Couple of noob questions

Trey Davis · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:08 pm Post subject: Couple of noob questions

1. I have noticed a bit of oily texture in my coolant. Is that a blown head gasket or just normal? It's not very much at all.

2. The guy I bought the kart from had the stator set slightly retarded for road racing. I'm not sure how to set it back to stock. Does the flywheel get moved to a different position or the stator, and how to do it?
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05CRG/99Honda

Christian Hubbell · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:34 pm Post subject:

Blown head gaskets will usually make the water temps real high. Have an overflow bottle? Is it full? Or got a temp gauge? One cool trick I saw once was instead of an overflow, a guy ran some tubing up his fairing from the radiator so he would get spritzed with water in the case of a bad gasket. Cheap insurance. Otherwise I wouldn't be too concerned.

There are two or three bolts that hold the stator on, they are slotted holes. Just loosen them up and you will see. Then rotate the stator clockwise for more advance. There is also a scribe line and another mark that you can use to set it to the factory setting. Is it a stock ignition? If so full advance, just use good fuel. Programmable ignitions sometimes want the ign in full retard or stock.

Trey Davis · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:01 pm Post subject:

I have had some temp issues, but it turned out to be a bad radiator cap that was filling up the overflow. My temps would sometimes go up to 150 but back down pretty quickly. I think it was because I was losing water. I had one incident that it went to 200 that freaked me out, but I know it was due to low water level. I filled it back up and had no trouble. Hopefully that one spike didn't kill my ring or piston.

It has PI.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to flush the lines and radiator and get a new cap. I think I'll be able to maintain pressure to keep the temps right. If I still have trouble, then maybe it is a head gasket.
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05CRG/99Honda

Christian Hubbell · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject:

Do you know if the head is o'ringed vs a gasket? If its got a PI there is a good chance. If not I'd at least have a gasket on hand before you go out again.

How was the cap bad? To play devils advocate I would say the cap is working as designed and letting off pressure/water because things are getting too hot. I think you nailed it with the head gasket, you shouldn't be losing water.

Trey Davis · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 5:23 pm Post subject:

At the Nashville road tour, Dan thought my cap looked pretty bad. I'm going to get it tested friday. He thought that if it wasn't sealing properly, I would lose coolant in the overflow, which will fill up pretty quickly.
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05CRG/99Honda

Trey Davis · Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 5:28 pm Post subject:

Update. I had the cap tested and it was fine, so I'll be doing a head gasket.
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05CRG/99Honda

Trey Davis · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:53 pm Post subject:

How often does the tranny oil need replacing, and which kind is the best?
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05CRG/99Honda

Joe Ricard · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:55 am Post subject:

For my ICC it's 10 hours which is pretty long 60 seconds at a time.
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Arrow AX-8/ Rotax Sr.

al nunley · Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 3032

Oil in the water? How could that “ever” be OK? Maybe?? it won’t hurt anything, but it sure is a sign that something isn’t right. How it’s getting in there is something I would be checking on. A leaking head gasket would, it seems to me, be a good place to start looking.
High water temps, I’m told, are not good, but reading them would be, it seems to me, a very “slow” indicator of a problem.
I like the EGT, it responds very fast to a lean mixture problem.
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If the data does not support the theory, get a new theory. (Al Nunley)
All else being equal; Compression is the Holy Grail.
45 years, in and around karting

Trey Davis · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:45 pm Post subject:

Juan Jaramillo · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:18 pm Post subject:

Christian Hubbell · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:50 pm Post subject:

The Honda stuff is the ticket, it's a red bottle. Too lazy to go out to the garage to get the full name Smile

I used to run ATF too, worked just the same but smelled worse.
Another helpful bit is there is a Philips screw in the clutch cover that you can undo and fill til it comes out of there or measure out the 650 mL for a dry trans.