Anyone know how to tune a small Honda engine?

[89911]

I have a Honda snowblower that is idling unevenly. It starts fine, but it continually revs up and down. When I speed up the throttle, it still does this. It also is backfiring during these cycles. It seems the only time it evens out is when the engine is under load, moving a lot of snow, that it levels out. I think this Honda engine has a governor that kicks in during this period. I have cleaned out the carb and removed all the old gas. Even ran some Sea Foam through it to see if this fixes it. Any other thoughts?

[Mrmerlin]

do you have any dogs?? or cats??


If you do some more investigation, IE remove the top cover of the engine where the pull starter is , you should find a plastic wing inside the housing, this is the governor it is attached to a spring and it works by being blown closed by the speeding up of the engine.
Anyway if there are debris inside the cover they may be blocking its travel,
usually dog or cat hairs or even a rodents nest.
Please post if you find anything.
Also if you took the carb off the engine its quite possible that the return rod isnt in the correct hole or the return spring may also be incorrectly positioned.
See if adding some spring pressure changes its operation.
NOTE the way you describe the operation sounds about right though the throttle is probably moving too far either way.
The motor should speed up then slow down and continue this way though not with huge RPM changes, till you open the throttle and then put the engine under load then it should operate at more or less constant speed also held in check with the same governor so it wont over rev

[red-beard]

Replace carb. Honda carbs do poorly with E10. Try to find 100% gasoline.

I have a couple of hondas than need new carbs, plus my dad's powerwasher.

[Hugh R]

Thank you for that Red. I have a Honda 2000 watt generator. Where can you buy 100% gasoline in Los Angeles, local airport, maybe race gas at Willow Springs, but that's like 60 miles away?

Oh, and what's a snow blower? Is that like snorting blow and getting a hummer at the same time?

[89911]

Originally Posted by Mrmerlin

do you have any dogs?? or cats??


If you do some more investigation, IE remove the top cover of the engine where the pull starter is , you should find a plastic wing inside the housing, this is the governor it is attached to a spring and it works by being blown closed by the speeding up of the engine.
Anyway if there are debris inside the cover they may be blocking its travel,
usually dog or cat hairs or even a rodents nest.
Please post if you find anything.
Also if you took the carb off the engine its quite possible that the return rod isn't in the correct hole or the return spring may also be incorrectly positioned.
See if adding some spring pressure changes its operation.
NOTE the way you describe the operation sounds about right though the throttle is probably moving too far either way.
The motor should speed up then slow down and continue this way though not with huge RPM changes, till you open the throttle and then put the engine under load then it should operate at more or less constant speed also held in check with the same governor so it wont over rev

How about it being left in an unheated barn for 15 years? We do have a problem with mice building nest in my yard equipment. I will pull off the cover and see what I can find. Thanks again. I did tinker around with the idling adjustment screw and this did help a little. This does stem back to me removing the carburetor bowl a few years ago and found gas that had been gelled. I cleaned it out and reassembled. Seemed to be the start of the problem. (Maybe I should of included that bit in the first post?)

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Thank you for that Red. I have a Honda 2000 watt generator. Where can you buy 100% gasoline in Los Angeles, local airport, maybe race gas at Willow Springs, but that's like 60 miles away?

Step 1 is buy Briggs & Stratton if you only can access E10. Race gas, Av Gas, not cheap. The problem is an air leak. I've tried fixing mine, but no good. I think the needle valve needs replacing. The carbs are available online for about $60.

[89911]

Think I have found the problem. Thanks for directing me to the eventual source.


If you see that fine spring end, it must of come off during my rebuild a few years ago. Looks to be some kind of dampening spring for the governor. This is what was moving back and forth causing the surging. If you look below it, you see a small black tab that the end of the spring hooks into. Thanks again.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Thank you for that Red. I have a Honda 2000 watt generator. Where can you buy 100% gasoline in Los Angeles, local airport, maybe race gas at Willow Springs, but that's like 60 miles away?

Oh, and what's a snow blower? Is that like snorting blow and getting a hummer at the same time?

Airports all sell 100LL (100 octane Low Lead) that works great in small engines like this. I put it in my small things around the house as it does not "age" as normal gasoline does. Will sit for 6-8 months with no issues.

We need photos of this "snorting while getting a hummer" activity to make sure!

[Kirk Gordon]

this problem sucks. I encountered this issue on my honda odyssey for several times. got to replace some honda odyssey parts before the tuning was done.

[Kirk Gordon]

Hi there man. Done with this? Are you referring to your Honda odyssey engine?hmmm..Guess a lot of honda odyssey owners are having defective honda odyssey parts. I guess honda manufacturers should take a closer look on their parts.