Sticky Blower

[Giles]

A friend gave me a Redmax HB250 blower that would not crank.
He said his uncle gave it to him and he knew nothing about it.
I found that all head bolts were loose and decided to replace the gasket.
All around the outside base of cylinder, was a tacky substance and when removing the cylinder, I found this sticky fluid was on the inside as well.
I used a variety of cleaning chemicals, even carb cleaner and it was very difficult to remove.
I was surprised to find there was no carbon inside the cylinder to speak of.
I also found that the fuel tank was very clean with no smell, other then gasoline, and believe it or not, had several tiny rocks inside!
I cleaned everything up, put it back together, and it cranked and ran perfect on the second pull.
I never cleaned the carburetor.
Now, I am sure this sticky substance had to be some type oil, but what kind, and why would someone put small rocks in the fuel tank?
You never know what you find sometimes, do you think some bright person used some type stop leak to try and stop the base gasket leak????

 

[o8f150]

sounds like cheap/crappy 2 stroke oil was used

 

[lone wolf]

The stones in the tank were from a young kid I would guess.