Engine Starts and Idles Fine, but Won't Rev Up

[Tom Wesenberg]

Minnesota is so cold that the snow is often light enough to blow away with my ECHO PB-200 leaf blower. I have a 2 gallon plastic gas jug that I mix good gas, without corn crap, and oil in a 16:1 ratio. The mix is a couple months old, and I filled the blower, then went outside in -5* and blew snow for an hour. The gas ran out so I refilled to finish the last 10 minutes, but as soon as I refilled, it will not rev up. Same clean gas mix I filled with an hour earlier, so this made no sense at all.

I found an identical ECHO PB-200 on Craigslist for only $25, so I bought it and fixed the disconnected throttle link. It had half a tank of gas when I bought it, so I topped it off with my gas and went blowing snow. It ran great for one minute, and now it also will only idle. I put a new spark plug in my first blower, but nothing changed. I will buy new gas in the next couple days and try that, but don't have high hopes of an easy fix.

I did dump the gas from the blower into a clear glass jug, and it's perfectly clean. This really has me stumped.

[Mitch]

The manual says you can use a 50:1 ratio in all echo products.

https://www.echo-usa.com/getattachme.../PB200es12_012


Maybe your fuel is bad, make a new brew and retest. It’s hard to tell by looking at it, something easy to try since the same thing is happening on both units

[Tom Wesenberg]

I just bought the service manual for it, and it calls for 20:1, but I've been using 16:1 in all my 2 stroke engines, and never had a problem.
It sure seems like it would be the gas causing the problem, but it's strange that it ran perfect on the first fill, then only idle on the fill an hour later.

[Mitch]

Read page 10, about the 50:1.. not that this is your issue.. i mix my echo blower and wacker at 50:1.

[BNCHIEF]

What does the plug look like? If you pull the air cleaner will it then throttle up?

[Tom Wesenberg]

What does the plug look like? If you pull the air cleaner will it then throttle up?

I installed a new plug and removed the air cleaner. No change, and also no change with the throttle pulled on full and moving the choke up to half choke.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

"Maybe" the high speed jet plugged up? Is the vent in the cap open???

[pAAt]

Tom, It could be the prime bulb leaking or soft fuel lines? You can buy a complete carb kit on Ebay for less than $15 and free shipping !!

[BNCHIEF]

Tom I forgot about this but my son has a stihl leafblower and my small engine guy said the problem was the muffler gets carboned up you need to clean it and get rid of the carbon this could be a result of 16:1 fuel mix i use sythetic at about 50:1 like Mitch says. Hope that helps my guy says these small blowers that is usually the problem.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Well, the plot thickens! I bought a gallon of good gas and a new quart of 2 cycle oil, mixed it up and filled the tank. Now it idles even worse than before, and slows down and dies after a minute. So now I just took the carb all apart to clean it and blow it out, and well as the pickup tube and filter on the end. Still no change. About the only thing left it to take the muffler apart to see how it looks inside. But the way mine and the new one both went bad instantly, a plugged muffler doesn't sound right either. So far, a new plug, new mixed good gas, and carb cleanout hasn't helped a bit.
The mystery continues.

[BNCHIEF]

Tom on a stihl the muffler screws out and off I believe not sure about echo, just thought I would mention it.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Tom, It could be the prime bulb leaking or soft fuel lines? You can buy a complete carb kit on Ebay for less than $15 and free shipping !!

Yes, I saw that the other day and figured to buy it if the cleaning didn't help. I ordered it today. Hard to believe they can sell those parts that cheap.

[pAAt]

Tom, my brother in law took his Stihl fs85 trimmer to an authorized service center for repair and they said the cylinder was scored, so he bought a new one for $400. He gave me the old one, I saw no bad scoring, and I put a package kit like this in it. Still runs great and that was 6 years ago !! My kit cost about $30 though and I thought that was cheap.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Tom on a stihl the muffler screws out and off I believe not sure about echo, just thought I would mention it.

I haven't removed the muffler yet, but the way the blower worked fine for an hour after filling the tank, then wouldn't rev up as soon as I refilled it, makes me think it's not the muffler. Nothing else has worked, so I'll clean it anyway.
On these small engines it doesn't take much wear to screw things up. When I was in the Army I took my 1964 Honda Sport 50 to El Paso to ride. I could lay flat and get it up to 45 MPH in Minnesota, but as soon as I brought it to Texas, the most I could get was 30 mph. I bought new rings and lapped the valves, but nothing changed much. The Honda dealer asked if I installed a new piston, and I said no, because the piston didn't show any wear. He said, that doesn't matter, install a new piston. I installed a new piston, and it was doing 45 MPH again. There again, things didn't make sense by such a speed change just moving it to another state.

About the time you get to know all the problems, the industry makes changes, and starts a new set of problems to be figured out.

[DaWizard]

Heh, we are their R&D!

[Mitch]

When your trying to rev it up, give it a tiny shot of carb cleaner into the carb intake. See if that picks it up

[CM2]

check your flywheel keyway,those little motors jump time..

[Mitch]

He had two do the same exact thing.. In my professional opinion i think it's the air where he is at which is causing it.

[CM2]

I wonder if he isn't holding his mouth right..

[Tom Wesenberg]

He had two do the same exact thing.. In my professional opinion i think it's the air where he is at which is causing it.

I even started it inside the house last night to see if the warmer air had any effect, but still no change.
Here is a picture of the parts kit I ordered. I'll change one part at a time to see if it helps. I'll start with the felt pickup in the gas tank.
I do have a larger backpack Echo blower, that I may try using later today. I haven't used it for at least 2 years because the hand held one is so easy to use.
Now, if the backpack blower decides to only idle, I'll just have to give up and move to Texas.

Echo Parts.jpg

[Mitch]

I meant the AIR there in general

[CM2]

I bet he's still holding his mouth wrong

[JDupuis]

I spent hours dicking with my old John Deere trimmer, clean carb, plug, fresh fuel, blistered fingers from pulling ect.....
Gave it to my neighbour. He went on-line. It was recommended to clean the exhaust. He cleaned the exhaust. Now it works like a charm. Wish I'd known that, otherwise, I wouldn't have given it away. Lesson learned for me. Jeff

[canadian]

Hey Tom , may be a shot in the dark but does your Echo have some sort of governor for when power/load is applied to engine? I had a little issue with a 2 stroke disposal weed wacker.. Had a small miniature vane or flap that opened during operation and allowed air threw a port to allow engine to peak RPM, was a part of pull cord assembly , also seen it on a 2 stroke lawn mower.

[Tom Wesenberg]

No governor on the blower, but I do have some good news. I put gas in the $25 Echo I bought the other day, and today it's running full speed when I pull the throttle. No idea why it would only idle the other day, and I haven't done a thing to it. At least now I have one to use and didn't have to dig out my big backpack blower.
My original Echo is still only running at idle though, so the mystery continues.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Yesterday I used the $25 blower for 40 minutes to blow off my driveway and car, then let it idle as I walked back to the house, then pulled the throttle, and once again it will only idle. So, the mystery continues.

[Mitch]

Have you tried this??
found on a google search

A couple of things i'd check is, make sure your exhaust is free and clear of carbon build up....pull your muffler off the engine and check exhaust ports if carboned up....clean them out with a small screw driver and some spray carb cleaner is what i use and also clean or replace the spark arrester if it has one i use a small torch to burn the old carbon off..can use chemical to clean arrester's but it takes a lot of time ....make sure not to scratch cylinder wall or piston while cleaning....

[BNCHIEF]

Makes you kinda wonder if something has not built a nest in the muffler mud-dobber, my son had a new lstihl blower and it acted like that, the local guy here is real good, he called me and told me his dealer in denver told him the carb was bad and needed a new carb mind you it had only been used an hour or two, I told him bull bring it home when you get here. Since my wife bought it here and bought the sixpack of oil at the time they extended the warranty on it to five years no labor anytime on anything. T told thad about the carb deal he just shook his head and said I have never replaced a carburetor on one of these yet the muffler is not the problem. He readjusted the settings changed the air filter and plug. Been working fine ever since. No charge.

[Big-Foot]

Check the head bolts. I’ve had them start and run a bit when cold, but no start when hot. Went to pull the cylinder head and found that the bolts were just finger tight. Pulled the head off the rest of the way, cleaned the carbon out of the head and piston, cleaned up the head gasket and put hylomar on it, reinstalled the head and it’s been a champ ever since. This is on a 2 stroke weedwacker.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Last night I installed the new carb, and today I tried it out. Not a bit of change, so the next thing to try is remove the plastic shroud and muffler.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Well, most of the mystery is likely solved. I removed the muffler, and it does look quite blocked by carbon. The exhaust port is wide open. I expected to see a muffler built like most with a couple baffles full of 1/8" holes, but this one has layers of very fine screen. The screen looks as fine as the gas sediment bulb screen. I'll stick it in a glass container and spray some oven cleaner on it.

The mystery is that the problem came on so suddenly, then ran good for 40 minutes, then came back again all of a sudden.

[BNCHIEF]

It is funny Tom but that is what my sons new blower did and the stihl guy told me it is common on those that screen has to be a spark arrestor I would assume crazy as it seems you have probably found the problem, i use stihl synthetic oil at a high ratio like Mitch says should also help that problem in the future.

[JDupuis]

Fingers crossed. Jeff