Anyone have any thought on racing a 2 stroke motor in the rain. Besides the obvious water being sucked into the intake and up the motor what are some maintenance musts after a rain race. Does the motor need to be rebuilt? Will just getting the exterior of a KA100 or a kpv wet cause future damage if not taken apart and cleaned/rebuilt?
We race Rotax in the rain all the time. Do they get water in them? Yes. Do we rebuild them? No. Does it shorten engine life? apparently, but have not seen any difference in Rotax rebuild times because of it.
Proactive people will oil fog them after wet weather. Me, I am a little lazy for that. Just run it on the stand and get it hot at the end of the day, job done.
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A lot of the electronics in a TaG package are “water proof”…also bare metal
Components can be a nightmare in the wet.
Basically, when thinking about rain maintenance, a kart can run in the rain. But plan to tear it completely apart afterward to make sure everything is in good condition.
Areas that could be a challenge with the KA In particular could be the clutch assembly / needle bearing, and the ignition module which is just kinda hanging out there in the open…
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Main thing is to avoid letting your engine sit with moisture sitting in it. You can run it on the stand and give it some choke to run fuel\oil through to get the water out of there.
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Cleaning the grime off the engine, fogging the engine as Marin said, and rebuilding the carb is what we usually do.
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What’s the process of “fogging” the engine mean? I searched it on you tube but mostly come up with people winterizing an outboard boat motor.
Interesting. I basically live in rain race area, and learning some new things about this.
Largely we just clean the kart, and run the kart at the end of the day.
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Engine fog oil is a rust and moisture preventative. After a day at the track in the rain inevitably some water gets into the engine. Spraying fogging oil into the intake, combustion chamber, etc, helps accelerate the rate of drying of existing water and minimizes additional moisture in the engine.
The process basically involves utilizing a spray or aerosol of fog oil into the intake and through the top of the head (spark plug area) to fill Chamber with the fog oil vapors.
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