I drain all of the yard equipment at the end of the season, and then run the fuel line and carb completely dry. But between mowing and late-season leaf mulching, it still sees fuel 9 months of the year.
I think @Bomber's crappy valve theory is probably correct.
That's weird. I wonder why the valve swells. We do two things when winterizing our lawn svs equipment. First, we add fuel stabilizer made specifically for ethanol gas, then we run the machine for a few minutes, just to make sure the stabilized fuel has reached the carb. Then we shut off the fuel valve and let the carb and bowl run dry.
Thanks, @Krdshrk. I'd looked on Pure-gas.org and saw Newton as an option. Was just hoping there was a closer source that hasn't been reported to that site.
@Scorpio64, I hadn't considered marinas. I may make a call or two to the Lake Hopatcong area, as that would be closer than the jersey shore shore. It's for a 4 stroke mower, which runs fine on regular economy gas, but once a year I have to replace the fuel shut-off valve when it swells to the point of not turning. Since I put in a new valve today, I thought I'd look to make this one last longer.
I took some pictures. It's happened now with a few different ammos. Google is telling me these have "harder primers."
The weirdest part, is it's only happening on double action.
Working on pics. I miss the old days of forums where you could just add from your camera roll.