Mid-Ohio 2015

This past weekend was Mid-Ohio hosted by Dart Kart Club.  Several family members came from Indiana to see us and experience a kart race.. some for the first time... some first time in 40 years.  Great to see Ann, Steve and Becky, Dad Glenn, and Scott.  Steve was a great help getting some things done on the kart. And he was the official starter... He did great, even after a 40 year hiatus.  It was a thrill to have him share in this.  Some brought hot dogs and burgers. Others brought chips and desserts.  Saturday was full of sharing about family and even meeting up with some old friends. John Copeland had lunch with us and told several stories about the old Indy Kart Club days.  Bill Willis had helped me some with the engine and called his wife, Linda, for Ann to talk to.  They had not talked in about 30 years.  Then as I was packing up on Sunday a classmate of mine from Brownsburg came in and introduced herself.  She had seen me on Friday and thought it was me but saw it was not a good time to interrupt.  She is married to a 2nd generation karter who runs 125 Laydowns.  Becky asked lots of good questions.

Enjoying the rain... well... family

This photo is of our group watching the rain Saturday.  Racing in the wet started, but many decided not to attempt to run.  One race had one kart for the entire half-race.   We were cheering for him to at least make it to the checkered.  Dad Glenn had the comment of the weekend: "Weeeeeeeeeee" when describing the driver's excitement.

I had spent the last couple weeks trying to catch up on two years of not working on the kart: rebuilding breaks to make sure all fluid was consistent; building the engine; timing the engine; replacing 40 year old bearings.  I ran out of time and did not even start the engine.. but it had good spark on the first try!

We drove up on Thursday to unload into our garage. Friday practice day was cool and rainy, but I was not able to get out due to engine problems. Looking back it was my own fault.  I had a great spark at home but when I tested for it in the garage it was not there, so I tore the engine apart to re-time.  But I was in such a hurry and I confused myself to the point of not thinking right.

After getting help from a couple Mac guys the test start failed with John Copeland controlling the carb.  He said it sounded like there was an air leak.  Pressure tested and it was fine.  So we looked at the carb.

Rick Chapman spent about 2 hours trying to get it running with no success until 5:30pm Friday when he suggested the oil mixture was too much.  I drained the fuel and made up a batch with Zoomie's No Castor Mix.  Then he rebuilt the ignition and traded out the coil and condenser, set timing, stretched out the needle spring a bit... FINALLY, it started and ran great.

I bought a gallon of Zoomie's no castor magic oil blend. At 4oz per gallon of gas... that should work for a while. :-)  I had been using Blendzall at 16:1 or 8oz/Gal, which should be right.  The Guys from Boston said that would be great if it were in the 90s... but wet and cold makes the castor settle to the bottom and little gas makes it to the carb.

Saturday I was scheduled for the first race but it was raining.  When they did open the track many did not want to chance it on a wet track.  I skipped the race and spent time with the family expecting the rain to keep coming.  But it cleared up late and after some prompting I entered the Vintage piston port class. Yep, a illegal engine but should get some track time.  But my chain came off/broke after the Keyhole (turn 3).  GGRRRRRR.  On the tow line heading back in my brakes seemed really spongy.

Heading to the grid...with an illegal engine

Waiting for green flag for my class.  I'm at the far right. Steve is at the starter and Becky taking photos.

The guys from Boston in the next garage were very interested to help and had all kinds of good suggestions.  The best was bringing in Van Gilder. OH MY!!  What a personality and tremendous knowledge!  He found the left brake caliper was catching and not retracting.  He suggested several things: brake tethers should be loose; loosen the brake bolts; add washer to separate disc sides; change brake bias to the good brake and allow the second to add some more braking if needed; go back to the more sturdy chain oiler to help support the sprocket.  After getting dinner with family, I headed back to the garage to do those changes.  I finally headed out at about midnight.

On way back to the track

Sunday morning I was very down because when I left the night before I couldn't get all the air out of the brake system and anticipated not running practice.  BUT.. I say Van and asked his opinion.  He said it all looked good.  And all the air bubbles were gone!! I was flabbergasted! Van pointed out the vacuum pulled them to the master cylinder overnight.  I was psyched.  Then Rick helped resize one of my old chains but he ended up giving me one of his space chains.

Then I thrashed for a while to get all the stuff done to get to practice: change to oiler, add washers to axles to keep tires tight. I was just hurrying.  When was get to the grid for practice I did all the same things and signaled Pam hit the button on the starter.  I choked the engine and gas just poured out. The cranking engine would have pulled the gas in just fine.  JUST LET IT FIRE!!

Rick came to the rescue again and instantly knew the plug was wet.  We used his starter and a new plug and out I went and ran a couple sessions.

Race 1 & 3 were combined so I had to come in to get gridded.  We used an extra modern starter from Rick.  The old belt starter just does not have the umph to get the engine to fire right off. At the start it pulled right off the line and pulled great.  I was having fun going fast and sliding around some corners. Felt great!!  I was even staying in sight of Rick with his Piston Port engine. And the brakes worked well, but a bit spongy.  Then on the third lap the chain came off at the top of the downhill from turn 5 and ended up watching from behind the barriers of turn 6.  In my hurry to get in practice I had not lined up the sprockets. AND had not greased the sprocket, so it probably got hot, expanded and easily slipped off. CLANGCHHDHHHDCHALLANANG

Here are a couple things the Boston Guys have engineered:

I was running 60/14 and 61/14 sprockets but my RPM would not get above high 9,000s. Rick suggested using a 64 or even 66.

Not the type of race weekend I wanted, but there were good things.  I got to see family; some hopefully saw me in a new light; some might want to come back to another race!; Even in the frustration, I had fun and learned a tremendous amount of lessons.



Things l learned:

• Carb gaskets (especially 40 year old ones) should not have cracks
• Blendzall is not good for Macs in cool weather
• 16:1 is way too much oil for Macs
• cut triangles in the top holes of the outer manifold gasket
• use Zoomie's oil at 4oz per gallon (32/1)
• change to grade 8 bolts on brakes
• check brake caliper
• when done bleeding brakes, PUSH THE BRAKE WHEN CLOSING THE CAP!! this creates a vacuum which will suck up any remaining air in the system
• add a bolt, washer, and spring to the caliper to make sure it retracts
• DON'T CHOKE THE ENGINE!! unless the engine is freshly rebuilt or bone dry!!
• get a modern starter
• let Pam design the starter platform; she's the one using it!
• When you test for spark, just briskly move magnets back and forth under coil.  No need to flip all the way around.
• make an official pre-start check list for Pam to go through
• use the feeler gauge under the right coil to flywheel at XXXX 
• Push coil to the right then tighten
• Have lots of condensers; learn to test them.
• Maybe move to electronic timing
• use feeler gauge for points break -- .018"
• Grease the sprocket!!
• properly align the sprockets!!
• make a new push stick like the ones the Boston Guys have!!
• it's OK to use modern spark plugs... the 40 year old Autolites are great but unreliable

I'll think of more as I go....