I went to PVT week before last and purchased a carb spacer for the stock carb and also a carb adapter to install a 34mm mikuni. Al, told me to drill the jets in the stock carb and add the spacer and it should run pretty good. Oh yea...this is for a 23hp w/ cam... What are your thoughts about modding the stock carb and keeping the governor or setup the mikuni and having to purchase the rev limiter, throttle cable, etc. He said he has some 23's with stock carb that are flying.

Really?? No one has an opinion!! Did hell freeze over??

This is how I modified my carb. Went to harbor freight and purchased the small drill bit set. It has all the sizes you will need to drill out your main jet.

First remove main jet then test fit various drill bits to see which one is your stock main jet size.

Go up a couple of sizes at a time. Run your motor and read your plug. Do this over and over again until you find the best setting for your motor.

Go to affordable go karts (how to section) they explain all the mods step by step.

Good luck !

rudyeng thanks for the reply. I understand the process, I was really looking for pros/cons of modding the stock carb vs switching over to the mikuni.

Has anyone modded the stock carb and then switched over to a mikuni? Was it night and day or about the same? I have all of the stuff to mod the stock carb, I do not have all of the parts to switch over to the mikuni and if it doesn't make that much difference, then I'll probably stick with the stock carb.

The stock carb will never be as smooth and as good as a mikuni!!! Mikuni is worth every penny IMO.

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See if you can pm deadbird8. I believe Gary runs a stock carb that has been modded. And he def knows what the hell he is talking about.

Gary runs a mikuni, and I don't ever remember him running a 23.. marsh chicken, you are 0 for 3

Thanks for the response guys.

I took the stock carb apart last night and there isn't a jet one that can be removed. I'm not sure if B&S changes the carbs or what but I had it completely disassembled and nothing. Its like the jets are molded into each part of the carb. I added a new carb spacer that I got from PVT but I doubt I will see any gains from that.

I will be moving to the 34mm mikuni over the next few weeks. Any recommendations on jet sizes and is anyone running a rev limiter that didn't come from BPS?

I went teal hunting/scouting this weekend and the F#*KING governor/linkage kept surging. I am baffled as to why B&S puts such a mikey mouse gov. setup on these engines. Then my idler pulley broke off and the belt came off. When I designed the frame, I started with a 4x6 rectangle tube, so if the belt breaks or comes off, I have to disassemble the entire frame I was so pissed off. I went home and pulled all of the stock carb stuff off.


Since the governor is still on the cam, I just hooked a spring to the heat shield. The gov arm will move but it doesn't control anything.

I have a new throttle cable on order from BPS, a carb adapter on order to mount my 34mm mikuni to my PVT intake. PVT intake below.


As soon as everything comes in, I'll reassemble the engine and get it running.

I am ordering a 4x8 rectangle tube and going with a shorter belt. This new design will allow me to change the belt w/o disassembling the entire frame.

Tick tock......

Based on you can't figure out how to get it to stop surging (gov not set right), & then the Afro engineering solution you used on the gov arm, that's tick tock KABOOM.
I admire your drive to build it yourself but the gov gear needs to be disabled or removed if you're gonna use a Mikuni. Otherwise you're gonna end up with one of these

which will cause this

which will lead to this

which will end up costing you A LOT of this
$$$$$$$$$$$

I'm not sure what that gov it out of but the gov. in my 23 has fly weights and rides on the cam. This is not my cam but it looks the same.


Its not a gear driven gov. and after talking to Al at PVT he said I had one of three options for the gov arm....I could use a block and lock it down but it would wear on the cam, I could use a spring and hook it to the arm (which is what I have done) or I could open the case and remove the gov. from the cam shaft. I don't plan on opening the case again, right now, so the gov. is going to stay on the cam.

I will be running a rev limiter with this setup, so I don't see why it shouldn't work..

You need to open the case and cut or remove the govenor arm completely if you are not going to be using it. Remove any doubt

Got the intake, carb, and filter on. I still have to change some jets in the carb but its mocked up.