Honda Clone Governor Removal (Duromax) - Seized Engine

teesee150

I've been running a Duromax 16hp in my club car for a couple of days and I removed the govenor because the governor was fighting my throttle the entire time and made it almost impossible to drive the cart. Everytime there was load, the governor would fight the pedal/throttle and it made for a very jerky ride. I ended up removing the governor and ran it that way. I was running open an open pipe. The open pipe was probably about 3 to 3.5 feet long and just dumped under the cart.
Right before the motor had seized, I ran the stock muffler to the back of the cart using 1.25" exhaust pipe and mandrel bends. After I got the muffler on, I took it out for a ride, and after about 15 minutes, it felt like the brakes were dragging. I got off the cart, check it out and everything seemed fine. I got back on the car and under full throttle, it felt like the brakes were dragging again. At this point, the cart would only run at about 1/4 throttle. I limped it back up to my garage and got off. I came back to the cart about 10 minutes later and the motor had seized.
Has anyone else removed the governor and had problems from revving the motor to high? From my understanding, these motors would run fine without the governor. I'm not sure what else would have caused it to seize. The engine oil was fresh and was filled to the full mark on the dipstick. Everything was stock on the motor except strong valve springs (purchased from affordablegokarts.com), governor removed, open pipe and eventually the muffler moved to the back of the cart.
The engine was fairly new. I've had it for a couple of months but probably had less than 5 hours on the motor as it took my awhile to finish the conversion.

BGW

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sho305

We just put one in, took the governor out before we even started. I've read some of them do this in minibikes and gokarts, they just slow down and are finished. Time for a rod. I don't know only have about 2 hours on this one, took a few top speed runs but I'd say it only hit same rpm the yamaha has been at for the last 11 years when I took the governor off that. I didn't keep it there very long only like a 100 yard run at most, due to it not being broken in. I have read they say to change out the oil fairly quickly, but how quick is that? I've read they have found them with loose rod bolts and other poor assembly causing problems but that was a couple years back and few problems today. If you had full oil in it and didn't start off hitting 5K with it all the time I'd say it was nothing you did. This one is a carolstream 16hp, it says Lifan at the bottom of the sticker. I had to jet it way up to run right but using a car airbox and car muffler. The rockers were really loose on this but don't think that would cause this. I figure lack of break in (which you hardly need on well built engines these days in my experience) or bad part or assembly. We used to build 500hp big block GM for boats and run them 6500rpm wot for miles at a time the same day we bolted the crank in, though most were used motors with new bearings/cam/heads/etc. The guy that went on to work for a nascar team always said its going to break now or later, so floor it, said that about a minute after the cam was broke in and that was 20 minutes run time. Only other thing I can think of is high angle of operation since its a splash engine, I don't know how far it goes before its out of oil The arm is pretty long on the rod. If you can't warranty it at least the parts are quite cheap, just the time to take it out.

teesee150

I took it easy on the motor to break it in. I had the governor on it during this period. Also went through a couple of heat cycles (let motor get to temp then sit and cool completely off). The motor was running great until it seized. The oil was still extremely clean when I checked it.

I've also read about the loose rod bolts but this doesn't seem to be related to that. There was never any knocking before this happened. Also never noticed any valve float or pinging.

sho305

It was just too tight maybe. I've read different things on oil too some say use thin oil so it gets in tight places for break in, but it should not be an issue I didn't see any special proceedures in the manual. Have you looked inside yet? Can you warranty it?

We took the governor shaft out, then pressed the sprocket wheel pin out of the side cover and removed that, then pressed just the pin back into the cover. There are no parts left in there, we threaded the shaft hole 1/8 pipe and plugged it after the fuel pump would not work there should have known that was oil central.

It has to be lack of oil or it was just too tight to handle any rpm, but I would expect it should handle max governor speed out of the box that is 3600? I don't think we have run ours much above that it just does not pull up there, but my tach batteries died on me last weekend when I tried to check it. Anyway, it was running about the same speed as a stock G9 engine with no governor on flat ground and 22" tires.

bordin34

Take the side cover off, maybe they forgot to put on the oil splasher?

sho305

Come up with anything on this? I can only find info on clones mostly in the minibike and karting forums.

teesee150

I just picked up the replacement parts from the manufacturer today.

Manufacturer took a look at it and doesn't have any idea why it seized. But the connecting rod seized to the crank. Everything else in the motor looked fine.

I should have the motor back together tomorrow.

Freezeman

It's too late to measure what the rod/crank clearance was, but I would make sure your new crank and rod clearance is checked before finial assembly.
I don't think I would want anything less than .0025 or more than .004
Also check the run out of the crank, it doesn't take much to hammer and gull a stock cast aluminum rod. 1 fold increase in RPM is about double the amount of friction drag and stress on the block/crank. While it's apart be sure to look carefully around the blocks bearing pockets for any signs of cracking as the parts are cheep and thin too.

sho305

I took the side cover off to remove the governor, but we didn't poke around in there much. I checked to see the splasher and for any metal shavings/etc and grabbed the rod and shafts/etc, everything looked good so back together it went. Its still running well just too rich I must have went too far on the jetting have to tone it down. Plug is black, runs hard wot though actually had the cart sideways in gravel last weekend taking off. It just rips up hills with two people on it. I raced my stock cart against it and it just wastes it so bad its not funny.

wilddonkey

Hey my 16hp clone just did the same thing. Rod is seized to the crank. Glad its still under warranty