Seat time and learning...

J par

Member
So day before yesterday I went and got my kart aligned. We put it on a four corner scale and tweak the frame just a little bit to get the front even..
He took the old style spark plug out and put a newer four-cornered style spark plug in... Did some adjustments on the carburetor but I had to do more once I got to the track to get it to run well...
There's a strong possibility even after I cleaned it that it could still have some issues from the previous owner leaving bad gas in it..
Anyways I took a wild swing at my gearing and added about 4 teeth to my rear sprocket to get it to hit the rev limiter before the end of the long straight away. Again our local Sprint track is very technical. Has seven corners two short straightaways and one long one.. previously I was never hitting the rev limiter at the end of the long straight away.
With the new gearing I was hitting it way too long before the end of the straight away.. on those few passes I barely got the time to warm up the tires and was flagged in for the rentals to go out... Knowing I had taken too big of a swing that's a gearing put another sprocket on and lost two teeth on the rear...
This next time I got a full session of laps warming up the tires and getting my rhythm going.. I pulled off my fastest laps yet...(47 second range) But was still hitting the rev limiter a good ways before the end of the long straight.. which follows along with my personal theory that I need more zip and all of those corners and the end of the long straight away is a small portion of the track..
So now to tell the difference if it was the alignment or carb tune or spark plug I went back to the previous gearing that was yielding me 49's and one 48... I hit the rev limiter long before the end of the straight away again! And it didn't do this before so something in the alignment spark plug carburetor or whatever I feel contributes??.. but back up to the 48 second laps..?
BUT... Am I now getting more seat time and exiting the corner faster to reach a better speed at the end of the straight away?...
Well as you can see by this post I'm all over the map LOL...
 
The lap times are what you need to follow .
The hitting the rev limiter is just something you have too accept .
Good job with the driving improvement .
 
The lap times are what you need to follow .
The hitting the rev limiter is just something you have too accept .
Good job with the driving improvement .
I'm fine with the rev limiter as long as it's not hurting anything which I think it's meant to not heard anything LOL..
An odd thing though the rev limit light on the mychron 4 gives you an option of 6000 RPMs.. for the indicator light I believe... When I check my rev limits for any given time it was at 6030 or so at maximum recorded. I was thinking it would be 6100 or better..?..
 
When I first started with a rev limiter, I tended to lift a little when it came on. Had to learn to keep the throttle nailed when on the limiter. I would take teeth off until you're not hitting the limiter at all then try to drive so good you start to hit the limiter again. When you have a big rear gear, that extra pull in the turns will mask driving mistakes then kill your speed at the end of the straight. After you get washed you can try putting teeth back on to see if your lap times come down.
 
7 corners-2 short straights and one long straight .
How long is the straight away ?
You added 4 hit the limiter , removed two hit the limiter .
Drop 4 teeth you might be faster yet .
Between the alignment , plug change , gearing and driving it's all improvements .
 
7 corners-2 short straights and one long straight .
How long is the straight away ?
You added 4 hit the limiter , removed two hit the limiter .
Drop 4 teeth you might be faster yet .
Between the alignment , plug change , gearing and driving it's all improvements .
The longest straight away isn't extremely long by any means.. and I kind of consider that 40 or 50 ft that I'm hitting the rev limiter at Max speed an extremely small portion of the track..
 
Depends on the track, but when i have tried 206s with rev limiter on road racing (enduro) I got faster times with the rev limiter acting several times on the main straight than when I tried to gear it to only cut once by the end of the straight, because it made it much slower on the tight turns, but depends on track and your driving styl;e too.
 
Depends on the track, but when i have tried 206s with rev limiter on road racing (enduro) I got faster times with the rev limiter acting several times on the main straight than when I tried to gear it to only cut once by the end of the straight, because it made it much slower on the tight turns, but depends on track and your driving styl;e too.
Pretty much where I'm at...
 
One thing I did notice just a few minutes ago when I walk to the garage and was looking at the kart... I pushed down on the choke lever and it went about almost 1/2 inch?.. now that leaves me thinking is that the one second extra on those final laps with the new gear?..
 
One thing I did notice just a few minutes ago when I walk to the garage and was looking at the kart... I pushed down on the choke lever and it went about almost 1/2 inch?.. now that leaves me thinking is that the one second extra on those final laps with the new gear?..
Spend the $3 and install a choke spring for peace of mind. They should come with the engine but don't.
 
I don't think its uncommon to hit the rev limiter with a Mycron 4 at 6030 imo for a 206. I have four Mycron 4's and two engines doesn't matter which combo I use 6030 is the limiter on sprint kart. Same happened with a different LO206 engine when I raced asphalt oval with one long ago. Rev limiters you need to figure out where your fastest lap times occur. If its tight track you may need certain gearing to get you through those corners. I know on certain tracks with long straights that I can sometimes modulate the throttle with my foot to run at max rpm without hitting the rev limiter and improve my lap time. Hard to do on shorter straights, even harder to do in traffic, pretty easy to mess up, much easier making a different gear choice. Scaling your kart is important.
 
Currently reading this...
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Oh man the karting was fun today...
I went yesterday but it was way to wet for my novice abilities...
Today it started a little wet, but improved through the day... I could instantly tell it was improving my driving skills.
I would get the kart up to top speed, slap the break, turn into the corner and the front tires wouldn't respond and counter-intuitively I would hit the gas and the kart would bite and turn through the corner...
It was definitely something you had to get used to... I really was wanting to practice some late mini lock-up breaking and it was a perfect opportunity...
Fun day...
 
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