Cold start

[JTSpeedDemon]

I actually lean away from fuel stabilizers if I can, it's extra chemicals and honestly kinda expensive. I know for sure my engine runs best when I put in straight 92 octane premium pump gas in the tank. If I could I would run ethanol free but it's scarce here in the suburbs. I've never had any problems with fuel going bad, we keep a 5-gallon can (the annoying regulation plastic kind) in the garage with said 92 octane pump gas and it's sat for 1-2 months between running empty before just fine, never had any problems with fuel going bad. I've even had a half tank of gas sit in my kart's fuel system for almost two months and then it started first pull when I pulled it out of the garage.
All this combined with a complete carburetor rebuild and some fine tuning has made this thing ridiculously reliable, it starts first pull 9 times out of 10. I really don't think bad gas is as hard to prevent as people make it seem, it really takes awhile to go bad, unless it's that crappy E85 corn juice.
The PO said it's a Chinese kart, let's start there and not get too far off in speculating. Chinese karts almost always have complex fuel systems involving vacuum or electrical components and various fuel flow valves. @bgcrawford1983, let's start with some pictures of your engine area.

 

[bgcrawford1983]

Do you need different pics than the ones I put up abov

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Oh duh, I’m smart.
Nope, those pics are just fine, we mostly needed to know if it was a clone engine or not.

 

[bgcrawford1983]

I have tried everything in this thread. Including running the valves and draining the gas. You either have to crank on it for a long time and hold the governor wide open for it to hit several times and start eventually. Or spray one small spray of starting fluid on the air filter and hits and runs instantly.

 

[jamyers]

Sounds like the choke isn't closing all the way, might pull the air cleaner off, put the bolts back on the carb, and see what's going on while cranking.

Hmmm...when you say you "soaked the carb overnight", did you *completely* disassemble it and blow through *every* tiny little passage? I've had several chinese carbs come right out of the box with debris inside them, the last one I had to remove the throttle butterfly and shaft cause there were metal filings in there causing the throttle to stick - now I disassemble and clean them as a matter of routine.

Also, you might look at the governor / throttle springs, iirc the governor is trying to hold the throttle wide open while starting, regardless of where the throttle is - one of the springs may have come off?

 

[Karttekk]

Do a complete teardown, soaking and cleaning of the carb or pick up a cheap eBay carb to throw on it to eliminate the carb as the source of the problem. Use a bread tie wire to poke through the holes in the carb jets and the emulsion tube while it's apart. You'll get it eventually. Don't get frustrated, it's part of learning how to fix these things.

 

[bgcrawford1983]

Do you have a suggestion of a carb that is a direct replacement?

 

[Karttekk]

What brand kart is that? These Predator carbs look to be the same. Provide the brand name, that would help but any of these SHOULD work.

Predator 212 CARBURETOR for sale | eBay

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[madprofessor]

BGC, if you want the real deal, no chances taken, from N.C., USA, your choice from blueprinted, hemi, non-hemi, outlaw carbs or rebuild kits:
Go to Ebay, type Holey Moses, yes with that e in Holey, into the search bar. You'll see everything from my performance guy that's right for you. "Contact seller", Jerry will tell you outright that other people are building time bombs, but that he'll only sell you the real deal that's right for you.
If you're going to get a new carb just to get easy carefree correct fix right anyway, tell Jerry about your carb problem, and if you want to stay stock or boost horsepower.
I use them exclusively for jacking up my engines. 6.5hp current 212 engine is now 15+hp, last one became about 12hp.
Tell them "originalmrfixit" sent you.

 

[madprofessor]

About those carbs: Costs are about $55 for stock, $65-$70 for blueprinted, $99 for outlaw.

 

[bgcrawford1983]

Thanks guys. I'm not real sure of the brand I bought it from redfoxpowersports.com

 

[Karttekk]

Try the generic carb, if it doesn't help you're only out $20.00 or so.

 

[jamyers]

REading back through, your choke isn't choking like it ought to. Pull the air cleaner clear off and see what it's doing while you crank.

 

[bgcrawford1983]

It is closed all the way when I pull it out. It's manual.

 

[jamyers]

OK, my next suggestion is to completely cover/plug the carb inlet with your thumb while cranking. If it starts, then the choke function isn't working, which (according to this check sheet) would indicate some dirt in there somewhere.

 

[Snaker]

Once it starts I can turn the choke off and it runs perfect.

If this post and #1 are accurate and still pertinent, I suspect your choking technique. A warmed engine that cools down for 20 minutes could be in a state that it needs a tad bit of choke but not full choke, maybe not even any of the partial detent settings.

If so, try the lowest choke setting for a quick pull and immediately switch to choke off, whether it starts or not.
Then pull with no choke till it starts or several pulls.
Try again as necessary.

 

[madprofessor]

A while back I fought like hell with a hard to start engine, sometimes would, sometimes not. When cranked I couldn't make it run decent without having some choke on it, kept dying when I hit the throttle. NOTE: My engine's highly modified, none of those factory stickers about gas on/off and choke on it anymore. See where I'm going?
I got confused on which way the lever was supposed to go for choke, so I was always doing exactly the opposite of what I intended with the choke lever. Had to pull off the air filter and adapter to see the choke in action, voila, backwards.