Hi, I have an old SNOW CHAMP snow blower. Here are the specs as I know it: * 3 HP Tecumseh 2-cycle engine * Electric and pull start * Single-stage * I bought this used because my other blower wasn't working at the time. Here's the problem: * It starts up fine, but runs really rough or stalls. I've taken the carburator apart and found it gummy. * I've cleaned out the carburator already and it seems to run a little bit better but it still stalls. If I push the prime button when it's stalling, then it'll recover. This will continue until it the engine heats up. Warming up could take 10 minutes. * Also, when I engage the auger, the engine doesn't seem to increase in power. I thought that it's suppose to do that. * The engine sometimes backfires when it revs high. This usually happens when it's about to stall and the engine tries to recover by opening up. My guess is that it's giving too much gas. * Is there suppose to be a needle valve on these small 3HP 2-cycle engines? The reason I'm asking is because on the side of the carburabor where the needle valve might be, there isn't one and there's a hole at that location. On my 5HP Bolens, I have a needle valve there and also a valve on the bottom of the carburator bowl. I'm not sure if the needle on the 3hp got lost due to vibrating off. * The next thing I'm going to look at is the gas flow. I'm thinking maybe there's some debris in the line and not enough gas is getting to the carb. Hence, I need to push the prime bulb. This might explain why it'll run once it's gets hot because it can run leaner. That's it for now. If I get this problem resolved. I'll write it up. Any help appreciated. FYI: I've just rebuilt my Tecumseh 5HP 4-cycle and it now runs fine. But this 3HP 2-cyle has a different problem. I'm not a small engine expert or any engine expert nor do I claim to be one on TV. I'm a non-practicing Mechanical Engineer and do-it-yourself hobbyist, so you can get technical if you need to be. Please reply to this thread as I get way too much SPAM already. Tx.

I coulda nearly wrote the sam epost about two years ago. Here's what I found: Pull the plastic cover off the snow blower to get to the carb (you did that). The little bolt that holds the float bowl has a tiny hole on the side of the bolt. This is the gas metering hole. As nutty as this sounds, I've found that oven cleaner makes great carb parts cleaner. Rinse well, and then dry. Second really big hint: Go to your lawn and garden place, and buy an inline fuel filter for 1/4 inch line. Take a pair of diags and snip the fuel line, cut out an inch or two to make up for the length of the filter. Put filter in (arrow indicates direction of flow) and tighten the hoses with clamps. I had to clean the particles out of my fuel metering hole more than once until it finally occured to me to put in an inline filter.

Twostroke engines don't have valves in the tradtional sense of the word. The bowl bolt has the metering hole. While you have it apart, change or clean the sparkplug. Two cycles take a little different heat range, closer to a chainsaw plug.