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Getting more out of your mower

Hello all
Hope you are all having a busy summer :)
What I'm wondering is... What can be done to mowers to get a bit more oomph out of them?
I have a viking MB755 that has a kawasaki fj180cc engine, lately the engine seems to feel a bit sloppier than normal like it's losing it's grunt a little.
I'm sure through out the years i have seen people on this forum say they "tune up" their mower's to give them a small boost, RPM? which in turn would make it pull faster etc.
How is this achieved?
Thanks James

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  • Normally by adjusting the governor spring but be careful not to increase the RPM to much a slight increase can make all the difference, If in doubt consult your friendly lawn mower repair man rather than a dealer.

  • I'd agree: get it looked at by a specialist first. The advice about speeding them up is because they come set low from new, for running-in, and noise regs.

    I've sped all my Honda-engined mowers up with no ill effects for many years, as advised by the dealer. My Viking has the Briggs engine, and that is set high when it's new, so has no need to be messed with.

    If it's a change over time, then there's probably something wrong. It might be the engine speed, but could also be something else that won't appreciate an extra 1000 revs!

  • James I have put a kink in the spring on my viking 755 and it's much better, though it probably uses 50% more fuel now. Worth it though.

  • That's scary. My Viking uses at least 50% more fuel than the Honda engined mowers without adjusting it!

  • Don't use cheap fuel.
    For a couple of years I used cheap fuel, relishing the saving of some 10p/l. One day I ran out doing a job en route for refill and bought 5l of Shell, filled my Etesia (pedestrian RKEB with Kawa engine) with it and the difference was incredible, an improvement of at least 25%. I never went back.

  • we call it turbo charging!!

    we have a bracket off an old ikea wardrobe and it gets jammed between the deck and the govoner, which really turbo charges it as we call it.

    The cut you gt is great, mulches the grass down well and will go through 8" of grass.

    be careful though not to use it for too long on high revs as weve blown one up before - the lad used it on high revs for over one hour and then bang!!

    A slight increase by kinking/shortening the spring will do it good.

  • PRO

    Another thing to note is how often the oil is changed ?

    most think a once a year oil change is ok and normal but infact on most engines of this nature you will find its every 50 hours

    doing this will make a masive differnce on performance and on how long the machine will last

  • PRO

    also if messing with rpm be sure to get a power curve chart for the engine which will show where your best torque is at what rpm

  • Thanks everyone, great replies! :)
    A kink to the spring is top of the list. Put a brand new blade on it today and that's made a nice difference also.
    @ DAN, Do you know of any non genuine cheaper blades for this machine?
    Thanks James

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