Honda Generator Spark Arrestor

[a64pilot]

I don’t know why but I was thinking the other day that these little generators in order to be allowed in US National parks have to have a spark arrestor, a little internet search and yes of course they do, and they are exactly like all others, a fine screen in the muffler that needs to be cleaned or the backpressure will be bad for the motor.
Well on the Honda you remove the plastic cover to access the muffler, the three mounting bolts to remove the muffler and the screen sits just inside of the muffler. Honda recommends I believe a 100 cleaning interval, you can either use a wire brush or a propane torch and just burn off the carbon. Mine had 800 hours on it and seemed to be clean, but I had been noticing lately a different exhaust note that would come and go, I assume that was carbon being caught and burned off.
Anyway I just removed mine, it just sits in there, and there was no increase in noise that I could detect.
So if you have a Honda and I assume any other portable generator you may want to inspect / clean or remove the spark arrestor.