Drain the bowl save the Honda

[opnspaces]

For 15 years I have had issues with deposits in my Honda eu2000i carburetor. I tried fuel stabilizers and they worked. But you can only buy a pint size the bottle of stabilizer and only need about 2 ounces. Then the unused bottle would expire before the next year. So I stopped with the stabilizer and learned how to clean out the deposits here on the forums. I like to tinker and repair and it was easy for me to repair whenever it became clogged. In fact it was so easy that I was compelled to update the original sticky in the Tech issues forum because the original photos were gone. My update

But come 2021 I decided I was tired of disassembling and cleaning the carburetor and wanted something easier. On a whim at the end of the season I tried only draining the carburetor float bowl and did nothing else. Picture of draining the bowl

Come next season the generator fired right back up. Well really you need to turn the switch to run, wait about 20 seconds for gravity to fill the carburetor, then try to start it. But the point is, it started right back up with no sputtering or missing. Since then I have never had to disassemble and clean my carburetor again. I now just drain the bowl and put the generator away. And it always fires right back up in the spring. Give it a try I think you'll be surprised that it's really that easy to put the generator away for storage.

[JimBollman]

I have run 100LL Av Gas in my Honda for years probably close to 20 years. It is our house backup generator so it doesn't get the hours an RV generator would get but it runs fine and AvGas has a shelf life of 10+ years without additives. I still drain the bowl but after giving a few light pulls to prime every thing it starts on a couple more pulls after sitting for a year sometimes. Been thinking I should test start it because I put 4KW of Lithium as a backup in the house that I can charge with the Honda if power is out more than a few hours and it has been awhile since I have need it. AvGas is expensive but so is generators repair and additives.

[klutchdust]

Run the unit out of fuel after turning the fuel off. I have little success with sta bil. If you have a poor running small engine there is a product sold at the big orange store called "mechanic in a bottle". It will de gum your carb and smooth out those rough idles.
Star Brite makes Star Tron. It is an enzyme based product. I have had good results and tossed all the stabil in the trash.

[ScottG]

I always drain the bowl and fog the cyl.

[Matt_Colie]

The fuel bowl drain is a feature Honda bikes, outboards and power equipment have all had for more than the last 50 year that I know of for certain.

Matt_C

[ktmrfs]

draining the bowl is definitely a very good idea.

However, my past experience is that using Stabil is NOT a very good solution. It may delay the problems but not eliminate it.

What I have found is that seafoam is a very good solution long term. a) once I switched to seafoam, problems gone, AND seafoam did a great job of "fixing" carbs that had been gummed up after using stabil. A double dose of seafoam, let the engine run at well above idle (honda 2000 turn off eco) 30 minutes later problem gone. idles fine, runs fine.

BTW on the new honda 2200 NO need to drain the float bowl. One off position shuts the engine down ASAP. The other position shuts off the fuel pump and lets the carb run dry.

It's also easy to mod an existing honda 2000 to do the same. a push button to kill instantly, off position lets the carb run dry.

Hutch mountain sells a kit

https://www.hutchmountain.com/collections/amazing-generator-accessories/products/bad-gas-ethanol-gum-carb-eliminator-switch-compatible-w-honda%C2%AE-eu2000i-generator


I've used the Hutch mountain propane/NG conversion kit on my 2000 and my 2200