Predator 212h governor issues?

[J.S.@SMS]

I recently bought my first predator 212 hemi, and I must say, I'm not impressed. I think that something's going on with the governor system. In a field at full throttle (usually while drifting) or at idle, it's pretty dang smooth, but around half throttle the engine cuts in and out like crazy (ex. ricer bouncing off the limiter nearly full time). And on road it'll beat the turd out of you at any amount of throttle, by throwing you back in the seat (good) and then loosing all power and throwing forward (bad) repeatedly at 1-2 second intervals (painful). That I know is the governor, but I'm wondering why it's so bad.

For the rest of the kart, it's a Carter Bros. 2575 with a live axle conversion, 11" unilli slicks in back, 4.10x3-4 knobbies in front, 6" disk brake, and 4.8:1 (48t axle and 10t clutch) with a max torque clutch. Everything is brand new with only a few hours on it.

The engine is still under warranty, so I can return it if need be, but this engine's got me all kinds of confused.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

I think that’s just part throttle governor surge. The best way to cure it is to remove the governor.

 

[itsid]

sure it's the governor, not the low oil sensor?

Sounds a bit odd behaviour for a governor to throw you forward I must say..
(it should throttle you down to 3600 rpm.. soooo no throwing usually.. just surging)

if you can upload a video of it happening (yt and linked here), maybe we can see or hear a potential cause

'sid

 

[J.S.@SMS]

The first thing that I did was unplug the low oil sensor. I figured it wouldn't like drifting. I'll see about getting a video of it. I have been thinking about pulling the governor, though it already does 32 mph by gps. Also, I forgot to mention that it sounds like it's revving a bit high for a stock engine, around the low to mid 4k area if I had to guess. And no, I haven't tampered with the limiter screw.

 

[itsid]

I assume you insulated the low oil sensor cable ends in order to prevent it making contact to the chasis...

so yeah.. governor is indeed the next part to turn to.
I hope you didn't bypassed the governor with your remote cable setup..
since if you did you should really have it removed now!
if you didn't it's indeed off for some odd reason, hard to tell why,
and why it's not working the way it should.

since if your gps is anywhere near correct, you are running at around 4700 rpms at least,
which the governor surely does NOT like too much (and will reward you with catastrophic failure eventually)
So yeah I'd love to see how the throttle is connected tbh..
and maybe you'd want to reset the governor for now (how is in the predator manual AFAIR)
just to be sure you can't accidentally ruin the engine until you find the time to remove it correctly.

'sid

PS wait 4700??? isn't there a Honda coil that limits to about that rpms?

 

[J.S.@SMS]

The throttle is connected the way that I think it should be, the cable housing is held by the clamp on the throttle plate, and the cable goes through the barrel nut on the throttle arm. It's the same as on my non hemi's and the 196 on my minibike. And I don't think it has a honda limiter coil on it since I bought it in the box, from HF, and have done nothing but unplug the oil sensor.

 

[itsid]

I was kinda wondering if HF decided to install a similar coil on the predators
or if rato made such decision...
nevermind..

Well.. 'should' is nice..
the governor OOTB 'should' limit the engine to 3600 rpms...
you're running at 4700 at least,
what can I say.. one of the "should"s clearly failed

'sid

PS and if your engine was returned by a previous customer the governor linkage might still be messed up.. so a pic would still help

 

[J.S.@SMS]

I'll pull the air box and tank this weekend, and get a few pics of the governor linkages and throttle setup. And I forgot to mention that the gps seems to show the same speed as the speed signs the county installed around a few turns that tell you your speed and that you should "slow down" around the corners. And it was showing that the kart was going from 30 or 31 mph to 32 and back when it was on the road.

 

[J.S.@SMS]

Well I pulled the tank this weekend and everything looked like it was hooked up right, but I forgot to get the pics. I was running it some, and it started making a whining like sound (like a mixture of gear whine and valve float) at higher rpm, and it started backfiring when I let off. I'm not one to give up on an engine, I mean I've been working on getting an ohh60 running for about five months, but I think I'm just going to swap this one out for another engine. It's still under warranty, so I really don't see any point in messing around inside it. I'll give you an update when I get a new engine. It'll probably be a non-hemi, I've been using those for a while.

 

[J.S.@SMS]

Well, I returned the old engine today, and swapped it out for a 69730 non hemi. Haven't had time to run it yet, but I've got a good feeling about it.