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Winterized?

6K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  HJames 
#1 ·
Just wonder, when Lauson advertised their engines as 'Winterized', exactly what does that entails? Is it just the heater box around the carb?
 
#14 ·
Icing although rare can occur when the humidity is high and the temperatures are just below freezing to the teens. It rarely occurs when it is really cold because the relative humidity when the air is really cold is usually very dry. I had a meteorology class back in college and we did tests to find the dew point and once an a while the dew point and the temperature converge and then you get fog or even a freezing fog can occur. The heater box simply takes some of the waste heat from the muffler and uses it to warm the air surounding the carburetor or linkages so they do not freeze up. I put in an aluminum sheild in both of my Predator 212cc snowblower repowers to prevent icing of the govenor linkages. I have not had any carburetor problems but if I did I would be getting a small piece of heet metal and making a makeshift heater box to warm the air around the carburetor.
 
#4 ·
Not sure why that would be.? The heater box does keep linkage from freezing, also warms up the engine faster. I never take mine off on any of my other blowers. MH
 
#5 ·
How often would you have snow above freezing?
 
#6 ·
It can happen..in late fall and late winter. October and March/April.
although usually if its above freezing and snowing, say 34 degrees, the snow is very wet and slushy, and doesnt build up thick enough to require the use of a snowblower..you dont get 6" of snow at 34 degrees..you get a thin layer of very wet slush..no snowblower required.

So it can, rarely, snow above freezing.
but using the snowblower above freezing is ever rarer..
so rare in fact, that IMO it statistically never happens.

Scot
 
#9 ·
I can see where those scenarios may happen, but unless you do not encounter a refreeze situation, or accumulations that the warming will not take care of, I usually don't operate the machine. I guess I am inherently lazy in that way.

The only time I might run it in t-shirt weather, is to move it from the garage to the barn. And then maybe to run the fuel tank dry.
 
#10 ·
If you look closely at the "winterized" they not only had the carb heat box which also enclosed part of the muffler to give heat but there is also a wrap around tin shield blocking the fins of the cylinder and motorto keep heat in and snow out. It would wrap from the carb box accrossnthe crank side of the motor and behind the gas tank.
 
#22 ·
Thank you.

I wasn't thinking anything too fancy. Just something to redirect the air coming from the shroud in the front around the jug up to the top between the muffler and tank so air is blowing on the linkages to keep them thawed out.

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

I also have a newer Craftsman blower and everything is incased in the heater box. I think the spark plug and wire will be fine on our Preds if you do build an enclosure.
 
#23 ·
In Canada we have fine light snow. Some blowers are awful for icing. They'll work 5 minutes then need a warm building. That fine snow enters the recoil flywheel shroud then turns to water vapor. Vapor causes misfires and linkage locks plus carburetor icing. Just like we do with larger tractors we build a "heat houser" out of canvas to retain all the heat and push it towards the cab. On the snow blowers I see a cotton cloth hung from the gas tank side to the heater box. A hole is made for the pull rope. Every 15 minutes the operator reaches down and snap the cloth to drop the snow. At temperatures nearing +30 the cloth is unhooked and re-hooked on the same side allowing full air intake. This icing issue is way more active in -30 environments. This keeps the engine 100% dry.
 
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