Opening old tires up?

metalmagic

New member
What kind of household or garage products can I use to open up and old set of burris dxb tires? I have them down to 45 durro but I have hit a wall and have tried a heat gun and everything but it won't go down any lower
 
Many quick acting home made preps are basically a 50/50 mixture of Toluene and Xylene; if you are in a hurry at the track, you use it as-is, if you wish to slow down the evaporation rate you add add 2-4 ounces of WD-40 to a quart of the mixture, if you want to slow it down a bunch more, you add 2-4 ounces of automatic transmission fluid to a quart of the mixture, with or without the WD-40. Here's where it gets to what you are looking for: instead of automatic transmission fluid, substitute automatic transmission SEALER, the stuff they sell to make the seals in old auto transmissions swell up and do there job again for a few more thousand miles before you need new seals (and probably a rebuild) because it's leaking so bad.

The automatic transmission sealer version of this old recipe is worth a try on your tires - go with the full 4 ounces. If you haven't played with home made preps before, Toluene and Xylene are paint thinners and can be bought at any paint store or found in the paint department at Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and usually WalMart.
 
you mix two 5 gallon buckets of toluene and xylene to gather then just add 4 ounces of sealer? or do you start with 2 pints of toluene and xylene?
 
I have used the 50/50 mixture Outrider spoke of and added a little diesel fuel and turned a 60 duro tire into pizza cheese.
 
It's at a 40 down from 75 and we have been working on them a month. We r just trying different preps out on this old set so we know what they do..... Do u guys use heat? Maybe that's what I'm missing.... How exactly do you do it? Step by step so I know me and my son are doing it right lol
 
Heat will generally make a tire duro 5 points lower on Maxxis from what I've seen so far. A lot of people will torch the tires before applying softener.
 
you mix two 5 gallon buckets of toluene and xylene to gather then just add 4 ounces of sealer? or do you start with 2 pints of toluene and xylene?

You start with a quart of the 50/50 mixture and add the WD and/or the ATF to that. The automatic transmission sealer, when substituted for the ATF, opens the pores in the rubber and allows the other chemicals to do their job more deeply. I've heard of some pretty wild drops using the basic mixture plus diesel fuel as Harrym described - like he said, 60 down to pizza cheese; if you go that route, start out light on the diesel fuel and work up as you get a feel for how it's going to behave.
 
i don't know about mixing all this into a prep to put on your tires. if you want to clean your tires and then prep, get dejunk or some other engine degreaser. spray it on and watch what kind of crud comes out. then once you have them clean, apply the prep of your choice and wrap them in plastic cling wrap. i jsut dopn't know about home mixing all kinds of different substances or chemicals. you risk a lot if you don't know what the chemical reactions would or could be.

huummmm, lets look at this!!! toluene: is sometimes also used as an inhalant drug for its intoxicating properties; however, inhaling toluene has potential to cause severe neurological harm. Inhalation of toluene in low to moderate levels can cause tiredness, confusion, weakness, drunken-type actions, memory loss, nausea, loss of appetite, and hearing and color vision loss. Toluene and xylene are powerful compounds. Toluene and xylene poisoning can occur when someone swallows these substances, breathes in their vapors, or when these substances touch the skin.

georgehenry asked about creosote: brief direct contact with large amounts of coal tar creosote may result in a rash or severe irritation of the skin, chemical burns of the surfaces of the eyes, convulsions and mental confusion, kidney or liver problems, unconsciousness, and even death. Longer direct skin contact with low levels of creosote mixtures or their vapors can result in increased light sensitivity, damage to the cornea, and skin damage. Longer exposure to creosote vapors can cause irritation of the respiratory tract.

come on guys....you mess with this stuff the wrong way and you're gonna get snake bit.

i think i'll stick to a common degreaser and plain old water. please don't take this the wrong way, but you are risking too much playing with this crap and that's bat crap crazy....
 
my "crewchief" is on me for softing um up too much .heres what i do 1 qt zylene 1qt lamp oil 2 ozs trans sealermix throughly. was tires with soap and water s scrub them likevyour trying to getvthe rubber off with a stiff brush rinse throughly warm air dry clean with tire cleaner warm tocaround 95 degrees apply a liberal wipeing of yoir mixture youcwant them wet. stack them on their side keep warm as soon as they turn dull ( dry) repeat . Repeat this 3 or 4 times 2 nights before the race wrap in saran wrap leave them until the next night .stack them somewhere theyll stay warm pull the wrap and start wipeing again 3/5 times wrap again keep warm pull the wrap in the morning dont let any thing (dirt eyc ) get on them it will be stuck put your secret concocton in a bottle so you can wipe them about every 2 hour if you let them dry they powder or rpck up gast .i understand tryomg to usecsomethong up bs throw it away you eoll throw these away after sfeature of hard raceing
 
Just prepping a tire and checking the duro isnt going to do you all that much good, some of the things your putting in the tire are still softening, and the tire will get softer after its ran.
Adding ton's of different chemicals on top of each other results in little useful info, find a prep line and follow there instructions to the T
 
Well here is the deal... I'm going to try this but a guy we run with showed up a week ago and I was talking to him and leaned over and put my hand on his tire and it felt like bubblegum, he wins all the time and the stuff he uses is very brown/black in color and has a yellow tint and it smells very prominent of pb blaster..... Any idea what that crap is?
 
Well here is the deal... I'm going to try this but a guy we run with showed up a week ago and I was talking to him and leaned over and put my hand on his tire and it felt like bubblegum, he wins all the time and the stuff he uses is very brown/black in color and has a yellow tint and it smells very prominent of pb blaster..... Any idea what that crap is?

Keep this in mind...different chassis's use the tires differently than others do. What i mean is, one guys kart may hook up and fly on a set of 33's prepped down to 35, while another guys kart may do just as good if not better on a set of 33's prepped to 45. Do you see where im going with this? The type of prep you choose to use plays a big part in how well your tires are hooked up and how the kart handles. If your on the wrong prep for the track conditions, you will either be out to lunch or will at least be a few tenths off from someone who has the righ tires and prep for those conditions. These last few weeks, i have been winning races left and right, so much that people actually accused me of cheating! And do you know how i won those races? I experimented with tires and preps until i found out exactly what worked best at that track and for what conditions, and as much as i hate to say it, goat pee is what has had me winning, along with tires that duro 40-45. Most people at this track wouldnt believe me even if i told them, mainly because i have never heard of anyone using goat pee at this track, or tires that soft, but truth is, thats what it has took to win races the last few weeks with the cold weather and this track. If you really want to drop the duro on those tires, get yourself some track tac BTGP red or SAA grape, either of those chemicals will drop a tire 15-30 points easy, but you have to apply with heat. First heat up the tire to about 90-100 degrees, then apply your prep, whether you wipe it or roll it on. After you prep them and they dry, check the duro. It may have dropped and it may not, most of the time you will not see the results you want from softening a tire until that tire has been on the track and had a heat cycle thru it. Im no expert tire man, but i do know what works and what doesnt and i do know how to soften tires. Hope this helps you out.
 
Many quick acting home made preps are basically a 50/50 mixture of Toluene and Xylene; if you are in a hurry at the track, you use it as-is, if you wish to slow down the evaporation rate you add add 2-4 ounces of WD-40 to a quart of the mixture, if you want to slow it down a bunch more, you add 2-4 ounces of automatic transmission fluid to a quart of the mixture, with or without the WD-40. Here's where it gets to what you are looking for: instead of automatic transmission fluid, substitute automatic transmission SEALER, the stuff they sell to make the seals in old auto transmissions swell up and do there job again for a few more thousand miles before you need new seals (and probably a rebuild) because it's leaking so bad.

The automatic transmission sealer version of this old recipe is worth a try on your tires - go with the full 4 ounces. If you haven't played with home made preps before, Toluene and Xylene are paint thinners and can be bought at any paint store or found in the paint department at Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and usually WalMart.

Mixing industrial chemicals doesn't sound like a real good idea.
 
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