I have a craftsman gas blower. It will not start. I have made a new batch of fuel, clean the carb and taken the head off and there is scratches in the cylinder. Before I replace the head and piston, I want to know if the piston is pressed on the connecting rod and how easy is it to replace.

Before you try to replace the head and piston, how bad are the scratches. Are they deep scratches or only shallow ones. If they are only shallow then they may be part of the way it is supposed to be. And by the way, have you tried checking the plug yet?

If it has any scratches... they are not supposed to be there and are your problem (low compression) the piston is not pressed on, it uses a wrist pin to hold it to the connecting rod... and two rings to hold the pin in place... if you remove the cylinder, you can remove the rod and piston as a assembly...

I'd price the parts versus a new one... most of them are not worth it.