A cheap MTD with an industrial Tecumseh 26HP v-twin engine. It's been great till here recently. I contribute the current issues to high amounts of ethanol as it worked great till last year when all we could get was e-15 or higher, it's meant for no more than e-10. I have thought about buying a briggs v-twin with the same HP rating, but it costs as much as a new mower. It has been a great mower/engine, just this government mandated b/s is screwing with a LOT of our smaller engines around here that was never designed for high ethanol, only e-10 or lower. Today we saw signs at several stations that said, "Our fuel is NOT suitable for smaller 4 cylinder engines, lawnmowers/trimmers, and cars manufactured prior to 1998." I asked a manager why, and it's because apparently, it's causing smaller engines to overheat, or gum up carbs/injectors pretty badly... I feel this is more or less the government trying to force people into buying newer cars or engines/parts that cost a whole lot more...
There is one station that sells "specialty" fuels, but at $10 a gallon... Not my favorite idea... Would rather buy a new engine that can handle the newer fuels...
