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Honda 160 stalling after one minute

13 years ago

I'm looking at a genuine Honda 160 with OHC. Starts easily, and runs flawlessly for one minute, starts to miss, and stalls, sometimes backfiring before it does.

Gas is clean, and runs full flow out of the carb bowl for 30 seconds. Immediately after it stalled, I pulled the valve cover and there was sufficient valve lash at TDC. Removing gas cap does not help. Engine is spotless and well maintained.

The only thing I can think of is the internals of the carb. What do you guys think?

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Comments (9)

canguy
13 years ago
Close the coil air gap to .008, it may make a difference.
baymee
Original Author
13 years ago
I thought I'd find the valve settings on google, but no luck. Do you know them?
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Ray, It sounds like you've probably covered all the bases except for buying the new parts or a new carb, but just a couple of more thoughts to throw out. As I said you've likely done this, but if not, have you made sure the gas tank screen is unclogged? And this is silly perhaps, but if you could stomach taking the carb apart again without rebuilding it, and under the assumption that the float valve is sticking, you could mount the needle in an electric drill and with very fine wet/dry silicone-carbide paper (600 grit or finer maybe), gently reshape the rubber tip so that it has an ever so slightly more blunt profile. If you think about it, if the tip develops a sharper angle than the valve seat, it will tend to stick in the hole at the end of the cone shaped seat, like a cork in a bottle. But if the tip is the same shape as the seat, or slightly more blunt, the elastic forces that develop in the tip will tend to push it off the seat, rather than anchoring it there. I've never tried this, but if you're going to buy new parts anyway, and have the time... Jim
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lbpod
13 years ago
Maybe a valve seat is riding is riding
up, upon warm up?
baymee
Original Author
13 years ago
Then it would have to reset itself because within 5 minutes of shutdown, I had the valve cover off and there was plenty of gap.
tomplum
13 years ago
.004 each will do on these. If compression seems good when it shuts down, it could be a fluke coil. I assume a shot of carb spray fails to revive it? The only thing I've seen similar is the gummy valve stems. Once it starts, follow through w/ bursts of carb spray to help clean them.
ewalk
13 years ago
Start with the Simple Bay , (KISS) You know the Program . Start as Tom advises with the Carb Cleaning Route and (or) Top End Lubricant cleaner should the Valves look suspect ? Then perhaps Coil Load Testing or the Baking Trial . Just a Question , Compression and Spark Plug are Optimium ?
baymee
Original Author
13 years ago
I siliconed the valve cover back on today and will check the coil air gap, spark, and carb trick tomorrow. I just love engines that use silicone instead of gaskets on their valve covers.

I guess they're trying to tell us that their engines are so good, you never need to remove the valve cover.
baymee
Original Author
13 years ago
Update: The unit is running. I tried the carb cleaner and not the coil adjustment. I started it and intermittently sprayed carb cleaner into the throttle body. After about 5 minutes, it kept running. (It never threatened to stall) At that point I added an ounce or two of sea foam to tank 1/4 full and put it aside where it ran for about 30 minutes without stalling. Case closed, for now.
ewalk
13 years ago
Bay: Good to hear you seem to have the problem solved. Should it reoccur , try checking the plug colouration if lighter than normal check for intake gasket leakage . The back firing scenario may indicate sucking air , but also can be from carb related cleaning requirement as you have found.

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