Went to fire up a honda motor on a service truck before heading out the other day. Guy had just changed all the oil in every motor a couple weeks before but I thought I better check.

Unscrewed the dipstick and oil gushed out.

Thing sat there and dumped gas into the cylinder and filled up the lower half of the motor.

Emptied that all out.

Poured a little oil into the spark plug opening and slowly turned the crank over a few times to coat the cylinder walls.

Added some oil to the reservoir and will drain that.

What else do I need to do to get it running again safely?

Probably got some trash in the float bowl of the carb that's preventing the needle from shutting off the flow of gas.

Fire the dumbass.

Unscrew the bowl and have a look.


Clean it all out. Check for deposits.




Yard some new oil in the crankcase and get to it.

It’s a Honda—just pull on it till it starts

He didn’t do anything wrong.

Something in the bowl got screwed up and allowed gas to gravity drain.

I was wondering about filling it up with oil.

Then lightly cycling it.

Dumping that oil and putting fresh in again to try and protect from any damage the gas might do.

Yep

Shut fuel selector off when we found the problem.

That’s on the list to check/fix.

Drop bowl, open gas shut off and start working the float up and down while letting gas clean the needle and seat.

Bet you raise the float and it shuts off fine after a few cycles.

Nothing besides changing the oil out.

Hondas are notorious for leaking gas past the needle and seat as it bounces down the road, with Hondas you have to shut the fuel off and run it dry if transporting every damn time. It's not a bad idea to do it on all of them but it's a must with Hondas.

Have had quite a few Honda engines on mortar mixers. The most bulletproof engine ever. I may have had to change a spark plug in one of them. A few starter ropes, because some guys like to yank them til they stop. I swear, I could put a 10 foot rope on, and they would still pull them to the stop!

The engines always outlast the mixers. Anyway, when I bought my first one, the guy told me to always shut the gas line off, and run til carb is empty, before towing. Have never had any problems. You should be fine with what you did.

Our portable air compressor has a Honda engine and the float has stuck open at least 2-3 times in the last 10 years.

Usually find out when you go to pull the rope and WTF?!

Try to remember to shut the gas off but sometimes forget.


No big deal, drain it and refill. Pull the plug and blow the gas out. You know it's really douched when gas blows out the muffler....lol

I think it would be hard to hurt those badass little engines.

They last forever!

If you got all the gas out and put fresh oil in you’re good to go. We’ve got 8 mowers in our fleet and this has happened more than once.

Honda has it you damn farmers figured out, They designed the engines this way on purpose, they know the only way the oil will get changed is if you have to............

Genius...lol!



Serious now, I got REAL fancy and have Amsoil 5w-50 in the air compressor engine and 10w-30 full syn in a couple generators.

You are a rare Farmer among Farmers......

Ultimate cold weather pull-ability.....


Have a roll of extra fancy pull cord as well. Forget the exact diameter but it is for the Honda.....

I had that happen to a Honda clone motor on a generator. Before I figured out what was wrong, it wiped the cylinder walls and started blowing smoke. I was PO'd...... Before that it was a perfectly running motor and burned zero oil.

I have a Husqvarna push mower with a Honda motor. Bastard don’t even have an oil drain plug in it. Gotta turn the sob upside down and pour the oil out the friggin filler neck Just to change it. WTF is that all about?

I had the same thing happen with my 12 HP Honda.

Went to check the oil and it came gushing out.
Drained and changed the oil and from this point on I will be turning the fuel off every time I shut it off.

I like engines that run "wet"
Meaning they are always leaking a little. That way you never have to change the oil. Just keep topping it off and you are always cycling some new oil in. Lol

Still have and use a Toro mower with a Honda engine I bought new in 1991. Replaced more parts of the mower over the years, but only had to rebuild the carburetor last summer. Still starts on the first pull.

This. The float can get stuck up and drain. Pull the bowl off and spray with carb cleaner. I would also run a little carb cleaner gas treatment in the fuel to break down any other gun/deposits. Drain oil, replace filter, refill oil, pull cord. Good luck.

I have a half dozen working Honda engines sitting in the shop. They outlasted the mixers, power washers, and compressors they were originally mounted on.

Yup, I dont think you can kill them!

A Vacuum style oil sucker-outter will make your life SO much easier:

Oil Extractor

I use the above for my lawn mower, lawn tractor, snow-blower, 4-stroke gas weed-whip, 200HP and 9.9HP outboards motors on my boat. 0 mess.