Motorcycles, Snowmobiles, Go-Carts, ATV's and Golf Carts - tecumseh power sport needs more speed

hey guys, im nineteen years old and i am pretty good with engines, but i am trying to figure out two things on my thunder kart with a 5 horsepower tecumseh engine. i got it about 6 years ago and stopped riding it about 3 years ago but just got it running again yesterday by replacing the carborator. but it has started sputtering alot and hesitating when i try to open it up. its not the carborator and i checked the spark plug and the air filter and they are fine. any ideas? secondly, it tops out at about 28 mph. how can i get it faster? thanks

bearcat

I would start by giving the carburetor a good cleaning (disassemble & soak) and make sure all the internal passages and jets are clear. I would also drain and clean the fuel tank just to make sure no dirt or varnish from old gas or long term storage gets into the carb.

Youll notice multiple holes where the spring is on the govener. moving that spring to another hole will increase your speed. Then if your really good tear it down, remove the govener assembly cut the ports open with a dremel, bore the carb with a small brake cylinder hone and hook up throttle cable directly to the carb with some fabricating. The thing with the Tecumseh is they didnt breath real well and were not capable of the RPMs that Briggs could offer so careful with the red line.

hey guys, im nineteen years old and i am pretty good with engines, but i am trying to figure out two things on my thunder kart with a 5 horsepower tecumseh engine. i got it about 6 years ago and stopped riding it about 3 years ago but just got it running again yesterday by replacing the carborator. but it has started sputtering alot and hesitating when i try to open it up. its not the carborator and i checked the spark plug and the air filter and they are fine. any ideas? secondly, it tops out at about 28 mph. how can i get it faster? thanks

bearcat

I have a question out there for the Pilot right now, so I am not going to step in his shoes with advice for the sputtering, but the top speed issue:
1.you could change out the sprocket, smaller sprocket means more top end (at the sacrifice of low end torque)
2.the stock exhaust on my tecumseh was crap. So my son and I fabricated a 14" straight header out of 3/4" electrical conduit.
3.loose some weight...not you, the cart.
4. sealed bearings in all the wheels creates for less friction which equals more speed.
5. find a nice steep hill with a 25 mph tail wind! :cool:

good luck

You could follow mower monkey's strategy but the engine certainly would not last very long. Over speeding these engines results in the rod dipper carving a trough in the oil, it might as well be running with no oil at all.

The splash lubrication works pretty well even when at very high rpm's. Most stock classes of kart racing require you to use the stock oil dipper and are routinely run with rpm's in the 6-7'000 range. A common cheat is to shorten the dipper so it is splashing even less oil (all that splashing causes drag and robs power). The basic problem is that engine life is dramatically shortened any time you work an engine beyond what it was designed for.