[Stewarty]

I have a Honda F410 rotovator.  I've had it several years, bought it secondhand, and have always boasted to people that I can leave it in the shed over winter, and it will start first pull of the cord.  Until today...

I last used it in September, I think, to prepare beds for sowing green manure, and all was fine. Today, first it was reluctant to start, then it would only run on full choke, then it started puffing out great clouds of blue/white smoke. So I'm wondering what can have happened to in 2 months sitting unbothered by me in the shed. We've had occasional torrential rain, but the shed doesn't leak. We've had 3 nights frost at the start of November, but it's been basically mild and dry since then....

Any ideas gratefully received, so I can try to clarify things in my mind before I try to set up a consultation with the local garden machinery guru - very good, but also very pricey, and inclined to give lectures about how people abuse their equipment...!

[JGM]

Because it was running just before you put it to bed...
Running only on full choke probably means, one or more of: petrol tank filter blocked, water in the fuel, stale fuel, blockage in the fuel pipe, blockage in the carb, leaking air intake, wet air filter (especially with oil).

Smoke that's smelly like 'burning oil' means it's burning oil . This could be: overfilled with oil, oil in the fuel, tipped on its side (carb down), oil in the air intake/filter, worn/broken piston rings, broken engine.
'Smoke' that smells of petrol, is the engine struggling to burn a very over rich mixture
'Smoke' that doesn't smell strongly can be water in your fuel.

Drain old fuel, empty carb bowl, fill tank with fresh petrol (NOT that new E10 stuff). Check oil level. Check/clean air filter. Clean/check spark plug. Try to start it... if it goes, let it run with minimum revs and see if the smoke clears. You might be lucky, or it will need a service at least.

If I was a betting man, I'd guess your air filter probably has a lot of oil in it. End of season, a lot of people put the rotovator in the best position to clean the tines, often tipping it up to do so. Unfortunately tipping too far, lets oil from the crankcase come up the breather tube and into the air filter/air intake.

Good luck.

[Stewarty]

Thanks very much indeed for that!  All very clear and logical...   I'll sort out some appropriate tools and take 'em along to the allotment and start checking the easiest stuff to check that you mention...    Hoping that air filter,  fuel tank and carb clean yield some improvements.   And, yes, I am guilty of tilting machine on its nose to clean tines...   (But at least I use 97 octane fuel in all garden machinery)

[JGM]

No Problem, let me know what you find.

[Subversive_plot]

Last spring I basically did what JGM suggested in paragraph 3 (on a lawn mower that would not start).  Those steps sorted it out, runs fine now.

If water ends up being the problem, it could be due to condensation, rather than rain getting in.  That's what happened to me (completely dry garage storage, but humid air at night).

It certainly could be the air filter though, as suggested.

Using that high octane fuel (as you have been doing) will certainly help your situation.

[Stewarty]

Progress report  -   activity interrupted by storm Arwen - too windy,cold, snowy to do anything at the moment, as the rotovator is in a shed at my allotment. (And my limited engineering skills are further hampered by deteriorating eye-sight, joint problems, and general frailty of the aged).  But before the storm, in the fairly benign days of late November, I took out the air cleaner, and found the outer sponge layer had broken up, and the paper filament inner seemd soaking wet. I tried running it without the air cleaner, and the symptoms remained exactly the same as before  -  reluctant start, then would only keep running on full choke, and plenty of white / blue smoke. I have got a new air cleaner, new spark plug, correct Honda oil, andd carb cleaner off the internet. Haven't fitted them yet, as I want to empty the fuel tank first. Might manage that later this week, but I'm thinking there's currently no desperate rush, as I won't be wanting to use it till late February or March, depending when the ground becomes workable in late winter or early spring, when I shall be hoping to strim and rotovate some 15 poles of green manure spread over 3 plots....     I will report back again....

[Stewarty]

A week has passed since last report, and I haven't fiddled with the rotovator at all since then. But I thought I should perhaps report this, maybe as a warning to anybody else tempted to be as foolish as I am. It may be a coincidence, but in the 3 weeks or so since I spent 3 sessions of several minutes each running the engine, enveloped in thick clouds of smoke, I have more or less lost my voice. In the third session the smoke included burnt carb cleaner that had passed through the engine.

It may turn out to be simply viral laryngitis, and it will pass. But the throat hasn't really been very sore, and it has already gone on longer than laryngitis is supposed to. I will give it another week or so, and try to get a GP appointment and ENT referral if I'm still sounding as crazily, squeakily unintelligible....

And I shall endeavour to keep away from smoke as much as possible!  (Though I will need to have a good winter clearance bonfire within the next twwo months...)