Keeping track of engine runtime for prescribed maintenance?

David Flori · Joined: 17 Apr 2012 Posts: 33

How do people generally keep track of usage of an engine to determine when replacement of parts and maintenance is required?

I have a detailed note of how many gallons I use and rough guide as to what was changed and checked, but I am not really sure how to get a accurate estimate of hours on the engine.

Would one of those little equipment Vibration hour meters suffice?

Do they make any that are easily clipped on, or turned off so that when trailing they would not be counting against engine time?

As well as easily adjustable for mistakes?

Any better ideas?

Is there an outline detailing specific hours on engine parts such as the bearings rod seals ect for Rotax?

And if so where does one find a complete list of prescribed maintenance for the Rotax?

Nathan Adair · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:41 pm Post subject:

My Mychron 4 works great. It runs the timers anytime the engine has an rpm signal > 0. It even has multiple timers so you can keep track of multiple items.

Oscar Biondi · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:43 pm Post subject:

What gauge are you using? The mychrons and alfanos I've used all had hour meters for multiple motors.

ryan orchard · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:15 pm Post subject:

For my 4 stroke kart I use a cheap hour meter that also reads rpm, it was $20 bucks and works fine. I use the mychron 4 on my rotax kart, but it's a lot more expensive. I quess it depends how much you wanna spend and what info your looking for Wink

Dan Haynes · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:04 pm Post subject:

The Mychron 4 keeps track of hours but on a water cooled engine there is a lot of run time on the stand. Probably shouldn't count that as engine hours since its usually lower RPM. We only rev ours to about 7000 on the stand. But I also use our notes and mylaps as a guide. I record every session in a notebook, including number of laps. At Beaverun in TaG a lap is about 56-57 seconds so 10 laps is roughly 9:30 seconds.

But a better way is to check your compression after each race day. Check it when it is fresh to establish a baseline. Use the same gauge every time. Just make sure it is a quality gauge.
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