Started my Morrison 3HP rotary tiller today.

Hey all,
Today (NZ Time) i started my Morrison 3HP rotary tiller for the first time in over a year and after tuning it so it idled correctly i used it to turn over the compost heap in preparation for use in the box gardens i'm building and i'm amazed by the fact that it runs with a little tuning despite not having an oil change in 10+ years and petrol that's gone off from not using it enough because for 99% of the year it just sits in my property's mower shed along with the push mower,line trimmer,electric mulcher and petrol pressure washer.

Buy a new tiller, that will solve your problem with the tiller starting on old gas. New gas engines seem to be so fussy, my old small engines run on anything. When the corn gas separates though, even the old tillers sputter from the water. To keep the alcohol from raising the octane to high they add water with a special process, when the alcohol evaporates the water is left on bottom of the can. They refer to this corn gas process as hydrogenated or oxygenated. To me it almost seems like watered down gas

reply to post by rickymouse

Actually petrol in my country of New Zealand isn't required to have ethanol in just yet and the only gas station in NZ to offer ethanol-blended petrol is Gull all the others BP,Caltex,Mobil and Z Energy don't blend ethanol with their petrol and we have two grades of petrol 91 octane and 95 octane all my outdoor power equipment is run on 91 octane as it's cheaper than 95 and in summer with mowing my substantial amount of lawn i use quite a bit of fuel.So until my Morrison finally dies i'll keep using it and start it regularly not just once or twice a year and besides i don't use my tiller enough to justify the cost of a new one because in NZ they ain't that cheap.

Just a question would the 3HP Briggs and Stratton that powers my Morrison run on a 50/50 mix of 95 octane petrol and white gas aka naphtha or would the naphtha lower the octane of the petrol and cause knocking? It's a pretty old engine and i've read that they run good on avgas.