General engine advice questions

[mudpie]

Howdy. I've been lurking for a while, but this is my first post. I have no idea at all what I'm doing, so I suspect I'll be asking lots of dumb questions with obvious answers.

I recently picked up a motor that I want to put on a kart. The guy told me it was once a portable water pump, used by a fire department somewhere. Obviously the water pump part is gone, but the motor runs great.

My main question at this point is the opening on the front cover where obviously a switch used to be. It's marked with "ON" and "OFF", with a picture of an oil can. Any idea what this would be for? Would that have something to do with whatever this motor was attached to? I'm guessing this motor doesn't have a pressurized oiling system, and if it did, why would you want a switch to turn it off?

Also, what's the significance of the designation "Industrial Plus"?

I picked this motor up for no particular reason other than it seemed like a good deal ($100). Ultimately I intend to do my riding in a local State Forest, with lots of logging roads, and narrow trails. I don’t need, or want, to go 50 mph. My main goal will be torque for climbing. Any thoughts in general on the use of this motor for that purpose would be appreciated.

 

[the-cyborg]

First off thats a great find might I say.
The backlit rocker switch was for a low oil warning, I recommend disabling the low oil sensor for kart use anyway, because of the oil sloshing around while on a kart sometimes gives a false low oil warning and shuts the engine down.

2. Industrial Plus means just that.
It was specially designed to be more durable, and reliable for applications such as the fire pump it came off of.

 

[Bluethunder3320]

thats a great motor. $100 thats a great deal, too, wish i could have one of those.

 

[Ghanem]

Hey Nice engine these engines are really powerful
Thanks

 

[mudpie]

The backlit rocker switch was for a low oil warning, I recommend disabling the low oil sensor for kart use anyway,

So, if I'm getting this right, when it was hooked up, the low oil warning was on a rocker switch and could be turned off? It would seem to me that it's currently disabled with the switch gone. Wouldn't it be better to hook it back up, but use the rocker switch to turn it off when I'm bouncing around in the woods, rather than just disable it all together?

I'm confused. It happens a lot.

 

[mckutzy]

The kill switch might have been routed through that oil sensor to turn it off.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

I'm not ready to believe the switch had anything to do with the low oil sensor except maybe a light- seems hinky to me. More likely that the switch is just the kill switch. I cannot see a need for a disable-able low oil system given that these engines are generally designed for stationary applications. Is there any evidence of ANOTHER kill switch on it?

 

[mudpie]

I thought it was a little odd too. Why have an on/off switch connected to anything oil related? Why would you turn off the oil?

There is evidence of another switch, or maybe something that's part of the same system. In the pic below, you can see a wire with a bolt on it. Just above that is another wire loosly connected to a tab. That's how I kill the engine. When not connected, it runs, and to shut it off I ground that wire.

I would have assumed the missing switch was simply a general on/off switch for the motor. Gotta shut it off somehow, right? If not for that little oil can symbol, I wouldn't have given it a second thought.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

The tab on the throttle control is for killing the engine by throttling down all the way. Disable it for kart use by unplugging the wire- you can run the wire to a switch later- the other terminal of that switch just needs a good ground.

 

[mudpie]

Eventually, since it's got electric start, I was going to wire it to a kill switch on the steering column. The place I plan to ride is shared with people on horses. I'd like to be able to shut it off if I'm in a situation where I don't want to spook a passing 1500 pound animal.

 

[gvfc2]

could it possibly have an oil pump?

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Doubtful. Don't usually see pressure-oiling on an engine that small. However, look for an oil filter, they usually go hand-in-hand with pressurized oiling.

 

[the-cyborg]

They usually had a low oil sensor similar to the honda's and clones that would illuminate the kill switch and shut down the engine in the event of a low oil condition. Its just there as a visual to let you know why it shutdown, I have a generator that has it setup this way. but the rocker switch itself is just a manual kill switch.

 

[mudpie]

I've seen some of the engines with pressurized oiling, and filters. This definitely isn't one of them. I went to my local small engine repair guy, who I've found in the past to be pretty brilliant. He was baffled. He said it should be just a basic on/off switch, and had no clue what the oil symbol was for. The only guess we could make was that it was a multi-function switch that was used to turn the motor on or off, and also lit up when the oil level was low. He said it was just a guess though.

On the plus side, he told me the "Industrial Plus" designation meant that it had a hardened exhaust valve seat, some type of high temperature exhaust valve (I think he said titanium), an exhaust valve rotator that prevented one side of the valve from getting burned, a dual element intake filter, and a steel sleeve cylinder liner. I was pretty happy with that.