HF Predator into a Ez Go workhorse info and pics

tomshell

I got the motor at my local HF. No coupons,no discounts,no way to save any money on it unless you can catch it on sale. I pissed and moaned and tried, but to no avail.





Here it is out of the carton.






I peeked in the instructions and noticed that it has several choices in jet size. The installed ones are good from sea level to 3000 feet. Included in the box was a high altitude jet kit. It came with 2 kits, one for 3-6000 feet and one for 6-8000 feet. I am at 7150 so the latter should be perfect.




Here is the air cleaner housing off, showing the intake manifold.




Carb It is kind of a cool carburetor,I hope it works well. Jets were an easy swap,and an interesting thing to note is that one side is leaner than the other. Stock jets were 108 and 105, and the ones I used are 102 and 99.




I had a friend help me drop it in place after we did a 100 mile "trail ride" on dirt bikes in the rain and hail.





The mounting holes lined up very close. I got all 4 mount bolts in place without having to redrill or make new slots in the mount plate.The alignment is slightly off, maybe 3/8" or so. I used two large 1" ID steel washers as a shim, do you all think that is ok? I do not want to have to make new slots on the mounting plate just to move it 1/2".






I was able to "borrow" a belt off a snowmobile of mine that fits perfectly, as the one on the original motor was slightly too long. Oh yeah, how tight should this belt be?






The throttle,choke and ignition switch/starter are mounted on a black steel box that hangs off the side. I disconnected the choke and located it on the engine hoist bracket. If I need access to the choke on a regular basis, I will move it on the panel where the shifter is. The cable was not long enough or I would have already.
My existing throttle cable was too long, so I cut some off and attached it.





Now all I have to do to drive it is get the ignition switch to the dash, tighten motor mounts and clutch bolt, fill it with oil and gas, and try it out.
After I have some fun, I still have to:
Connect gas tank.
Relocate and/or add a fan to the oil cooler(maybe,not sure if it is needed)
Get some LED lights on this thing
Change the rear end fluid
Do the rear brakes

If there is interest, i will post an update when it is driveable in a few days.

BGW

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raydhd

IMHO I think you should have left the richer jets in. But wow you got a lot done.

tomshell

Why? I have rejeted motorcycle and quads routinely up here at 7K feet. Do you think it came from factory too lean already?

raydhd

Yeah epa lean

tomshell

I will run it first time and then take a look at the plugs. Maybe then I will drop down to the next size. Thanks for the tip, I will definitely post pics of the plugs when I get it going.

raydhd

That should tell the story.

backwoodboys11

if it is like mine go ahead and find a choke cable. i have to choke it everytime i start it when its cold.

tomshell

I surely will need to, as it does get **** cold in this part of Arizona.

smokindawg

Interested in what you think of it when your done. Not many have used that engine here yet, but more interested in it possibly and having someone running one to tell how they like it will help them make a decision.

tomshell

Cut the stock wire harness because it was only long enough to reach the controls on the side of the motor. I wanted to use the factory ignition switch, so I just stretched the harness by about 4 feet. I used solder and heat shrink for the splices and wrapped the whole thing. Nothing is worse than a crappy wire splice that fails in a few months...








Put some fuel lines on this morning, and cranked. And cranked......Seemed like forever. I would crank about 15 seconds and let the starter motor cool. Finally, she coughed into life. I immediately hopped on and drove it! At first, I was quite impressed. But the excitement wore off quickly. The motor, after starting off well, suddenly would not rev over 2000 RPM or so. WTF? Turns out the throttle cable kept slipping, and I was not able to rev the motor up! I tried several fixes, but ultimately what I did you can see in the pics. I added a cable stop, which I scrounged out of some dirt bike parts. Ya know, that part that the brake cable seats in on the brake lever. That stopped the sheath from slipping.






I also ditched the poorly designed throttle cable clamp, which was a real pain to try to tighten up well. It was in a bad spot and the Phillips head screw did not afford me the ability to really cinch it down. So I took a small bolt and drilled a hole through it for the cable to pass. I added a few washers as clamps and now I was able to tighten it with 2 wrenches and there is much more surface areea to grab the cable. Fixed.





Then I drove it about 3 or 4 minutes. I used my phone to measure speed, and only got up to about 15. Then I remembered raydhd's comment on this forum about not rejetting the carb for high altitude. So I took the carb off again, and here are the plug pics. Remember, not much run time, but pure white. Seems pretty lean to me.






So, I took the "max high altitude" jets out. I installed one side (remember ones is leaner than the other). The second one starting galling 1/2 way in. I took my time, working it in and then slightly out. It was no use, it galled in place and it was not going in or coming out. Especially after the brass "ears" on the flimsy slot broke off. I figured that the threads on this jet were probably the problem. I very carefully drilled it out and used an ezout to extract it. Wow. That could have been bad. Not sure what HF would have done, replace the carb? Tell me to return the motor for another? Phew.....














I put everything back together and ran it again. With the throttle cable issue fixed, and the jetting changed, now it starts better and revs to the governor. What a difference! I actually took it down a wash board level dirt road and got it up to 20 ,in about 1/8 of a mile. It is really torquey, and spins the wheels a bit, and quickly reaches 14 or 15 or so. That last 3-4 mph took a bit longer. Remember, the governor is hooked up. I believe I will leave it as is, at least til the motor goes through its paces and break in period. than maybe I will look for some more top end,well see. I pulled the plugs again, and one still looks white, but the other has a nice tan tint to it. Still maybe too lean? I will run it some more, and maybe have to make another jetting change.






Also, the exhaust on these points right at the driver, so I put a temp galvanized pipe on after the muffler. That cant be too good for aspiration, so I will decide what to do with the exhaust next. I may take the old Kohler exhaust and cut it up for the flanges, and weld my own header up. Does anyone know if the flange size is the same? The look real close....Exhaust slit to accelt a pipe nipple and clamp.











Now on to some more testing. And some lights.