I know it's a long shot but you guys have given me great information in the past so I thought I'd give it a try. My father-in-law has a 1984 Simplicity 860 that hasn't been used in a couple years and is surging. I think the carb is at fault. The problem is to remove the carb for cleaning you must remove a shield. This shield appears to be attached to the engine by head bolts. Has anyone run into this? Do I need to replace the head gasket or can I just retorque the bolts I need to take out? Any idea of the torque spec.? Thanks in advance. Like I said I know this is a long shot.

Jim

I think it more likely these bolts go into the head and are not the actual bolts fastening the head to the cylinder. If they are actual head bolts, I see no harm in removing them and then retorquing them, provided you know the torque spec (no idea what that might be). The engine needs to be cold. Pictures would be helpful.

With regard to small engine work, I have never had any headgasket issues when removing and reinstalling head bolts, when the headgasket was not damaged in the process.

I'm sure with a little more information on which engine you are dealing with we could come up with a torque spec for you.

Be careful, headbolts can break. Broke one on an Ariens blower as it was corroded enough to seize into both the head and the block and would not turn. Took a lot of heat and patience to remove.

I, too, doubt a head bolt is being used to secure a heat shield.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I, too, doubt a head bolt is being used to secure a heat shield.

I thought so too until I Googled up some pics of a Simplicity 860. Pics I found look like three headbolts hold the top of the shield on.

I agree with Crazy that these bolts should not be connected in this manner. But in a past life I worked as a trainer for GM and saw first hand some of the stupid shit some engineers will do. ( and two of my sons are engineers) Thanks, any more comments would be appreciated.

Jim

M-1, I found some paperwork, Model series 190400 to 190499 is what it looks like. And it is three bolts. I think I forgot to mention it is an 8 horse Briggs. Thanks to everyone!

Jim

This website lists torque as 165 in/lb for the 190000 series engines: http://www.small-engines.com/torque

Thank you very much. I'll be working on it tomorrow.

Jim

A relative has an older Simplicity snowblower, Marquette, MI. I was up last Fall helping get it ready for Winter. I knew ahead of time the spark plug is well hidden, a cover has to come off to even see the plug.

I watched a video ahead of time to remove this cover, held by the choke knob & bolts & screws. Yes, the plug needed changing when I got to it. I was thinking, why make it this difficult?

Sometimes with a carb issue as described, I take any air cleaner off, with it running, spray in some carb cleaner. I about never have any ethanol fuel in small engines either, not that it prevents everything.

I have had success running Seafoam thru surging snowblowers, I few tanks and they smooth right out.

Thanks again for the responses. I have tried carb cleaner and Seafoam, so now it's time to wrench.

Jim

So how did you make out?

Thanks for asking! While cleaning out the carb I found an acorn in the air horn. I don't know how they managed to get it in there but they did. After taking it apart I had to scrape stuff off of the inside of the float bowl and take apart and clean all the jets. When I put it back on it would not keep running so I took it back off and re adjusted the float. I did get it running good and could go through a foot of snow that was banked up. One other thing, the acorn caused it to run rich. When I turned the oil fill cap to open it gas shot out. I emptied the crankcase put oil in and turned the motor over and drained it. I did this twice as it was all foam the first time I emptied it. Runs great now! Thanks again everyone for the help. More than once the forum has been able to help me out.


Jim

Never had an acorn in a carb, but I have had two crankcases full of gasoline recently due to machines that were allowed to sit long enough to evaporate all the fuel in the tank, lines and floatbowl, and then were gassed up with the float needle stuck wide open.

Oil with fuel in it is surprisingly hard to recycle, nobody would take it except a buddy that owns an auto repair shop.

Glad to hear you got it running like a champ.