Local track is inviting me down to drive the track before it opens as soon as it is paved. So could be any time within the next 40 days. I just put my kart back together just in case I have any unexpected issues and need to order new parts so I don’t miss testing days. I just had a few questions on storage to keep it track ready for the next few weeks, but also make sure that it sitting is not going to hurt it.
I plan on adding a little fuel just to get it started up on the kart stand and give it some throttle and make sure everything is running smoothly, so is it okay to only add about ~32oz of fuel just to start it and rev it for a minute or so.
Once I am done, how crucial is it to get every last drop out of the fuel line and what is the best way to go about doing that.
I am going to take the carb off and spray it with carb cleaner and keep it in my house, is that all I need to do as far as making sure there is no gas left in the engine to harm it for a few weeks? I just put a fresh carb kit in so I was not wanting to add another carb kit just to run it for 30 seconds.
Can I leave the spark plug in or do I need to take it out and store it?
Lastly this is random but does anyone know the best place to just get an assortment of metric hex cap screws as used on the KA100 and an assortment of metric locking hex nuts. Seems to be more SAE hardware in the US than anything.
Not really, it’s more important for there to be little fuel in the carb, with that said, I’ve left fuel in one for a month and it did no damage just replaced the gaskets. Fuel in the line isn’t a problem except for the fact that the line can harden. What I do which isn’t necessarily the healthiest is to disconnect the fuel line from the carb and blow into it. No, fungus won’t start to grow due to the bacteria in your mouth! A healthy spit-free way would be to take a large syringe and attached it to the line to push the fuel back into the tank. But like I said earlier it’s not really an issue for fuel to sit in the lines for a bit.
Yes the carb will be completely fine, honestly even spraying it with carb cleaner is not needed but if it makes you feel better I would say go for it! you can easily drain the fuel out by just unscrewing the white fuel inlet cap and pouring the fuel out of the carb, very little will come out as the Tillotson carbs don’t hold fuel like a float-style carb.
Actually better to leave the plug in, prevents anything from getting into the cylinder. I normally change the plug for the first race.
Mcmaster - Carr and Belmetric sell 50 and 100 packs of bolts for dirt cheap. I can get 100 hex screws from one of them for the price of 3 at a store, plus they are very good quality and ship the next day.
Just a note, My X30 sat untouched for 5 months during covid (Fuel Drained) and it fired up first try with no issues. While they should be started every few months in that situation, letting them sit for a little while will do no harm.
thank you so much. makes me feel better. I am so nervous about causing damage to the engine by my lack of 2 stroke knowledge. I am 20 and studying and work 2 jobs to be able to do this and still pay bills at home. So I am trying to baby this thing to prevent any harm to the engine and take all preventative maintenance precautions very seriously. would it hurt the kart to leave fuel IN the tank? or is that a no go.
No Problem! I understand, I’m too young to have kids but I feel like sometimes maintaining a kart would be harder than raising a kid! (for the fathers and mothers out there I’m joking, thank you for all that you do).
No problem in leaving fuel in the tank, I’ve found that since 2 stroke’s have the oil and fuel mixed together for some reason the tank hardly gets stained whereas with my 206, the straight pump gas stained it quicker. Could also be that the tank on my Margay was a different material than the OTK. Anyways! No worries leaving the fuel in, it won’t do any harm especially for such a short time period.
Is this a new motor or freshly rebuilt? If it ran previously do you really need to run it? I get the urge but it is unlikely there is an issue and if you are over a month away whats the rush?
If you do run it, I assume you are using race gas and not pump gas. If you are not using race gas I would suggest to not do this.
A few years ago I bought a hand pump that I use to prime the fuel line and I also use it at the end of a day to clear the fuel lines and empty the tank is necessary. I got this at Tractor Supply:
I have had good luck finding hardware on eBay. Monster bolts out of FL has usually had what I needed and free shipping.
I’m using 100LL avgas. the engine is 3 hours old. My only concern is when I bought the engine, it would not start because of a faulty kill switch, which took me weeks to figure out because that was the last thing I would have expected. So now I have this irrational fear that as soon as I try to start it, something else will go wrong. I also just installed the mychron, changed a couple components in the engine and a new carb kit, and while I have a decent background in fixing my own vehicle and working on various mid size vehicles, I am just not 100% confident yet that I know what I am doing. So that worries me that I messed something up.
Bringing this thread back. How are you all sitting KA100s for the winter? Do you put any oil or wd40 in the cylinder head and turn the piston a few times?
Last year I fogged it and let it sit for 6 months without doing anything else and it cranked and fired up right away when I went to start it at the beginning of the year.
Probably not “best practice”, but point being, don’t stress too much on it. Drain the fuel, charge the battery, and run some WD40 through it to fog it and it should be fine.
When going for long term storage in winter I remove the engine from the kart, clean/service the clutch, rebuild or at least drain/clean the carb (put a dab of WD40 down in the needle to keep from sticking), spray fogging oil in the cyl and rotate, if feeling extra I will remove the reeds to clean and spray fogging oil on the bottom rod bearing.
Then reassemble, cap the carb and exhaust ports, and store in my temp controlled basement on a shelf. It’ll be right as rain in the spring.
May be slighlty off topic, but i find the divergence in “modus operandi” linked to end of day testing between Europe and the US.
In Europe, basically everyone removes their engine at the end of the day, more often than not cleans the chassis & engine trackside (there are ussualy provided spaces for that) and packs away. People do not tend to leave the chassis/engine assembled when not in use.
Is it the same in the US? i don’t recal a lot of people doing so, during my time there.
Most tracks i’ve been at have a dedicated cleaning area with dedicated sinks for small parts and drains on the ground for chassis cleaning. This is in Italy and France, and of course all other CIK-FIA homologated venues i’ve visited as part of my job.
That would be the “proper” way to do it here as well, but your average US racer is going to wipe down the bodywork and toss it back in the trailer. I’ve seen national winning karts caked in two weeks of grease and dirt. Most of the professional teams here are doing it the proper way and getting everything looking new again for the next day.
To be honest, for years I did that same thing, but in the past several I’ve started to take the engine off, clean everything, and reinstall and do a hardware check to make sure everything is tight and no frame cracks. It helps to run KA where engine on and off is like a 15 minute process. A little more involved in a water-cooled class.
I’ve seen national winning karts caked in two weeks of grease and dirt.
This is not the way
Once you’ve done it a couple of times, it becomes very routine and easy to do. It keeps the chassis and equipment looking good for longer, and allows inspections to take place.
I was with the GP team at Supernats this year, and we had a collaborative tent setup with Magik Kart, who partners with Sani engines. They had a little cleaning station set up outside of their trailer that I used to spray off the engine, brush clean in hard to reach places, wipe, and then blow off with an air gun. I’m better than most about having my engine off at end of the day, but still not perfect. Having this little area was almost an incentive to remove the engine, because it made cleaning so easy.
Not to be that guy, but be careful using WD-40 in the engine, as it more of a solvent and de-greaser than a lubricant and can actually breakdown and strip the 2-stroke oils from the cylinder walls. If you have some leftover oil just coat the cylinder walls and piston with that. The bottom end should have a decent coating of oils just from the way a 2-strokes operates. You could always mix up a small batch of fuel with extra oil and run the engine before putting it away.
No worries, not directed to you, just making a general statement. I just know WD40 gets tossed around for “fogging” an engine for winterizing threads, but it can actually do some harm.
