OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Honda Engines Help with starting Honda powered victa masterserie

Hi all i got myself a 5 year old Victa Masterseries 510 (commercial??) mower fitted with a Honda engine. It looks like it had done less than 20hrs work in its life.. Engine looks similar to other HOnda engines fitted to victas (the current one at bunnings) but has a black cover. I think it hasnt been started in 3 years so i put some fresh fuel into it and tried to start but no luck.. there is spark and fuel goes through the tap so not sure why. I poured some fuel dirrecty into where the spark plug goes and it started first go and then turned off.

Where should i be looking next? Carby? i have never ownned or worked on a honda engine so i have no clue what to look for

any help would be great!

Cheers

As far as I know the engines on the Victas Bunnings sell are chondas, not Hondas. Please post some pictures of the engine so we can identify it. Hondas do not fail to start without a good reason caused by operator error, but chondas are a different story. There are various things that go wrong with chondas.

This is the actual machine (with slightly different catcher). As i said it starts with fuel down the spark plug hole so it seems something with the carby?

From the tiny picture I am pretty sure it is a gcv 160, one of the cheaper honda engines but can be made to run well, I would start off with cleaning the carburettor.

Grumpy is better at explainging the honda stuff, as I dont have any exploded diagrams on my pc at present. I am probably best to leave it to him.

Hi luvpsi, in order to give you some advice, we need you to grab your camera and take some pics of the engine, from different angles; including the carby, and include any model and serial numbers you find for the engine.
The pic of the brochure is way to small to see anything.

Thanks. I will try and take some photos tonight. How likely is it that the carby needs cleaning considering that the mower has hardly done any work?

There is a good chance there has been water in the fuel tank and some of it is now in the carburetor, blocking the main jet among other sins. There may also be sediment, and/or a blocked filter, and crud may have been sucked through the main jet into the emulsifier blocking up some of the tiny holes. Or the choke may just not be closing, or the float stuck in the up position due to gum formation. You already know the fuel went putrid, so the chances are somebody put fuel containing ethanol in it. Just pray it isn't a chonda, or there may not be much left of the fuel system due to decomposition of the hose and plastic parts. It is best to go through the process methodically, since you can't know what neglect or abuse has occurred.

Last weekend I bought a Ryobi pressure washer powered by a chonda copy of a Honda GXV160. It apparently had run less than 20 minutes since new (the tenant had tried to use it for hydraulic mining on a building site, sucking up the run-off for intake water, and scrapped the whole machine as soon as the intake filter got blocked with clay), but it also had just a few drops of water partly obstructing the fuel filter and main jet, making it reluctant to start. The detergent suction system had been dismantled and the ball from the non-return valve thrown away - I've ordered a replacement stainless steel ball. The fuel system had to be blown out and some carburetor parts probed with cleaners. The inlet tappet clearance was half what it should have been. Otherwise it was just a new chonda, pretty much identical to a new Honda: on this one, everything else happened to be OK. However that was because in his 20 minutes the previous tenant didn't get around to ruining much else. Your mower has been in someone else's hands for years. It's best to check it over, fix what is wrong, and make it run like a Honda, whether or not it turns out to be a real Honda.

Thanks Grumpy. I will try to remove and check the carby.. is there a good diagram I can follow? i am pretty sure its a GCV160 but yet to check once i get home.

On the side of the carburetor that is beside the cam cover, below the idle speed and idle mixture adjustments, the carburetor manufacturer's name is moulded on the body casting. That will be "Keihin" if it is a Honda, and "Ruixing" if it is a chonda. The carburetors are the same (apart from quality differences, if any), and the parts seem to be interchangeable. I haven't personally seen a chonda that follows the design of Honda's cheap line (the OHC, or overhead cam, engines, designated GCV) - I've only seen OHV chondas (the engines Honda designates GXV). Given the low manufacturing costs in China I doubt it would make sense to copy the cheap line, since it would probably only cost a few pennies more to copy the premium line. So, there are three types of engine you may have:
1. A Honda GXV. This would have the letters "OHV" running horizontally across the rocker cover.
2. A Honda GCV. This would have the letters "OHC" running horizontally across the rocker cover.
3. A chonda. This would have the letters "OHV" running vertically down the rocker cover.

Between the brand on the carburetor casting, and the letters on the rocker cover, we will be able to identify your engine. Once we know which it is, we can get into detail on the checking and cleaning procedure. Note that the GCV carburetor is a cheap Keihin, the GXV a more expensive Keihin, and the chonda carburetor is a Ruixing nearly identical to the expensive Keihin, but not in all details, so we need to know which of these we are talking about.

The engine is the OHC (overhead cam) type. Will check the carby later on.

You will need to clean out the fuel tank, fuel line filter, needle and seat, float bowl, main jet, emulsifier, idle jet, idle disharge orifice/idle mixture needle, and all of the fuel and air passages. You can get detailed instructions in this thread:

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...n=7309&Words=Honda&Search=true#Post38603

Note that your problem is not, or not just, a blocked idle jet as in that thread: you have a major blockage in the fuel system or carburetor, and because you know you had corrupted fuel in it, you now need to go through the full process to get it back to running like a Honda.

Please report back after exactly following the instructions in the other thread.

Thank you very much Grumpy! I will get started tonight

much apreciated!

An update on this. I stripped the carby last Friday (and the ruined the intake gaskets in the process) and once I took off the float bowl it was full of rusty browny fuel that had been sitting there for years.. basically the inside of the float bowl and all the jets were covered in this stuff! I carefully cleaned everything with carby cleaner re-assembled and bought new intake gaskets and she started firts pull!

Very happy with the results and thanks to everyone for their assistance!

Thanks for reporting back luvpsi. That engine should continue to start first pull. If it doesn't, it is usually worthwhile finding the reason and fixing it, before it gets worse.

One of my Hondas was a three-pull-start job for months, until I replaced the spark plug even though it sparked consistently (but not very strongly). It has been a first-pull-start Honda since then. Now I just have to wait to see whether the sensitivity to spark plug electrical leakage indicates that the ignition module is on the way out. Even Hondas do give trouble at times.

I will close this thread. If anyone needs to post to it, just send a PM to a moderator.