I'm hoping this is a quick fix, here's the problem. I'm up here in snowy Mass. and was out snowblowing. I've got an Ariens snowblower with a 7 hp Tecumsah engine. Everything was fin till about 20-30 minutes into the job. Engine started to die down under a load. It stayed running and was still throwing snow (just not as far), but there was a noticeable decrease in rpm's. It never stalled and wasn't running rough. My first thought is possibly water in the line and it froze. New gas so I don't think it's bad gas. It's inside now and drying off and warming up, before I started tearing it apart, just thought I'd get some other thoughts, thanks in advance.

its a possibility. thats why you should use some gasline anitfreeze. some in the gas like around a half ounce to the tank on the blower. now what to use to rid it of water in most cases is to use a small amount of rubbing alchohol. not much now and not the green crap. if you have some carb cleaner try using that as well when running. could have gotten some water in there and it froze, broke off and plugged something up. but the alchohol will remove the water. but not much maybe a half an ounce or so. around 3 or 4 cap fulls.

Thanks for the input Bugman, I think that's what it was. Had some fuel conditioner available so I used that (can't believe I didn't have any alcohol around and I wasn't about to use my good scotch). There might have been a little old gas in the tank too. I'll give it a good going over once I get dug out of this mess. Thanks again.

well rubbing alchohol will work for water in the gas and gas thats old but not tooo old. don't use alchohol like scotch alchohol like rubbing alchohol it has water in it and it sucks the water up and burns with the fuel no problem

it gives ya a bit of power if ya use more of it

Yeah...but it will also deteriorate the gaskets in the carb.

yeah thats why you use a small amount.