Can somebody please explain how the governor on my 77 F600 works and how to adjust it for more power and if it is advisable to do so? From my research on this site it seems that it was only put on by the factory to "idiot proof" these industrial engines. Thanks

 

The governor only controls RPM or speed. If you think you are going to get more power out of the 330 by just spinning it harder, you are in for disappointment. I'm pretty sure the governed speed is past or at the peak HP rpm.

There are probably 2 or more types. One is the U-haul type that has a mechanical box that the speedo cable plugs in to. That pulls the throttle back at the set speed. Trucks like that also have the rpm limiter, which uses the distributor and carb vacuum to pull the throttle back. Not sure if it does anything to the ignition advance. Later electronic ones work on fuel or ignition advance.

Discussion including adjustment here for the engine rpm type. A little hard to follow the explanation post:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...rottle-up.html

That's as close as I can get. It it runs to 4500 already, leave it alone. If it doesn't, try to stay under 4500 once you ditch the gov.

 

I agree with 85e150. Removing the governor or bypassing it will not give you more power or speed. I just finished rebuilding the 2 barrel Autolite carburetor on my 1967 F600 330 engine, this evening. It had a governor plate under the carb'. The governor was a factory sealed cigar size unit that actually has an adjustment on the end of it with the word "FASTER" and an arrow. It had a wire from the factory running through it and if you wanted to turn it then you would have to break the wire. These engines were considered industrial and they are somewhat under-powered by today's standards but they were designed to run at or near peak rpms and the 2 speed differentials and the transmission were the secret to their effectiveness. They were a "Mighty Mouse". A good driver could make them talk.It is similar to the compound pulley system. A 100 pound man could pick up a 2 ton weight with little or no effort.

 

I read that thread and although it does a decent job of explaining the governor system it's wrong, the second line does not vent to the air cleaner, it goes to a port on the side of the carb above the throttle shaft. The throttle shaft has a hole drilled thru it that allows vacuum to be pulled from the fitting on the side only when the throttle shaft is in the wide open position, any part throttle operation is like any normal carburetor with no vacuum going to the distributors governor control.
The distributor has a sleeve covering the vacuum port that is held in place by a spring, once the rpm's reach a set point controlled by that springs pressure the sleeve moves out allowing vacuum to be directed thru the second hose going the the governor diaphragm, the vacuum on the diaphragm over rides the spring that opens the throttle shaft thus causing the shaft to close, from that point it becomes a balancing point of the 3 components ( throttle shaft position, dist governor sleeve position, amount of vacuum to the carbs governor diaphragm) to maintain the set max rpm's.
I'm not sure what the max rpm is for a 330 but for a 391 it's 3900 rpm, on the ones I maintained adjusting them back to 3600 rpm got us better engine life without any noticeable lose of performance.
We had one that the dist sleeve stuck closed on allowing the engine to rev higher, it that me a while to figure out what the issue was and during that time they broke 2 pistons and jerked the little end out of one rod.
The FT engines have heavy pistons, over revving them is a bad thing to do.

If the engine has a Autolite carb with the self contained governor that looks like a big spacer under the carb, everything I said above is moot, that governor uses air velocity thru the venturis to control rpm's.

As others have said increasing max rpm will only gain you a little speed but up to the point of the governor taking effect the carb is wide open giving max power so there is zero performance gain, but going past the recommended max rpm greatly increases the chance of engine damage.

One could play with the jets to increase the amount of fuel just like tuning the carb on a performance engine but there could be a noticeable decrease in fuel milage in doing so.

 

I don't know the official name, but back in the day we called those "road speed governor". The first I ever saw was on a 1970 B600 school bus. After that, every gas bus we got had that governor. Us young drivers learned quickly how to over ride them long before the bus mechanics did.