IM STUMPED! ECHO PE280 ENGINE LOCKED UP

Today we have an Echo PE 280 on the bench that is locked up tighter than a bark on a hickory tree
#SmallEngineRepair #Eco #Sihl #LawnmowerMechanic

[@MrRmh3481]

You called it, someone stuck a screwdriver in there as a piston stop to tighten the clutch. It was this unit that had the loose shaft. You can see the width of the blade in your vid...

[@knighthawk86855]

I had a customer this year, in years past, he was a once a year guy, I'd go over, and get his stuff ready for summer, but this year I was over 8 times, his mower wouldn't start, and same for his tractor, I went over to check it out, his carb on his tractor needed an ultrasonic cleaning, so did that, but his push mower, it turned out the spark plug was laying on the deck, with the wire off of it, I told him about it, and he was stumped had no idea how that happen, spark plugs do not just come out of the block, and unplug themselves, ok no more problems with the push mower, but was out 8 more times for his tractor, I did a little test on his fuel, it was more then half water, I showed him, and he was again stumped, I thought about it, I said you have a son correct, he said yes, I said who does the mowing, he said his son, I told him his son was sabotaging the equipment, to which he said, no not my boy, well 8 times I was out, 50 dollars a pop, he confronted his son, and his son said, yep I took the spark plug out, and put water in the gas, cause I don't want to mow, I want to play video games, I shook my head, the father apologized to me, and I haven't heard from the guy since.... On the way out the last time, I saw the son on the tractor and he gave me the most evil angry look, I chuckled, and drove away, see the father was blaming me, and yelling at me for my shotty work but it was his son all along. LMAO

[@austinkienzle1827]

qvhi

[@watermanone7567]

Try a magnet and put it into the sump and see if debris are there. Thanks for the video.

[@shawndubay4050]

A little love with a dremmel tool smoothing the cylinder damage and a new piston and it might have a chance to live again.

[@PaulThomas-qo9vy]

Get a cake pan or bowl & try to shake or dump any debris out of the crankcase. Tap the crankcase with a rubber hammer to dislodge anything that's stuck. I think the piston was moving at lower speed when it struck an object in the intake.

[@luvegg7890]

Mmm interesting one, maybe a manufacturing defect in the cylinder casting has taken all this time to finally snag the piston.. I had a Farmertec cylinder that did something very similar.. Great videos by the way..

[@RaleysSmallEngines]

The things we see..... You didn't find anything down inside the crankcase?? I have no idea either, never seen one like that. Thanks for sharing

[@DonsfirstYou]

You would think if it wasn't something poked in and pulled out it should of been in the crank case or caused a good mark on the way out.

[@vascopires2045]

the butterly screws on he carb sill there ive seen those get sucked in before on a homelite blower

[@THEMOWERMEDIC1]

No carb screw

[@simonilett998]

My suggestion would be to split the crankcase when you can't handle the curiousity any more, or when you're not too busy. The throttle butterfly screw came loose on my late 70's/Early 80's Stihl chainsaw, while my sister was borrowing it around 10 years ago. The screw ended up getting sucked down into the crankcase and took a joy ride around the crankshaft a few times. Luckily when it happened, the butterfly didn't follow the screw. The only symptom was the saw would start and idle but thankfully it wouldn't rev, surprise surprise🤣 I removed the carby after seeing the throttle butterfly wasn't moving with the trigger, then I could see the issue straight away. I could hear something rattling around inside when I shook the saw. Luckily no internal damage was done, so I just had to retrieve the now bent screw, reassembled the saw and fitted a new screw to the throttle butterfly with loctite and peined the screw threads real good. The saw still runs great to this day, I used it for about an hour on the Monday just gone🤣👍🇦🇺

[@TheLawnmowerLady]

My first thought was someone did this on purpose who didn't want to work that day 😉 but it clearly happened while it was running with those witness marks on the piston skirt. Maybe a roller from big end crank bearing bit the big one?

[@robertyearian227]

I'd look inside carb see if butterfly bolt came outsucked its way past ring look down in lower case somethings got to be in there to do that or a chunk of carbon got in there

[@rickthelian2215]

1. Intake side damaged, thinking if it’s possible being hot and whilst running it had dropped, with the shock effect the stroke of the piston hence the damage on intake part of piston. 2. Could a small part in the carburettor fail breaking while dropped falling into the intake whilst running causing the damage to piston and bore leaving a small horizontal mark down the side of piston. 3. We could always ask Chickanic for her input?

[@THEMOWERMEDIC1]

@chickanic #chickanic

[@killer2600]

Time for CSI: Small Engine

[@delseckora5327]

Let Chickanic know when you find out.

[@herbwilson2842]

Some metal piece from the carb. Throttle plate screw or such.

[@dmouse4u]

Looks like part of a wrist pin clip broke off.

[@THEMOWERMEDIC1]

Nope

[@delseckora5327]

I would think a piece of the main bearing cage

[@bobshelton2812]

It is possible that someone was running it without the air filter in place and a small piece of gravel (or whatever) was sucked into the carb. Look in the lower end and see if there is any foreign object - that might answer your question.

[@patthesoundguy]

It almost looks like someone jammed somthing in the intake port under the piston to lock up the engine to swap a head or somthing.

[@billstiles487]

Check the muffler. Possibly by some miracle the obstruction passed through the engine?

[@donnyfixit9425]

Id guess the customer was trying to break the flywheel free nut and stuck the screwdriver in there to hold the piston in place

[@erwinpierce1136]

whatever went through the intake port , may be down in the crankcase somewhere .

[@GeirAndersenRepairs]

Dang brother; I've never seen that kind of damage on a piston. How could it have been distorted like that, but not shatter? If someone had put something through the carb into the cyl, it would (I would have thought) completely destroyed the piston because the object would be "stationary" in there. It would have to be something that was just hard enough to cause the damage, but then possibly weak enough to shatter or implode, so it didn't destroy the piston... This one I can't understand 🤔🤔🤔

[@chrisowen9378]

I know this is not the case, but I've seen an engineer too ingest one of the butterflies from the carburetor gets sucked in.

[@garymiller685]

i had a husqvarna chainsaw 55 do the same thing crank bearing went to hell

[@brewster3987]

Run without a filter and ingested a small bit of wood or gravel?

[@billstiles487]

Are the wrist pin clips intact? Is there anything in the crankcase? Are all of the needle bearings in the bearings

[@ncrdisabled]

i bet a pebble got into on another not are you fixing it?

[@normanschupp485]

Ive seen a tiny rock get sucked in the carb on a ryobi trimmer because of no air filter

[@heavysnow8616]

A small nut or hard seed went through damaging the piston & cylinder and the rest went out the exhaust.

[@Skyryder47]

Something in its infinite lack of wisdom has put a very large screw stick, prybar or something that resembles the same into the intake side of the carburetor to hold the engine while they tried to remove the flywheel nut off.

[@juniorelfk]

I’ve seen it and I’m no professional mechanic I’ve seen where rocks have gone through the intake while the motor is running and catch on the piston skirt and do that kind of damage I have been working on small engines for over 30 years and I never went to school for this nor do I have insurance or a license to fix small engines all what I have been doing is self taught self learned

[@endurohuntfish8865]

check inside the exhaust

[@DCS026]

Seems to me, there would have to be debris in the crank case. May stick a magnet down in there and see what you fish out.

[@brianking1138]

I am also stumped was hoping you were going to tell us. It seems to have a fair amount of carbon buildup. Could that have something to do with it?

[@albertosanchez3350]

Hello! I'm working on a old cut off saw STIHL TS760 that has the same issue I found piston head cracked and exhaust port little chipped off. But anyway guys I need little help with it. When is running if I tilt it down before touches the concrete loose power. I don't know if cracked piston head has anything to do with. So please any suggestions will be appreciated. Have a blessed day y'all

[@lalodelacruz.]

Could the roller bearing inside the corporator fall in out.

[@richardcranium5839]

screw from the throttle or choke plate? small chunk of one of the bearings? otherwise garbage got in when the air filter was off

[@jme36053]

Further disassembly of the connecting rod from piston and crank is necessary to rule out additional causes. Likely not worth the time or effort.

[@davidcurnutt9584]

Had to be a metal or stone something. Nothing else could have made that much damage. Plastic, and dirt causes different types of damage. On another note, what kind of T-handles do you use? Are they square ended or ball ended? Brand?

[@jasonbusch3624]

A piece of the crank bearing or rod bearing. All it takes is one little piece. I had a Stihl rod bearing shed a small piece and it would still start and run but as soon as it got slightly warm it would sieze the rod up after about 30 seconds. It would cool down and unsieze and start right back up after 10 or 15 minutes. The piece gouged the intake side of the piston also.

[@TheKapplebee]

Carbon? some of those carbon chunks feel like stone if you scrape em off. Screaming away and then it breaks loose and causes havoc.

[@thomasgronek6469]

Is something still in the crank case ?

[@tedstankunas7142]

Did something get loose in the carburetor and get sucked into the engine? I would check out that carburetor..

[@bradrolling8637]

Whats in the crankcase?

[@DeliciousBass01]

I agree Mowermedic its a case of homicide

[@kennethsalter4040]

That is strange.

[@AnotherUser1000]

Piston slap due to wear of the piston ring, maybe?

[@THEMOWERMEDIC1]

No piston to Cyl Wear

[@AnotherUser1000]

@@THEMOWERMEDIC1 Demonic influence, then...

[@cycleguy666]

Pull the wrist pin bearing and make sure it is all there.....throttle plate screw or piece of the plate...... or crank pin bearing roller!! Thats a stumper!!

[@joeortiz3455]

Looks to me like someone wanted a new trimmer so they pulled the carb took a punch gavebit a whack gave it a start and whammo froze dead engine look at the shape of the crack it fits a metal punch im just sayin

[@nashguy207]

I'M stumped myself. Let us know if you find anything out on this happened.

[@stevemoore8599]

Sabotage because someone didn’t want to work.

[@rickhicks3477]

Come on man. You are a mechanic. Just put some duct tape on it you u will be ok 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@THEMOWERMEDIC1]

I’ve never used duct tape to repair anything

[@rickhicks3477]

@@THEMOWERMEDIC1 it was a joke.

[@bradrolling8637]

Never used duct tape? And you call yourself a mechanic? Lmaooooo!! Good vid with good comments

[@rickhicks3477]

@@bradrolling8637 damn people it was a joke.

[@bradrolling8637]

@@rickhicks3477 ikr

[@chrisowen9378]

I know this is not the case, but I've seen an engineer too ingest one of the butterflies from the carburetor gets sucked in.