouldn’t start again.

So - is this a carb problem? Does it make sense to simply replace? Anything else to check/replace here?

I am sorry that this is such a basic question. I’ve always had equipment with Honda engines, which is to say that I almost never have to do anything to them - and so haven’t learned anything over the years in repairing them…

I’m hoping that this doesn’t become the newest contender for dumbest Craigslist purchase…

Thank you very much in advance.

your carb needle and float stopped working, even a little bit is bad. You should use the fuel cutoff switch to prevent this. My guess is once you filled the tank up all the way, it overwhelmed the leaky needle and seat. I doubt you have a gas filled float, but it’s possible. Engine may be toast. You would have to clean carb out, hopefully it is just djrty, replace oil and try to fire it up.

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Agree with Redjess. I would also pull the spark plug and put a few drops of oil in the cylinder. Give it a few pulls with the spark plug out. Then install a new plug after rebuilding the carb & changing the oil.

Thanks for this…

I’ve been pricing parts out, and I can buy a well reviewed aftermarket carb, air filter, fuel line, and plug for around $17. And free returns.

No, if you were a betting man, odds of my engine being toast? I definitely don’t want to get my hopes up.

The chance of your engine being toast is super slim and especially if you didn’t run it long. Gas leaking down into the crankcase happens quite a bit with small engines.

It may just need carb clean, but def oil change, . Then you’ll know for sure before spending more $. But use that fuel cutoff, Im certain thats why its there. The needle is just metal thats got a conical rubber tip and fits into a brass seat. When the carb bowl fills wjth gas, the hinged float rises, the needle rides on the float and eventually clogs the hole where fuel comes from.
Was it hard to start before this happened?

It was pretty easy starting - first start of the year, took one or two tries. This all sounds pretty good. Thank you for it!

I agree with the above mentions that the engine is likely still fine, but just the carb will need attention. For $17 it’s hard to not just get a new one and bolt it on. But if you are the tinkerer type, remove the float bowl and the float - ensure the float actually floats in a small cup of gas. If it sinks, well then it isn’t doing it’s job and that’ll be your culprit. If the float floats, then check the small inlet needle. There are two types of needles: one with with a small rubber tip on the end and the other is solid aluminum. If it’s the rubber tipped one, ensure that the rubber tip looks like a perfect tip and is not deformed at all. If it’s the solid aluminum needle, check where the needle point actually sits up into the carb and ensure that the small rubber seat is still there. The seat will be a VERY small rubber o-ring looking thing. Like half the size of a pencil eraser. Usually it’s yellow / brown but it’s supposed to be white. If the seat is missing, deformed, or clogged with something it won’t allow for the gas to shut off and therefore it will continue to dump the gas through the carb and into the crankcase - hence why you’re seeing the oil level appear to be so high. You can always turn the gas off with a fuel shut off valve as suggested already. You can also try to avoid ethanol blended fuels if you are able to find it locally. Ethanol tries to “clean” the fuel system (think of the Shell TV commercials from a few years ago showing that their Invigorate fuels cleaned better than regular gas. The commercial usually had a guy in a lab coat holding two engine valves - one clean and the other filthy). The ethanol attacks the rubber and plastic components that we have in our small engines and as it disintegrates these components they pass through the carb and clog the small passageways in their.
Whether you replace the carb or rebuild it, be sure to change the engine oil. Don’t just drain it until it’s at the proper fill mark. Drain it completely and then add fresh new oil to the crankcase. You may also need to check your muffler to see if the gas/oil mix flowed into it. It’ll need to be drained as well. It’ll smoke for a while until the residue burns out, but it’ll be fine.
Alright, I think I am done with this novel. Best of luck and I hope you are able to get it back up and running again soon.

Yawza, Such great advise - and thank you for it. Years ago, friends of mine convinced me that I could install a new kitchen floor. When I removed the old, crappy linoleum, I was left with a lot of old adhesive that I needed to get off of the plywood before I’d be able to fit and cut the tile. I found a “linoleum and tile” forum on a Saturday night, and posted a note before going to bed. Woke up to find around a dozen really helpful posts (pour hot water over the floor to loosen it up). I remember thinking, “this internet thing may get big.”

Fast forward, must be 25 years, and still amazed at the help a lackey like me can find out there. Thank you SO much for your help. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Stuart

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Hello folks,

Well, the saga continues. I went the replacement carb route - uhh, not so good…

Problem I had with the new carb was engine surging, both on idle and on load, so much so that frothy oil is coming out of the pump on when the engine throttle is high. I re-tightened the carb, thinking that it could be air coming into it that would cause it to surge.

Next thing I did was rebuild the old carb with some parts from the new carb. Same thing. Kind of at a loss. Should I try using a gasket sealant? Any other suggestions?

And thanks so much in advance…

Sounds like one of your jets is messed up/out of adjustment or the governor is fubar.

Make sure your carb gaskets are put back on the correct way. Don’t use any sealant. There shouldn’t be any need to and won’t fix anything. Check your throttle linkage too and make sure the governor is adjusted properly. Might as well swap the spark plug and fuel filter while you’re at it.

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