Track Tac

Need help understanding the Digtron fuel testing method.

K

kkc

New member
The past weekend, won sr. stock clone got to the tech area the tech guy checked my fuel incomparision
with their fuel. My fuel was off 1(one) number off from theirs. They proseeded to dq me. After arguing with them for 10 minutes, I asked them to check the fuel again, it checked the same as theirs. They told me their ruling was standing, I got dq ed. i was just wondering if that method is that accurate or if that is a way to put their racer in the front. I know for sure these tech guys build engines and they have karts on the track, dont know if the guy they gave the win to was one of theirs or not, but their was only 6 racers, and the winnings was only 80 dollars and they put up $250 to tech my kart. Then the tech man gave the protester his money back, and didnt even look at my engine. Just need some help understanding how this works or how the stay in business.
 
Are tech guy tells me to by my gas the day of the race and only buy what I think I will use that day . He tells me he will buy a gal. the day of the race and check it against all others . so now I drain all gas after test and tune and put it in the truck .
Just FYI ~
 
From reading other posts i think the problem is coming from running akly and then gas, even though the tank was cleaned.
I ve been dq d at this track before. The tech guys are a little questonable as well as engine builders, that run at this track. These are some of the ones selling these engines (clones) for $1500.00, and getting out ran, thats bad for their business. So they make up for not knowng how to make one run by dqing everyone in front of them. Its so obvious ill never go back, after i exposed what was happening that night i believe others fell the same.
 
The tech guys at the track in question are good guys, and the way they tech fuel is pretty fair in my opinion. They tell where they get their test fuel from so racers can fuel up on the way to the track. They zero out their meter on their test fuel, then give you a certain tolerance above and below that reference. They have always been good about testing fuel for racers all through practice so that there are no surprises when the chips are down. One of these guys, in particular, is the most honest man I've run across in karting. Perhaps you should re-evaluate your fuel handling program.
 
The new FT64 fuel tester is very sensitive to additives that are not normally in pump gasoline. The new fuel tester makes both DC1,Dc2 and Temp tests all at once. Prior to using the new Digatron fuel tester many racing teams were finding out what tolerance(+/- counts) was being allowed on Dc1 tests and then mixing different fuels/additives to fall within that range since most tracks (some still don't)didn't make the Dc2 test with Digatrons older units (FT-15 and FT47).
We at Digatron decided since more events were being ran with gasoline as the fuel being allowed, that we needed to address this problem and developed the Digatron FT64 unit which is a lot more sensitive on picking up additives and also makes Temp/DC1/DC2 tests all at the same time. Now we need to educate the tracks on how to use the new instrument and how to state what fuel is allowed for each event being ran.
I recommend that tracks state exactly what fuel is required for their event..example 87 octane ethanol based and then state where they are buying their spec fuel.
The tech people then have two ways to set up their meter
1. they can place probe in the spec fuel and record readings on DC1 and DC2 and give plus or minus points from those readings...
2. they can place probe in spec fuel and go to calibration mode and zero DC1 and DC2 and then give plus or minus points from Zero.
3. buy fuel at different stations around track and compare readings from those tracks, this helps in setting plus or minus readings on DC1.
The racing teams should do the following.
1. make sure they have clean fuel tanks or dedicated fuel tanks for those classes running gasoline and not store fuel in those tanks after races.
2. have their fuel tested prior to racing that day(is still no excuse for failing after race).
3. its best to buy from station where tech fuel is bought, but if buying what is required ie: 87 octane with ethanol it should still pass at most other gas stations .
4. purchased new fuel each event and when filling gas containers up pump at least the first 1/2 gallon of fuel from pump into vehicle or generator this will insure that you don't have some other octane in your jug for the event. Old fuel could get you DQ'd especially in the cheap plastic containers.
 
ONEHARDHEAD im assuming you know the track im talking about, not going to mention any of that. Just dont understand the tolerance +? -?, there has to be some numbers. They check for oxygen levels and octane levels in my fuel and then checked theirs, two numbers off first time, one number off second. Not making a big deal about it just need to understand so it doesnt happen again.
Another thing that didnt seem right was when other driver tried to pay the man to tech me, he gave him his money back before he looked at anything. That tells me he had me pegged before the race was over.
 
I heard from a pretty reliable source that you had an aluminum tank. That got us tossed at the same track, and we've never had a problem since. One number doesn't get anyone DQ'd. Get a plastic tank, or make sure your aluminum tank is purged sufficiently, as they tend to keep methanol traces longer.
 
One (1) point isn't a fair call. Especially with a digital system. I have done extensive testing with my 64 tester. I have found that if I allow 3 points in the DC 2 window and 30 points in the DC 1 window there is no difference on the dyno no matter what way I go with jetting. When the DC 2 window goes to 4 above what I allow by changing jets and timing I can make more horsepower. sometimes there is additives that can make the DC 2 window correct but the DC 1 window will be out of the range I allow. This will also make more h.p. on the dyno when tuning. There are ways to change the DC 1 window and the DC 2 window, one or the other, and both. I had a guy from N.Y. two weeks ago come to the track and ask me to test his fuel. I was allowing 3 points above and below my spec fuel in the DC 2 window with the fuel that was bought at the station we requested. I was allowing 30 points above and below the DC 1 window. The N.Y. fuel failed the DC2 window by 2 points more than I was allowing. The DC 1 window was 15 points lower than I was allowing. I know the guy well and he wasn't doing anything intentional. I gave him some of my spec fuel for the day. With that little story being told, Here is what the reason is for the N.Y. fuel being to high. There are no federal regulations that gas companies are required to follow when it comes to performance boost in their fuels. Now avgas and other high performance fuels their is regulations to follow. I can purchase a gallon of avgas here in Pa. and go to California and purchase a gallon and they will both read the same on my tester because of the regulations on that level of fuel. Because of the weather here in the north gas companies are forced to boost the fuel in the winter. A company in Maryland,might have a reading on my meter that is 0 points in the DC 2 window while a company in Pittsburgh may have a reading of 2, and the company in N.Y. may have a reading of 4. I traveled a radius of 50 miles and purchased fuel from 4 stations. Two of the stations were out of spec on my meter. I used to deliver gasoline when I was going to college in Wisconsin. If I got to a station that wanted 20 thousand gallons of 87 and I only had 15 thousand gallons, the company would tell me to put the left over 97 in to make up the difference so the customer had his 20 thousand gallons. What do ya think that 87 now reads on the meter. This is why it is in the best interest of tracks that have the tester to tell the karters where to purchase the fuel if they are going to use the local gas station for the spec on that tester. Hope I helped.
 
These tech men are very experienced, and very fair. Their window is definitely larger than one number. Like I stated before, we were tossed there ONCE for gas that we had in an aluminum tank we had previously used for methanol. We now have one plastic tank for gas, and another for methanol, and haven't been DQ'd since. It was probably an honest and inadvertent mistake, but slamming the tech crew isn't the answer in this case.
 
The one thing I neglected to mention is that the fuel is not to be checked in the tank. The fuel is to be pulled from the tank and checked in a glass jar. You will get a false reading if checking the fuel when it is in the tank.
 
The preferred method is to pull fuel and test in a glass tube or jar before a dq is issued. Plastic containers don't effect readings very often but probe in metal containers should not rest on side or bottoms of tank.For a quick check and to save time its ok to test fuel in karts tanks if done carefully on metal tanks, but before I would DQ someone I would pull their fuel and retest in glass tube or jar.

The goal for fuel testing is to make the playing field equal for everyone on their fuel. Its not to say they are specifily doing anything wrong its just that for some reason their fuel is outside the limits being allowed by giving a range allowed from a spec fuel that is purchased at a known gas station. Marathron gas stations is one of the few who still sell mainly non-ethanol based fuels, so if the race facility specifies ethanol based 87 octane fuel and you get non ethanol 87 octane you most likely will fail on DC1 test as the difference is around 75 counts on DC1 and 2 counts on Dc2.

When ethanol based fuels was introduced it really changed the game for testing gasoline fuel. Prior to ethanol added to gasoline, meters could be calibrated to cyclohexane and all pump gasolines would test a negative reading, methanol would test in positive readings on the Dc1 tests and plus or minus 1 or 2 counts on DC2. Once ethanol was introduced to the fuel it allowed many to mix fuel and use additives to fall within the DC1 reading ranges,that why we developed an instrument to read DC1,DC2 and Temp all at the same time and display readings all at once,hence the FT64 fuel tester.The new probe is entirely different than the old probe AND A LOT MORE SENSITIVE to additives especially on DC2 readings...

On the new fuel tester allowing 20 to 30 counts on DC1 off a known tech fuel is very lienient and on DC2 plus or minus 3 counts is also very lienient when compared to a known tech fuel, when using a comparison method.
 
I tech at two tracks one in Missouri and one in Arkansas in Missouri they require ethanol and Arkansas doesnt and there is a difference of around 110 on DC1 and around 3 on DC2 between the two stations we designate as base and the tracks are only about 20 miles apart. Ethanol makes a huge difference. The people from Digatron and Don who does a lot of the training and testing for AKRA both agree that 30 on DC1 and 3 on DC2 are a good fair tolerance to use. I have used those tolerances for the last year and a half since I started using my FT64 they seem to work real good for me. You need designated station for your racers to know that their fuel is what you are using for a base, so there wont be any controversy.
Bill
 
An issue with a track we run is that it is in somewhat of a remote area. Racers come from multiple directions. Would be nearly impossible to designate a specific gas station. Not sure of an easy solution for that. The track gets over a hundred karts weekly and quite a few unfamiliar newcomers every week. The track wants to purchase a DT64, and keep things simple. But that sounds impossible.
 
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