Club Car FE 350 engine with ACR

Who's ready for Monday? Well ready or not it's still a Monday. Today I had a customer with a Club Car who needed a rebuild on his engine. I usually just talk about the engine rebuilds because they are pretty technical and a lot of the customers I have talked with would like to try to do it themselves. I guess they need a hobby or just have the free time. I mean I wouldn't want to read this blog if it were about putting on a set of sporty tires and rims and enclosures and radios. So today we rebuilt the Club Car FE 350 engine with ACR. The ACR stand for Automatic Compression Release. This type of engine was the clockwise model, which means the clutch rotates clockwise. You can only put this type of engine in a Club Car gas key start vehicle. There are two types of clockwise FE 350's. Those with the ACR, which are for key start only, and those without the ACR, which are for pedal start only. The only difference in the two is the camshaft. On the backside of the ACR camshaft there is a spring gear which is the mechanism for the compression release. So by changing the camshaft either way you could have either engine. The worst part any Club Car 350 engine (not considering the new style) is that they have lifters in them. The lifters act as tappets which ride on the camshaft and force the push rods to open the valves. Much unlike a tappet though, they compress in when the push rods put force to them. That is because of the springs which are located inside of them. Now these lifters pump up with oil and release the oil when compressed by the push rods. Oil travels from the oil pump, through a small brass filter, then through a small opening in the block, next it arrives at the first lifter, goes around it, through a small opening, and hits the last lifter. The problem is that the lifters have a small hole in the side of them which MUST be lined up with the small hole on the inside of the block where the oil travels. If they do not line up then the oil is not properly being pumped into the lifter. And when the lifters are not working, your engine is not working. Alot, and I mean ALOT, of times you'll hear a tap in the engine, which nine times out of ten is the push rod tapping the lifter because the lifter is not compressing. In which case the lifter will need rebuilding, and I would just as quickly suggest that new lifters be put in. But thankfully Club Car has noticed the problem and now build the 350's like the 290 model, in that they use tappets instead of the lifters. However you now have to adjust the valves, which I just really loved the fact that you didn't have to do that with the older style 350 engines, but it's no big deal. Just set each valve at .004in. and that takes care of them. One more thing, if you should ever find yourself trying to take your camshaft out e-mail me at spearsgolfcarts@gmail.com and leave your phone number and I'll call you back and we will walk through it together. But if your impatient like me then be sure to take the head off and remove the lifters. When you replace the camshaft make sure you line the slot in the end of the camshaft up with the oil pump. That's all folks!