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About once a season I put some FI and carb cleaner in the gas for my snow blower and lawn mower. Reason is I once was broke and somebody gave me a cheapo Murray lawnmower. Ran ok but took 20 pulls to get it started. I just happen to have some cheap Pyroil carb cleaner so I put a little bit into the tank and went mowen. next week I went to start it and it started on the 2nd pull and I never had a problem with it starting again.
As ridiculously long it has been, I still wanted to update this. We got almost no snow last winter, so I got by using it as it was (not working well) as I only used it twice. Never had enough time or motivation to fix it. Well I finally decided to attack it again.
Checked fuel lines and they were fine - primer line too.
Took the carb apart and it still looked very clean. But I put it in the ultrasonic cleaner I got for a good 45 min in hot water with some Dawn detergent. No improvement.
But when I put it back together, I noticed the bowl seal seemed to leak air when I primed it (bubbles of gas there). So I got a carb kit and replaced all the seals. BINGO. The seals were dried, cracked, and generally smooshed. I got it back together and it seems to be running like a top now. I won't know for sure until next winter of course (when I can try t under load), but I think it will be ready to go for a couple more years (until it rusts away...)