Is a governor delete safe?

What the governor does

The governor closes the throttle as engine speed reaches its set limit. It is the only thing on a stock small engine that keeps it from over-revving. Delete it and the engine will rev as far as the throttle, the load and the parts let it.

The parts at risk

With stock parts, these are the ones that can't support the higher RPM:

• The flywheel.
• The connecting rod.
• The valve springs and rockers.
• The camshaft. Its profile wasn't designed for high-RPM performance.

It adds up

Just because your flywheel didn't fail today doesn't mean it won't fail tomorrow. Every run past the factory range adds stress to parts that were never built for those speeds, and that stress compounds.

The delete, step by step

• Take the flywheel off.
• Take the governor gear out.
• Plug the holes.
• Fit a billet flywheel.
• Set your rev limit with a Guardian.

Put the ceiling back

A billet flywheel raises what the engine can take. It doesn't set a limit. That is the Guardian's job: pick the number in the STOKER app and the engine won't go past it.

Guardian fails safe: if it ever stops working, the engine keeps running, so you are never left stranded. That also means it is running without a limit until you fix it, so the parts inside still have to be up to it.