stihl ms290 problem

[bardos]

I had this chainsaw idle for a couple of months. i picked it up yesterday to cut down a dead tree. It still had some gasoline left in the tank so i decided to use it till it ran out. i accomplished the job well, felled one of the two trunks and just as i was about to continue cutting into usable logs it ran out of gas.

so i grabbed my trusty gas gas can and went to the service station to buy a couple of liters. turns out some new law has been put into place in spain (where i live) and service stations are now only allowed to sell gasoline to cars, or people on foot with "apporoved" containers. being saturday, things were closed and i couldn't buy one of those approved containers. so i went home stopping by my neighbor's house to tell him my problem.

he told me he had faced the same problem a couple of days ago and had to buy one of those new containers. he promptly gave me several liters of gasoline already mixed with oil and on filling my stihl i can't get it to start. Is there something about running out of gasoline i should know to do before starting again? Anything else?

thx.

 

[Kogafortwo]

Don't trust anyone else's fuel. Most people don't think anything of keeping a can around for months with some unknown mix ratio, or worse yet none at all.

All my neighbors are like this and I have gotten a lot of their abused trimmers and equipment running for them after cleaning up their carbs, lines, and fuel tanks.

 

[2dogs]

California is the same way but as most pumps are self service the laws are not enforced. I would not use unknow fuel either, too many potential problems. If your saw siezes who will pay for repairs? Regarding starting the saw pull the plug, clear out the cylinder, dry or replace the plug and try again.

 

[bardos]

California is the same way but as most pumps are self service the laws are not enforced. I would not use unknow fuel either, too many potential problems. If your saw siezes who will pay for repairs? Regarding starting the saw pull the plug, clear out the cylinder, dry or replace the plug and try again.

thx guys. i'll try this and see if it works. if not, i'll wait till monday, buy my own approved canister and purchase new fuel.

 

[bardos]

well, i cleaned and dried the plug, blew out the open plug hole a bit, bought new fuel from the service station, added the oil, shook up the cannister loaded the fuel and tried to crank her up. nothing. is it possible that after running out of gasoline, there develops an airlock? only thing i can think of. any suggestions. trying to avoid bringing it to the shop... i have no vehicle.
.

 

[Dadatwins]

Pull the muffler and look at the piston. By running it out of fuel ( old fuel) you might have leaned it out and scored your piston. Check the piston for any damage through the exhaust (muffler) side. Good luck

 

[belgian]

well, i cleaned and dried the plug, blew out the open plug hole a bit, bought new fuel from the service station, added the oil, shook up the cannister loaded the fuel and tried to crank her up. nothing. is it possible that after running out of gasoline, there develops an airlock? only thing i can think of. any suggestions. trying to avoid bringing it to the shop... i have no vehicle.
.

Saludos Bardos !

welcome to the forum.
your saw has a membrane carburator so developing an air lock is not possible.

when you pull the plug, is it wet or not ? if not, it's not getting fuel so there's a problem on the fuel side.

Do you have spark ? hold the unscrewed connected plug to the metal body and crank her over (with switch on) to see if you have spark.

if we get the answers, we'll take it from there.