My MyChron5 2T broke, and it outlasted the warranty by several seasons. They’re currently unavailable. If a MyChron6 shows up it’ll be next year.
Who else has raced without a gauge? Should I get a voltmeter and a 9V battery so I can at least have EGT? How do you know you’ve got the needles close to right on a KA100?
Did you try talking to the guys at AIM? They always repaired my units, for free, not even asking receipt or anything…great customer service! They are by lake elsinore
Otherwise you can get an older alfano, are super cheap and have all the basic functions you need, minus the GPS. I was in a similar situation, got an Alfano Pro 3 EVO on Ebay for about 100 dollars, including all the sensors.
I would think running a KA without a mychron shouldn’t be a problem, provided you already know your gearing, and are ok jetting rich. Baseline carb settings are laid out in the Assembly Manual, and @Christian_Fox also has some good info on his website HERE.
If running without a gauge I would start at the baseline settings and richen on track just to be safe. Probably take the H needle out to where it four-cycles down the straight, and lean it just enough to run clean. This will obviously sacrifice performance, so if you’re looking to race at maximum performance it would probably be best to get another gauge on the kart to monitor and tune EGT.
Like Evan said, the range on the needles where the engine run pretty good is very wide. It’s a pretty foolproof engine, so EGT probably isn’t 100% necessary if you aren’t looking to totally optimize it, because it’ll run decent at a pretty stock setting of around 60 min on both needles. It’s pretty tough to get the KA to 4-cycle in my experience.
Gearing I would just ask someone else what they’re running.
Andy, unfortunately the screen had come loose internally and destroyed the main board. I stopped in at their shop in Lake Elsinore.
You don’t need one, I’ve been around long enough to remember racing with just an rpm gauge (as have many others on the forum). Not sure you even need that anymore, we were racing engines without a rev limiter and were keen to go bang.
But for your specific question on jetting, feel. For the middle and top of the rpm range you can also hover your hand over the inlets (so dont block the airflow, just restrict it a little), if it goes faster, richen the high jet, if it goes slower, lean the high jet.
Tons of those things on FB Marketplace if your looking for a bandaid fix. Or you could go with the Alfano. I have 3 Alfano’s (Both 1T and 2T) and they have been fantastic and their battery life is flat out insane.
I’m absolutely floored by the battery life on the new Alfano. I killed it once because i kept forgetting to charge it. On my son’s 7th race weekend i got to the track with a dead battery.
If it was me I’d grab an old Alfano Pro used just for RPM and lap times in the short term. We have a guy in our club that is like the used car salesman of karting, he has a plastic tote full of alfano pros for $50 each.
I charge mine and it literally lasts 14+ months between charges. Its insane. I’ve been so happy with all of my Alfano’s.
Ditto,
When I got a new chassis it came with a new Alfano 6 with part of the deal. I was apprehensive as I I had ever known was Mychron. Anyway My Mychron battery would die very quickly and wouldn’t hold a charge for a long period of time plus its service life was very poor. But with the Alfano I Was out for about 5 months and came back to find my It was still at 84%, I was honestly shocked. The only thing I don’t like about it is that they want you to spend another $70 bucks to get the more precise (made in Germany) egt sensor. At first I thought there was something wrong as on the Mychron the EGT updates quickly but on the Alfano it takes a minute. Ended up just getting the more expensive one and it’s coming next week. But I really don’t think anyone can beat Mychron’s customer service. Seconded to none.
So in the end both have their positives and negatives.
To be fair when i unboxed it, it was at like 55% and i never charged it when new, so those 7 race weekends (plus some practice days) on half a charge. I also have a habit of not shutting it down after a race weekend lol.
If he’s selling $50 Alfano Pros I’ll take two, one for the University of Texas FSAE team and one for me.
I never had much luck leaning down a KA. I have had 2 and my son has one as well. They always seem not to run very well when lean. I race against guys that honestly have no idea where they are on the needles. Their motor builder set it and that’s where it stays and these are guys that run at the front. Just rely on your experience and do a plug check.
I might be interested in one of these too. However, what is the pickup for the lap times? Do they use the same IR eye that the Mychron uses?
They use a pickup that picks up the magnetic strip in the track (the one thats used for transponders).
Usually the magnetic strip for personal lap timers and the inductive loop for transponders are different things. Unless the Alfano is able to use (For example) an AMB transponder loop?
You learn something new everyday!
I might be thinking that they typically lay the magnetic strip at the same time as timing loop
I have Mychron 5s’s in stock. Not 2T though. Shouldn’t need 2t on a KA.
According to my track owner, there is no magnetic strip. So apparently the wire loop used for the AMB lap counting is just a wire.
Jim Johnstone:
Do the $50 Alfanos have a sensor and if so which sensor? I guess Alfano offered both types.
