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I am looking to buy a new carb for my GCV190. To my surprise, I noticed that many (all?) now have a Pilot Screw. I have not bought a new machine of any type in over a decade so none of my Honda carbs have this. I suppose this allows for some adjustment but not sure what exactly, RPM's maybe? Any explanation will be much appreciated.

I don't think that is an adjustment screw. It just covers the pilot jet.

Hammermechanicman said:

I don't think that is an adjustment screw. It just covers the pilot jet.

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i thought so too, but then i found this pic, generally the pilot jet is under that other flat head screw below the RPM stopper.

Yeah, looks like you're right. Not seen a chonda carb with that screw on the side

you will probably find it is the carb for an engine that is sold in Asia that some one got a shipment of & is selling them on evilpay or Amazone where apparently EPA regulations don't apply .
Down here no new 2 strokes using a mix heavier than 40:1 can be sold in a shop.
Ebay has hundreds of old 25:1 two strokes for sale and if the stats are correct some of the models have sold near 1000 of them .
I , as a registered repairer can't buy the tools for adjusting any carb latter than a Tier I from my wholesalers but Amazone Aust sells kits for Tier II & Tier III to anyone

Carb adjusting tool? No sir, of course i don't have any. That would be illegal. I would never try and adjust a carburetor. Yes sir, that's my story and i am sticking to it.

• Running engines need to meet emission specs. Individual parts do not.

• Every carb I've even seen had adjustments. It's just that the manufacturer has to hide them from the owner to meet EPA specs. This is usually done with a lead plug (or some such hiding mechanism) once the factory adjusts the settings.

Thanks for the background. But what does the adjustment actually do?

But what does the adjustment actually do?

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That totally depends upon the design of the carb. In the photos above it appears to be a idle mixture. Some carbs also have a variable main jet screw.

Hmm, evidently nobody here has actually bought one of these carbs & adjusted it by turning that screw. I posted at another forum as well & got no responses. Yet, Amazon & ebay have dozens of offerings so people like us are obviously buying this style carb. Just saying.

Hammermechanicman said:

Carb adjusting tool? No sir, of course i don't have any. That would be illegal. I would never try and adjust a carburetor. Yes sir, that's my story and i am sticking to it.

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Well I believe your story if you believe I got 14 acres of swamp land on the sunny side of Mercury for sale to the right buyer like the US government. Heck I even sell it to the Russians if the price is right. I also got a 100 acres of swamp land of Venus sunny side too if you are interested.

As for US EPA rules on carburetors first they want licensed trained techs doing the adjustments. But when a DIYer replaces a carburetor they don't care how bad the carburetors are out adjustment. Just pollute away. That is just how big of idiots they are. Personally I got most of the EPA restricted tools and they are definitely needed for repairs.

As for the aftermarket mention in this thread I haven't seen one personally. It may be because I buy OEM. I just replaced a GVC 190 CARBURETOR ASSY. (BB76E A) 16100-Z8D-911 carburetor with a $12.57 OEM carburetor plus shipping. Besides the nozzle and main jet costs more than the whole carburetor. So why would I buy an aftermarket?

Pushing of EPA standards could change at a moments notice. The mechanism to fine the manufacturer, distributor, dealer have been on the books for several years and was changed in 2010 to be able to also fine the homeowner for violating EPA clean air standards. So the potential to fine the seller of a carb adjustment tool $37,500 and the purchaser $3.750 per day/per incident is on the books and could be enforceable.

MTD stopped suppling the adjustment tools to their dealers a few years ago, because they were approached by the EPA about having their dealers make adjustment and not having the proper testing equipment to determine that after the adjustment that the item still meets emissions requirements. The Green New Deal being pushed could put all this and more into play.

The whole EPA thing on small engines is a joke anyway. Not one mfgr tests each piece of equipment coming off the line. Stupid ignorant bureaucrats passing laws to make themselves feel better appease the global warming crowd. Same dumba$$es who passed the no spill.... er i mean always spill POS gas cans. The mfgs send a specimen in for testing and when approved they crank out thousands that may or may not meet standards. We're from the government and we are gere to help.

it seems like when this whole EPA emissions thing started engine on mower started getting bigger with more HP as standard equipment. A 42 inch rider also came standard with a 10-12 HP engine is now 20+ in most cases. Push mower engines were 3-3.5 HP and went to 5-8 HP on some models. I don't believe that the old 3 HP put out any more emissions than a new 7 HP on the same size mower.

Hammermechanicman said:

We're from the government and we are here to help.

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The 9 scariest words ever.

If you read most emissions labels, The manufactures only certify emissions for limited number hours for piece of equipment. 25-50 hrs for most small engine powered equipment. Usually by the time it gets to my shop they are well pass this spec. Besides a properly tuned engine is much less polluting than one that a carburetor is just thrown on. Surging engine are much worse at polluting than one tuned correctly. BUt of course the government thinks all the mechanics are idiots.

I have taken vehicles getting rather poor fuel economy and have them far exceeding the manufacture's specs. For example my '79 Chevy Malibu that was spec'd at 16 MPG highway. When I got through with it had a combine MPG of 22.3 and it cruised at 32 mpg highway and that was with a small V8 and automatic transmission. And it still had very good takeoff power to boot. And that Dodge Colt 4 cylinder with manual was getting well over 45 mpg.

StarTech said:

If you read most emissions labels, The manufactures only certify emissions for limited number hours for piece of equipment. 25-50 hrs for most small engine powered equipment. Usually by the time it gets to my shop they are well pass this spec. Besides a properly tuned engine is much less polluting than one that a carburetor is just thrown on. Surging engine are much worse at polluting than one tuned correctly. BUt of course the government thinks all the mechanics are idiots.

I have taken vehicles getting rather poor fuel economy and have them far exceeding the manufacture's specs. For example my '79 Chevy Malibu that was spec'd at 16 MPG highway. When I got through with it had a combine MPG of 22.3 and it cruised at 32 mpg highway and that was with a small V8 and automatic transmission. And it still had very good takeoff power to boot. And that Dodge Colt 4 cylinder with manual was getting well over 45 mpg.

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Most of the Emission labels I see are for 50-150-300 hours depending on quality. Low end box store stuff at 50 hours and more commercial products at 300 hour certified.

StarTech said:

If you read most emissions labels, The manufactures only certify emissions for limited number hours for piece of equipment. 25-50 hrs for most small engine powered equipment. Usually by the time it gets to my shop they are well pass this spec. Besides a properly tuned engine is much less polluting than one that a carburetor is just thrown on. Surging engine are much worse at polluting than one tuned correctly. BUt of course the government thinks all the mechanics are idiots.

I have taken vehicles getting rather poor fuel economy and have them far exceeding the manufacture's specs. For example my '79 Chevy Malibu that was spec'd at 16 MPG highway. When I got through with it had a combine MPG of 22.3 and it cruised at 32 mpg highway and that was with a small V8 and automatic transmission. And it still had very good takeoff power to boot. And that Dodge Colt 4 cylinder with manual was getting well over 45 mpg.

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I should have sent you my 1990 gmc pickup. 1 ton with 350 engine with TH400 trans without lockup and 3.73 gears. Terrible year for engines. 9 MPG empty or with a 2000 lb camper in the bed and towing a boat.

That I can agree with as things have improve in reliability in the last 20 yrs and better quality equipment have tighter specs. It just like cars at one were lucky to get 100K on them before a engine rebuild was needed and now some goes well over 300K and still be going strong. My 2000 Chevy is at 340K and still running good and that 1979 Malibu only made it to 150K before needing a rebuild.

340k miles, you got me beat by a bunch. My 2000 chevy venture (the beast of burden) only has about 200k.

Hammermechanicman said:

I should have sent you my 1990 gmc pickup. 1 ton with 350 engine with TH400 trans without lockup and 3.73 gears. Terrible year for engines. 9 MPG empty or with a 2000 lb camper in the bed and towing a boat.

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Boy that great fuel compared to my first truck (1973 model) that barely got 5 mpg highway. No wonder I had two 30 gallon saddle tanks and a 15 gal reserve tank. Boy those tanks came in handy during the early 80's gas shortage. Retire it when I got a 1967 Chrysler 300 with 440 engine which I had getting around 25 mpg highway when I sold it. Not bad for Holley 4 barrel. Just didn't floorboard it much as the tank tried to imploded.

I just wish I could work with these new electronic controls as the 2000 is only getting 17 MPG combined. But EPA has ban about everything that I used to increase the fuel economy now. But I still looking for a mild racing cam and a set of variable duration lifters. I still couldn't tear down the engine even I had the parts as it is my only vehicle at the current time.
.

My hot rodding days are over. I used to like to work on cars. Now they are a PITA. Couple weeks ago replaced a coil pack and plugs on my son's xterra for a misfire problem. Dang bigazz plastic intake plenum made 1 plug take longer than the other 5 put together. Now i just hot rod chainsaws. Cheaper and easier on the my back.

WE are getting way off track but most of the L300's we ran for the delivery business that were not smashed beyond use did better than 600 K ( km ) before it was time for a rebuild.
We never bothered because a 1/2 cut from Japan with an almost new 4G63 was less than the price of the rebuild parts .
These were all running LPG and the only real problems we had was if the drivers did not keep the valve saver tank topped up so the valves ended up burning.
The really stupid thing was we fitted 2 vans with forklift LPG engines that got around 20 km / liter comparred to 8 for converted engine .
When one of these vans had a prang the insurance company did not honour the claim because that engine is not certified for automotive use so much for reducing pollution .

Hammermechanicman said:

Carb adjusting tool? No sir, of course i don't have any. That would be illegal. I would never try and adjust a carburetor. Yes sir, that's my story and i am sticking to it.

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"What are those? No sir, those are not carb adjusting tools. Those are really dull ice picks."

I remembered working on a motorcycle with clogged pilot jets in the early 2000's. The pilot was concealed under an "EPA plug". Under this plug was an adjustment screw, but there was no outward indication, other than that the idle mixture screw was obviously missing.



The trick was to drill and tap a #4-40 hole. After the tap broke through the 1/8" thick plug, if you continued to turn the tap, then the plug itself would be completely "jacked" out of its position. This revealed a "standard", infinitely variable pilot screw under the plug, which the owner was then free to access for cleaning or adjustment.

Another anti-adjustment method was found on my 2-stroke powered leaf blower. That carb had Hi and Lo mixture screws showing, but the head of the screws required a special nut driver to turn. Fine needle nose pliers couldn't get into the well deep enough to get a good purchase on the screw. In that instance I used a Dremel tool slitting disk and added my own straight slot directly into both the Hi and Lo screw heads.

Hopefully you did both carbs.

Never have understood why someone would not simply buy the proper tools if they are in the repair business; especially as they can be gotten for $15. It is a heck lot of less work and mess.

Of course I threw away cleaning brushes as they way too big for most cubes and rotaries.

Gee...what are those things?
Yeah the brush are useless for carb. I got a torch tip cleaner for jets. I am amazed at what some folks have done to try and adjust a carb. Or should i say butchered.

Okay I had a little spare time this morning since it is raining to research the carburetor posted about. First it is a clone sold on Amazon. Second it is the adjustable version of the carburetor which Honda actually produces their own version. It is used several of GCV190 engine versions but not on all the GCV190's. The non adjustable version are ran only at max rpm spec and and no idle mode or variable speed settings.

What is happening is the vendor is just selling the adjustable version in place of the fix jet version.

StarTech said:

Hopefully you did both carbs.

Never have understood why someone would not simply buy the proper tools if they are in the repair business; especially as they can be gotten for $15. It is a heck lot of less work and mess.

Of course I threw away cleaning brushes as they way too big for most cubes and rotaries.

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Those tools have come in handy many times.

One of the most used drawers in the shop. And those are ahhhh..... small screwdrivers.

StarTech said:

Hopefully you did both carbs.

Never have understood why someone would not simply buy the proper tools if they are in the repair business; especially as they can be gotten for $15. It is a heck lot of less work and mess.

Of course I threw away cleaning brushes as they way too big for most cubes and rotaries.

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I just got a set of these, just for the micro D. Turns out, the OD of this particular one was too big to even fit into the hole. So I grinded it down to fit. But it still didn't fit just right. Cheap Amazon crap I had to eat. But, the rest of these may work.
I ended up getting a single micro D from another place. That was as much, if not a little more, than this whole set. But it fits.

Hammermechanicman said:

View attachment 55026
One of the most used drawers in the shop. And those are ahhhh..... small screwdrivers.

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Now that things are slowing down, and I'm about 2 week from getting all caught up (hopefully), I'm going to designate one part of the shop for mower. And the other for 2 cycle. And hopefully a new tool box strictly for 2 cycle tools.

PTmowerMech said:

I just got a set of these, just for the micro D. Turns out, the OD of this particular one was too big to even fit into the hole. So I grinded it down to fit. But it still didn't fit just right. Cheap Amazon crap I had to eat. But, the rest of these may work.
I ended up getting a single micro D from another place. That was as much, if not a little more, than this whole set. But it fits.

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Strange mine was fine. What I needing was the acircle ones. I had all the other ones. What I am needing now is a D that larger than the ones in either set I have that is used on some of the Kohler carbs.

StarTech said:

Okay I had a little spare time this morning since it is raining to research the carburetor posted about. First it is a clone sold on Amazon. Second it is the adjustable version of the carburetor which Honda actually produces their own version. It is used several of GCV190 engine versions but not on all the GCV190's. The non adjustable version are ran only at max rpm spec and and no idle mode or variable speed settings.

What is happening is the vendor is just selling the adjustable version in place of the fix jet version.

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Thanks. You are the only one who has attempted to address the initial intent of this post. Man, did most responses get off track in a hurry! So, you are saying that the adjustable versions allow for the adjustment of rpm's by turning that screw? Is that it?

Well I was thinking you were referring the setting of the fuel mixture. Otherwise the fix speed models don't a screw persay it is the function of the governor setting. By changing the governor setting you would change the fix speed. Usually carburetors with variable mixture settings are use model that go from an idle speed to max governed speed. On those engine there is an idle speed adjustment screw that prevents the throttle plate (vane) from fully closing to set the idle speed.

Oem carburetors out there don't even have idle mixture passages as they are fix speed setups.