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I've very recently had some trouble with a push mower I bought last fall. A couple weeks ago, the engine died a couple minutes after I started mowing. Turns out it was out of gas, so I refilled it. However, once it was re-filled, the engine would die within a second of starting again. I put oil in the tank, added some stabilizer (which also has some fuel-line-cleaning additives), and no luck.

I read that this sounded like a carburetor problem, so I took off the bowl and dumped the fuel that I found sitting in there. I had expected to see the jets clogged, but I instead found them completely clear. Disappointed, I put everything back together and gave it another start. This time it ran, and I hoped that this meant that I had just flooded the engine.

Fast forward a couple weeks. The engine runs out of gas while I'm mowing; this time the tank is bone dry. I refuel, add more fuel stabilizer, and it starts just fine, but after a moment, it dies again. After a few tries, it's back to stalling immediately after it starts. I took the carburetor bowl off again, dumped it, and replaced it, but this time it didn't work.

Suggestions?

Further Information

This is Hyper Tough mower with a Briggs & Stratton 300E engine, the kind with an all-plastic carburetor.

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I have noticed with my B&S mower that if i fill the fuel tank too high, some fuel will pass into the housing for the air filter, and it won’t run. I’m careful now to not fill the tank to the top and the problem has gone away. However, I’m not sure that my explanation is accurate (I’m lazy—once a problem is gone I lose interest in determining the cause).

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  • Thanks! So, what did you do to get it to run after the fuel got into the air filter?
    – JAF
    Commented Aug 25, 2019 at 15:49
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    I happened to have a new air filter so I put it in and it started right up. i was also careful to keep the mower level ( I have some hilly areas) until the level of gas inthe tank was down some.
    – John Meyers
    Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 2:29

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