I have a Suter Vampire engine, 4 stroke. I am new to karting and i know that you need to keep your engines very well maintained and healthy, what should i look for and change when doing maintenance?
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“Compression is the Holy Grail”, Watch it closely, check it often, like a schedule. Buy a quality gauge, very important, Pep Boys doesn’t have one.
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And how about for components, i know that teams rebuild the whole engine after a couple of races.
I suspect there’s a recommended rebuild schedule for the vampire somewhere. From what I experienced, there’s a range within the recommendation you can operate in. If you are trying to save money, you might choose to push the top end rebuild out a bit.
A fresh engine pulls hardest so the folks who are racing at the higher levels seem to go in the opposite direction, rebuilding more frequently to ensure max power.
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I can’t really find anything about this engine, i only found 2 forum questions from 2008 and 2011 all in german or dutch. I translated them and they dont have anything useful to me. It is really a pain trying to find information for this engine.
An F1 race is about an hour and a half, +3 practice sessions of an hour, and 3 qualifying sessions. They’re allowed 3 engines for a season.
A compression check tells you if the valves are good and if the rings are still good. Kind of important!
The carburetor should come apart, new pieces and diaphragms as needed.
Spark plugs are cheap, I always had a new one for each race.
Wouldn’t hurt to check the ignition timing.
Fresh oil.
Check the wheel bearings.
Check the front end alignment, camber, caster and toe.
Check the corner weights. Bathroom scales would be close enough. That’s assuming you know how to level them.
Check the wheels, that they’re all in the right place.
Check all fasteners and cotter keys.
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Compression test won’t hurt, but you need to know the amount of time on certain components, or just replace preventatively.
I’m not sure if the Suter is a timing belt or chain… If it’s a belt then at the very least inspect it for deterioration and cracks. Actually, come to think of it replace it anyway because it’s probably more than ten years old. For sure there was a model of the four stroke OHC TaG engines that ran a belt.
In absence of any other guidance you could try following the Biland\SA250 maintenance schedule, including the timing chain tensioner if your Suter has one: Here’s a PDF for that EN_2000HV.pdf (26.8 KB)
Have you contacted Suter at all? Looks like https://www.saxon-motorsport.co.uk/index.html have dealt with these in the past, so they might have some pointers too.
https://www.beneduracing.com/en/246-vampire-vt250 stock parts and might have pointers on maintenance intervals.
@Alan_Dove I think you or terence tested this back in the day. Do you remember anything about it that might help? Can you think of the name of the series in the UK that still run these OHC four stroke engines?
Ok i will definetely buy a compression tester which will come in handy, i also already contacted BeNeDu and bought some parts from there, they are definetely a good source. I should also definetely contact Suter they have already helped me before and provided me with a full engine list of diagrams and how its built.
Also the engine uses a chain not a belt, so i will just clean the chain up and lube it.
Saxton seems to rebuild Biland 250 engines so like you said they have dealt with it so i will also contact them for some pointers on sellers which sell replacement components and also some pointers on how to do the rebuild.
Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated!!
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@alvinnunley
I will definetely check and buy a stock of spark plugs. I also searched and a 4 stroke 250cc engine should have 180-210 psi of compression, so when i do the compression test i will be looking if it reaches that kind of compression, if not i will have to open the engine and check whats wrong. Do you have any recommendations for a compression tester?
I have new oil ready to put in, just waiting for a new oil filter to arrive. And i dont think i will be able to check the alignment since i don’t have the tools or the knowledge to do it, i will test the kart on the track once it’s in running condition so i will be able to tell if i have to do anything to the alignment. I will also definetely open up the carburetor, give it a clean and check if i have to change any components. Also, what are the corner weights? Are they weights to balance out the kart?
I remember Suter being furious with the FIA, that’s about ti. I can’t recall the name of the series that races them now.
I only know that where i live they dont race these types of engines anymore. They race iame, rotax, and other similar engines. They only race newer engines
Snap-on sells a good compression tester but it’s twice the price of some other good ones. Sears use to sell a good one.
Corner weights are for handling. Very important for left turn only (LTO) racing. Still, important for a road course kart also. Helps for perfect handling. Side to side, front to back for Sprint, individual wheel weights for LTO. For instance, in Sprint racing, side to side you want to be equal, front to back, I’ve heard 46% front 54% back. But that’s going to vary depending on how the cars handling. Four bathroom scales, on a perfectly level surface, would do the job.