I, like jeep4me have an issue wth a walk-behind leaf blower. It was running fine last Sunday until I shut it down to take a break. When I came back to the machine I could not pull the starter cord at all. The engine seemed seized. I took the cover off of the blower vane and was able to rotate the engine about 300 degrees in each direction but it would not make a full revolution. I took the head off and found the head of a small torx screw that was sitting on top of the piston. There was a small gash the head above where the screw was apparently hitting. There is a small mark on top of the piston where the screw was sitting. I surmise that this screw somehow came from within the card or air cleaner and made its way through the intake manifold to the intake valve. It must have been getting chipped away and when it was small enough to pass through the intake valve it ended up on top of the piston. The cylinder wall is not gouged at all. I can't see any damage to the valve stem. I put the head on the bench an filled the intake port up with gas and none leaked so I know the valve seat is fine. I put the thing back together and it fired right up. after about 5 mutes of operation it started to smoke so I shut it down. The only thing I can think of is that the top ring landing on the piston was damaged from the screw being squeezed between the head and the piston. The thing is that the damage to the top of the piston appears minimal. Any thoughts before I tear this whole thing down ?
