Picture of EZGO 295 bad valve, just so you all can see

[RSP]

If you have a Robin 4 cycle engine with a cast iron exhaust manifold, That is a PRE-MCI engine and the valves are known for wearing out and going right up into the seat of the head, heres a couple pictures of a prefect example, if you have one of these engines and it seams to be getting weak, this could be whats starting to happen. This problem can be dramatically slowed down if you keep your valves adjusted, book says 4ths i go 6ths. Just food for thought fellas....

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by RSP

If you have a Robin 4 cycle engine with a cast iron exhaust manifold, That is a PRE-MCI engine and the valves are known for wearing out and going right up into the seat of the head, heres a couple pictures of a prefect example, if you have one of these engines and it seams to be getting weak, this could be whats starting to happen. This problem can be dramatically slowed down if you keep your valves adjusted, book says 4ths i go 6ths. Just food for thought fellas....

That's a bummer alright. Those heads are beginning to get hard to find.
I go .004 as spec'd and just do it 2Xs a year as recommended
Too loose and the tappets will hammer on the valve stems.

[tradermark]

Great info! Thanks for sharing that. I had to put new valves and guides in my GXI 804 a few months ago because of the same thing you're showing.

[Goochy]

I heard that the do this , I just bought a 1999 gas robin . Are these engines worth anything running , but smoking some ? I am keeping a close eye on my vavles , they were very tight when I bought it last week . Going to upgrade engine soon .

[ThatGuyJake]

Newb here, what does PRE-MCI mean? I have a 2000 txt with a 295 Robins in it. Do I need to be adjusting valves? Thanks for the insight!

[jlhog]

Can you still have good compression with valves like that? I ask because my 96 TXT has good compression, but seems to lack power.

[RSP]

I also have a great running robin engine that smokes pretty bad, not worth alot of money couple hundred bucks MAX, someone could re-ring that motor and have themselves a good engine then, or someone might need it for farm use or whatever and not care about the smoke, any engine that runs is better than a dead cart. normally these smoking engines still have good rods and good crankshafts it just the pistons and rings are tired out and need replaced. @ Thatguyjake, ya know, im not totally sure, at some point and time word was getting back to Robin that the 295 engine was wearing out faster than it should, mostly the valves, as if the metal the valves were made out of was too soft, these older engines can be identified by the exhaust manifold. The older engines referd to as PRE-MCI have a cast iron exhaust manifold bolted to the cylinder head. Robin updated there engines to make them better, better valves "harder" harder seats in the head for the valves to seal against, improved timing and timing curve for improved performance and a few others small things. These new engines are known as the MCI engine, not sure why they call it that maybe someone else and answer that but it really dont matter anyway, The easy way to tell if you have the newer MCI engine is to look at your exhaust to muffler conection. If your muffler is connected to a rusty cast iron manifold then you have PRE-MCI. The newer engines do not have a exhaust manifold anymore the exhaust port is now part of the actual cyinder head witch is now all aluminum and all one piece. Now dont get me wrong here, the older engines are very good engines and we dont put hours and hours on them like a golf course does. they will run a long, long time, years.@ hog, no..... you will not have good compression with valve like this, the bad part about these stupid valves is that they can start to go bad and we dont catch them soon enough, what happens is they start to wear and then your valve clearance closes up, so we just keep running the engine that awy without knowing and pretty soon they start to burn and wear out pretty fast after that. That is why I started this thread for you ezgo guys so you can keep tabs on your valve clearance. If you set your valves and 3-6 months later you have no valve clearance again and you to adjust them again, I know whats starting to happen and know so do you. The only thing we can do is KEPP THEM VALVES ADJUSTED !!! If anybody wants to see pictures of the two diffrent exhausts i will gladly take a coulpe, I have both engines and they both run great, Just trying to help some of you guys if I can............ RSP



O and one more thing, the muffler connection on the newer MCI engine is rotated alittle more so you cant use the PRE-MCI muffler on the newer MCI engine, it there way to get you to by a new muffler if you upgrade your older engine to the newer engine. BUT if you heat your old muffler pipe with a torch till is cherry red you can just twist it alittle with a pipe wrench on the flange to match the newer engine. Presto......... old muffler fits newer engine.

[Goochy]

When I got my used cart the valves were so tight , it was spitting GAS all over the place !! out the carb , it would fill up air box and pour out . I adj the valves and all is good now .

[archie5150]

I just tore my robins down to the bottom.
When reviewing tolerances for the valves I
Noticed that both my intake valves have
sunk down into the seat.
Will a new valve cure the problem as the seat
doesn't look nearly the same as the exhaust?

[ski-doo583]

The intake valves on the "MCI" engine are still the same as the older engines. So they still wear out just the same
The problem is the intake valves are not hardened enough so they simply wear out.
The intake valve problem started with model year 1997.
1996 and earlier the valves are good.


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