I have a speedex S19 with a 8 H.P. Kholer engine. The engine runs fine at idle speed but when you throttle up the engine dies. Anybody have any ideas what might be wrong ?

Scott, just a quick note sounds like you carb needs to have the low and high idel adjusted... a good small engine shop should be able to do this for you...also if you have the 8Hp Kholer then your tractor should be S18...have you checked for a serial # on the side of the frame? Right front viewed from the driver seat...let me know what you fine....Mike

Scott , any luck with this yet?..l believe the Kohlar engine has a fule pump type device and that might be what is falting when you call for more power? Might check with an engine shop in you area on this...anyone else familar with this?...Mike Hamper

I'm not that familiar with the Kohlers on the Speedex Tractors but an engine is an engine. If this tractor does have a fuel pump then that would be a good place to start but before you go there take a look inside the fuel tank to make sure nothing in there could restrict the flow. I have found leaves, pine tree needle, small stones, even a stick floating around in there. Then clean the fuel bowl and screen or whatever type filter your engine has. Make sure you have a good flow of gas to the carburetor. After that then I would probably rebuild the carburetor. Any time you rebuild a carburetor it should be put in a carburetor cleaning solution over night for best results. If you don't have a parts washer then I would get the carburetor cleaner that Advanced Auto sells in a 1 gallon “paint type” can. It's made by GUNK and works pretty good. It also has a small basket inside for soaking smaller parts like jets and so on. For $11.00 this is quite a deal. Make sure that you set the float correctly. If the float doesn’t allow enough gas to enter the carburetor then at higher RPM's the engine will run poorly or it won’t run at all. If you get to much gas coming in then you will see a flooding/fouling condition. If you don't have a service manual for a Kohler then you should get one. If this was a Briggs engine I could give you the settings to start with but I don't have a manual for a kohler. One of the biggest problems with poor running engines is old gas setting the carburetors that has basically turned to sap and gums everything up. I hope this helps.