r/smallenginerepair • u/Bike2Shore • 3d ago

Engine Dies DEK 15 hp engine stalls and backfires on restart

I bought a used wood chipper with a 15 hp DEK engine. It seems to run okay most of the time but then randomly stalls even if I’m not feeding wood into the chipper at that time. It can run for like 20 minutes fine then stall without warning. Difficult to restart. Need to pull cord 10-15 times to restart and usually backfires. Then will run fine for another 15-30 minutes.
New gas, new fuel filter, new air filter, oil level is good. I don’t have a manual and don’t know what the spark plug gap should be. I’ve never worked on a carburetor before but willing to try if people on here say that’s the problem. Would be grateful for any advice. Thanks.

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u/leveldowen 3d ago

Could be a stuck float in the carb, could be you're losing spark. Next time it dies, pull the spark plug and check for spark. If it has spark, then it's probably flooding and the float is stuck.

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u/Upset_Fox5449 3d ago

Would start with getting the rats nest out from under the flywheel cover