Hi, I keep seeing people mention removing the governor on their Vanguard 18hp but I haven't seen any real step by step info. Can someone walk me through it?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Do people (6x6 user) really remove their Governor? I kind of vaguely recall reading the same thing a while ago. I was tempted to do the same on some of my small engines but did a lot of research into the matter and found it was mostly a myth for superior performance.
In competitive lawn mower racing the best thing you can do in stock class is KEEP your governor and I’ll explain why.
The governor is sort of a smart throttle. If you pin the gas and the machine encounters little enough resistance to rev into the danger territory the governor steps in and drops the throttle. Since your engine has to be under so little load as to ping max RPM gaining more RPM by having no governor will not increase power since there wasn’t enough load in the first place to need whatever the baseline of power the engine made. IE Your 8HP engine makes 8 HP at 3,400 RPM To attain more RPM the engine has to be under less load say using 5HP so at 3,600 RPM you don’t need more RPM. If removing the Governor to increase top speed at reduced power past the power band it would be a better idea to change your gear ratio so you extract more power and put more load on the engine in the first place.
2nd The Governor increases engine power. The majority of small combustion engines where designed to be run at full power for continuous use. IE a lawn mower, compressor, generator, snow blower, etc. You pin the throttle and the engine runs at max RPM attempting to make max power. Any time there is less load the RPM stays the same, fuel consumption simply drops with load.
When these devises encountered a shock load IE a bunch of heavy snow or deep wet grass the governor senses the drop in RPM and increases throttle and power beyond the rating of the engine momentarily. Essentially raising the RPM rev limiter. This is the reason why a snow blower etc seems to serge in power momentarily when submitted to heavy load. In racing lawn mowers this is very useful as it allows more power than the rated HP of the engine in the class.
Now by removing the Governor you also remove the engines ability to increase its power band into this (reserved) RPM range. Sure YOU now have unlocked the ability to manually throttle up the engine into this range whenever and for as long as you like but you better pay attention since any more or longer use than needed is putting the engine under strain.
To summarize. The governor restricts excessive damaging RPM when the power is not needed. While increases the power of the engine beyond its normal levels in emergencies with protection from damage.
To remove it. You have to be cautious not to over exert into the same RPM limit the Governor allows under its own control for too long or when not needed.
It is not to say performance is not gained. A machine going downhill under no load will engine break when the Governor slows the rpm to 3,400. But without one you can go downhill as fast as you dare. That is primarily the way I see it. With no Governor you increase the top speed under no load or less load. Not increase in power, just increased top speed on smooth ground / downhill.
When you push past the performance limits of any device what you get is reduced longevity. No exception. That said there is a balance for performance over life. If you go from 2000 hours of service life to 400 hours but gain twice the power to me that would be more than acceptable. Also I speak from experience with 5,8,10 HP B&S engines. The Vanguards from what I have read can be pushed considerably harder and may work great with no Governor.
Removing the governor requires reworking the throttle linkage as the link on the carb butterfly is not connected to the throttle cable but the governor. I have reworked the throttle cable bell crank to push a wire link to the butterfly crank arm. you are better off bending the governor tang to increase the RPM. You should also shim the springs if you are running above 4200 to prevent valve float. also remove the exhaust port sheet metal reducers. Dont expect big gains with the governor removal. The best gain will be throttle response and elimination of the throttle hesitation.
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