Honda EU300is problems

[5thwheeler]

The past weekend we had a problem with our generator. It snowed close to a foot so we had the heat on all night and went to bed with the generator running. I woke to find the generator shutdown but still had a half tank of fuel so I suspected the low oil sensor shut it down for some reason but its never used any oil. When un-screwed the fill plug/dipstick a half quart of gas/oil ran out - not good. I drained the oil and re-filled and tried to re-start with no luck. It would backfire, spit, spudder but just not start.
I pulled the float bowl and it was clean and there was planty of spark to the sparkplug - just wouldn't run. I cannot explain why but after replacing with a new plug it fired right up. I made a call to the local Hionda service center and they suspect a piece of dirt passed through the fuel needle inlet valve causint it to stick open and richen up. This is what filled the crank case with gas. This carboned everything up and caused the plug to fail - it had a hot spark but under compression would not fire the engine. Anyone else have anything like this happen?
I have concerns that the the fuel washed down the cylinder walls and caused damage up to the point where it shut-off. I was running a premium synthetic oil - whould that have helped protect the piston/cylinder walls?

[billr]

No problems with ours as of yet.

I have heard of this problem. Can happen with many small engines. Have seen it happen on a Honda pressure washer and it filled the cylinder with fuel then when start attempted it broke the piston. The fuel needs to be shut off on these when not using in case this was to happen. (not your issue)

Have you had tune up done, carb cleaning, plug etc? One other thought may be if it sits for any length of time with old gas, it can gum it up. Suggest stabilizer. Not sure if this applies to your situation.

Cheers,
Bill

[5thwheeler]

Its only a year old but has had a good workout. I also ran it weekly last winter when not usng it camping and kept a fuel stabilizer in it.
We are Amsoil users in everything and the generator had its synthetic small engine oil as well as Performance Improver gasoline additive so I wouldnt think the carb was gummed up but you never know.
Its been running with eco throttle off all night with no issues so this is hopefully an anomaly.

[AbleSmith]

carefully look into the fuel tank for any junk, clean all the holes of carb, dirt hides everywhere, there is no adjustment on carburetor so deassemble the carb and cleaned it out.