"NellyBelle" Craftsman LT1000 [2018 Build-Off Entry]

Nice work. Messing with engines to see what boosts power is fun. Did you just remove the weights from the governor assembly or the whole gear? If I'm not mistaken the actual gear splashes oil around and you're just supposed to remove the weights so you don't loose any lubrication. I could be wrong though. Nice job either way.

Nice work here.  That's clever to use that elbow to adapt to some kind or snorkel tubing or pipe.

What's this side gap business?  I've never heard of anything like that.

I believe the idea behind the side gapped plugs is to allow for the spark to be more exposed due to the ground not obstructing it as much. It's a trick some guys use in their cars for racing or what have you. Aparently it works good but wears down the electrode funny because the spark is arcing at more of an angle.

Look on ebay there are cheap Briggs Carbs for 14,5HP OHVs.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Nice work. Messing with engines to see what boosts power is fun. Did you just remove the weights from the governor assembly or the whole gear? If I'm not mistaken the actual gear splashes oil around and you're just supposed to remove the weights so you don't loose any lubrication. I could be wrong though. Nice job either way.

Huh, I've never seen that before.  Anyone else heard that?  Thanks!

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Nice work here.  That's clever to use that elbow to adapt to some kind or snorkel tubing or pipe.

What's this side gap business?  I've never heard of anything like that.

Thanks!  What Allis said, basically.  Provides a cleaner burn.  After I did it, I had to turn down my idle, so basically boosts RPMs with just the stock amount of gas.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

I believe the idea behind the side gapped plugs is to allow for the spark to be more exposed due to the ground not obstructing it as much. It's a trick some guys use in their cars for racing or what have you. Aparently it works good but wears down the electrode funny because the spark is arcing at more of an angle.

SebastianAlbrecht wrote:

Look on ebay there are cheap Briggs Carbs for 14,5HP OHVs.

Okay, thanks!

Reassembled the clutch with an adjustable spring tensioner:




Works great, now I can really tighten down on that clutch

Then I put the front axle back together:




Need to trim down the through bolt, lol.

And one of the MANY things I love about Craftsmans:



Premade front end lockers!  All you have to do is slide a bolt through the 2 holes and the front end articulation is locked!  Will be handy for when I am racing to have a bit more stability.

Talking trannys, should I run the MST or rebuild the 920?

920s state:




In the long run, I do plan to run a Peerless 600, when I can find one.  I am not a huge fan of 820z, they seem overrated to me.  Thin cases, reverse chain, shift keys, etc.  The 600 fixes all those problems, and I am not a huge fan of the shifter style of the 820/920/MSTs, but I love the H shift pattern my 2300 has.  I also only use like 2 gears in all my tractors anyway, so I'm fine with only 3 gears.  I have not been able to locate a 600, so we'll see how long it takes to come along.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

I am not a huge fan of the shifter style of the 820/920/MSTs

Yeah, but it is so easy to get spoiled with shift on the go without the grind.  LOL

Hmmmm, it would appear I've started the Peerless 600 trend.

Yeah don't remove the whole governor, the paddles on the gear act as the oil splasher as there isn't a slinger on the end of the con rod. The whole problem arising from running an ungoverned engine with the governor gear still in the engine is that the weights could fly off when being run at higher rpm and get between the teeth of the cam gear and crank gear or somewhere else and cause damage. You need to put the governor gear back in, but remove the weights. Then you should be good to go for running it ungoverned. 

As for carbs, the 14.5hp ones that Seb was talking about are cheap, but generally come with a fuel solenoid, like this one. However, you can get these carbs, which don't have fuel solenoids but are for 12.5hp Briggs' (the new OHV ones) so you probably won't notice any performance differences as it is similar to the stock one. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any bigger ones that don't have the fuel solenoid. This is slightly different carb to the yours, but it should still fit the mounting holes on the manifold.

I like the side-gaped idea, will have to try that one. Makes sense because the spark is normally shielded, this makes the spark more direct to the combustion. Any tips on how to do it?

Neat spark plug. Did you grind down the ground yourself? I actually never even considered making one. I would always buy those E3 plugs but always seems I buy the bad one so I just stuck with the stock ones for my flatties.

Yah, that tech has been around forever. I learned about them taking my aircraft mechanics courses. Imagine paying $30 for 1 spark plug when you need 18 of them for your 9 cylinder radial engine. We learned how to make any spark plug last till you absolutely have to change them.

The theory behind them is what you all was describing, which is right on the money. The open side (opposite of ground strap) is where the flame starts and moves forward since that is the open end of the spark. The ground strap and plug electrode are obstacles where the flame has to burn around which takes time. So with this reference you can start playing around with the ground strap by placing it in different spots on the spark plug housing, in your case DW uncovering the electrode. Different designs of plugs with the ground strap in different spots can help or hurt the flame travel. With this theory, it really doesn't make more horsepower but it does make the engine more efficient burning the air/fuel better by better control of how the flame moves around. Getting more horsepower is an after effect maybe.

So the part where I said on controlling how the flame moves, you would get even better efficiency when you plan the best path of the flame in the cylinder chamber by controlling where the ground strap is on the plug. This is called indexing the spark plug. Just uncovering the electrode is only part of the modification. The best path for, I think you are building a flattie and the spark plug itself is between the piston and valves in the center of the head, is with the ground strap closer to the valves. The open end will be facing the center of the piston. You have the engine apart so just by putting in the spark plug and seeing it in the head helps alot but with the engine together you just take a marker and mark where the ground strap is on the spark plug so when you tighten the spark plug you can see where the ground strap is by the mark and to adjust where the mark or ground strap is would be by shimming the spark plug with different thickness washers of by how tight the spark plug is. There is a limit on how many shims to use since you are moving the whole spark plug out of the chamber when tight using the shims. You want to keep the electrode of the spark plug in the chamber in other words.

In general, you want the flame starting from the spark, moving forward towards the biggest part of the cylinder chamber of any engine, since the biggest part of the chamber takes the longest to burn up. While the smaller parts of the chamber will burn up during the biggest part is getting burned up.

Thanks for the brainstorm, LOL.

Ohh, the 920 has the reinforced case! Rebuild it!!! Way better than the Spicer POS! AND PLEASE DOC LOCK IT!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Hmmmm, it would appear I've started the Peerless 600 trend.

Eh, don't blame yourself. 

SebastianAlbrecht wrote:

Ohh, the 920 has the reinforced case! Rebuild it!!! Way better than the Spicer POS! AND PLEASE DOC LOCK IT!

I'm definitely not locking a 920 with mud lites, it'd probably blow up the input gear or something.



Got some parts to rework the steering and rebuild the tranny.



Painted the tranny, the color scheme on her is going to be red and black.





Painting the bolt heads red, adds a nice touch.



Roper fenders and hood.  Starting to be a roper clone, but I'm perfectly fine with that.

Lemme know your thoughts!

Transaxle looks pretty neat painted red, the bolt heads are a cool look as well.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Transaxle looks pretty neat painted red, the bolt heads are a cool look as well.

Thanks!  I think so too.

I really miss the camo craftsman hood.  The red parts are a nice touch though.

Lookin good W, I like the red bolt touches.

Good Job W! I like it!

Ok, so kinda obvious this aint happening. Lol. Future plans may involve a horiz engine, a 1200, a cvt, and some jackshaftery. Honestly, ever since I've been using that 2300, I'm never using a straight shift LT trans ever again.