[Robert Lawson]

Al,

I can’t answer your topic question but I can help in the parts dept.

Go Here: http://www.pavesiengines.com/

Pay no attention to the address, once there click the blue rectangle center of the screen, unless you speak/read Italian click the USA flag top right and go shopping!

You will find Maxter MXO parts under the Maxter Engine Group in the menu.

Pay attention to the first subgroup under Engine Accessories in the menu “Generic Engine Parts”. If you know your engine and what parts cross over to other brands you can easily save BIG $$$$ buying aftermarket or “generic” as they refer to it.

Example: Vortex RVS 125 – ICC complete rebuild from Generic parts….

110mm Complete rod kit (pin, bearing, washers)
TM K9B Piston Kit (ring, pin, clips) Meteor Brand
Wrist Pin Bearing
Carbon Reeds
Main Bearings
2 sets of Crank Seals

With Insured Shipping ($20), from Italy to Detroit Burbs, DHL tracking all the way… it took just 2 DAYS!!!!!!!

246.88 euro…… that’s $277.08 US Dollars! (or was back in Aug.)

Just ordered another piston kit & bearing, to the door with NO insurance ($6.99) STILL ARRIVED IN 2 DAYS!!!  60.89 euro or $67.64 US

I have found no flaw in these parts, the rod is very nice but has yet to be pushed for time.

Happy Shopping!

RPM

 

[Robert Lawson]

Here is more motivation….

Personally I wouldn’t do this in my Enduro but I would pay my fee to watch you nuts do it!!!!

The address has not changed…

17731 Ivanhoe St.
Roseville, MI 48066

[Robert Lawson]

Not sure if I posted this here or on the old thread… still impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrLBNz6zYAM

-6C is 21F guys…… 21!

“They cleared the track this morning?”  Wow!

No need to worry about melting snow running across the surface, it looked to be good and frozen still!!!!

Chunks of Ice on the floor tray during warm-up??!!!!!!!

Richard, the rookie, was on it! He ran well and never let the cold weather deter him!!!

Lets go Boys! Get something in the mail today!!!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Thanks to Tony C for the heads up! It WAS a better day!!!!!

I took a ride over to Harbor Freight and got a spool of wire for the MIG and finished the roof support job this afternoon! A couple minor flare ups on the old blankets used as throws but I didn’t burn the trailer down and most importantly the roof coating was not affected.

Found a NOS Vortex cylinder head for the ole RVS on ebay. $40 shipped to the house, I stole it! Will be waiting on it to show before assembling, should be here mid next week (15-16) so I have time to do more 5 minute jobs before Grattan. Have a couple things I want to set up to try on the back of the kart related to the radiator back there.

Its the 6th, just 2 weeks to get this thing paid for. If you are watching the weather don’t bother, its gonna be beautiful… Puffy said so! Seriously, if we cancel I send it back. You have nothing to lose. Cold? It might be cold you say??? Girls, please, they are Racing 2 weeks later in KY. Um-K?

I’m looking forward to getting some laps in, its been a long Summer of watching!

 

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Thanks:
John Debats

My cylinder showed up today! Thats where the good news ends….

Looks like getting Nikasil repaired, correctly that is, will now require using a Professional Porting Dresser as well as the plater themselves. Its obvious none of these Company’s (Lancourt, Millenium, US Chrome) have a clue what the hell they are doing. Or, they just dont care. US Chrome does provide a porosity free surface, unlike the other 2, but all of them SUCK at using a die grinder.

I’ll run it, its a spare, but I wont let them touch another one.

On top of that the spool of wire on my welder “unwound itself”! All knotted up I salvaged just enough to get the roof support tacked in place before running out. Of course the welding shop was closed, Sunday too, so I cant finish that gig till Monday.

“Que Sera, Sera…..”

Tomorrow is another day, with any luck, a better one than today!

RPM

 

[Robert Lawson]

Thanks:

Steve Pasteiner Sr.
Harry West
Tony Catenaro

I had a feeling something was wrong at US Chrome when they had my cylinder for 2 weeks and no call.

Come to find out, they missed something. It was cracked! Had to go back to stripping, be welded, then recoated again. Its in the boring/honing stage now and should be on its way back here Tomorrow.

More soon!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Tomorrow is October 1st, the time will fly right by.

I asked 1 week ago to get the $$$ moving in this direction to secure the lease and help me sleep at night.

Thanks:

Chris West (sent check before we had a date!)

John & Alan Brasher

Tony H

JW +2

I appreciate the rest!

I’ll sleep even better when all there is to do is watch the weather!

We have a full list of drivers, even a couple to spare. If everyone stuff’s an envelope we can all watch the weather together!!!!

Help dear Puffy fall asleep, and stay sleep. Send that check or MO today!

Robert Lawson
17731 Ivanhoe St.
Roseville, MI. 48066

 

[Robert Lawson]

John, I did a bunch of research before choosing a product.

Rust was not the only factor, actually, the bonding & sealing effect and properties of the silicone was most important.

After calling the tech line, this was suggested for all types of roofing,

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Henry-0-90-Gal-887-Tropi-Cool-100-Silicone-White-Roof-Coating-HE887HS142/206029976

and, was best suited for the flimsy thin metal roofing used on Utility trailers. It also claims to stop rust if properly dressed prior to application.

We used the POR on the chassis about 10 years ago, its still holding up very well! If we do it again, I would not hesitate to go with POR. On the fender well rust, inner and outer, I’m gonna try this:  https://www.autozone.com/paint-and-body/truck-bed-coating/rust-oleum-truck-bed-coating-32oz/827170_0_0

I used that stuff on the old truck rocker panels and it is super tough.

24 hours after painting the “trim” it wrinkled up! The Wife says not to worry though, it looks like the hammer tone finish I used on the wheels!!! From 0-8 feet away it looks terrible…. further away you’d never know. I won’t bother to strip & recoat it until Spring.

I’m adding some support to the AC unit cross member, then the roof insulation and paneling is going on. After Grattan in a few weeks I may remove the rear doors and reskin all or part of them before Winter arrives.

I’m not investing in another trailer, this one is paid for so we have to keep it together.

[Robert Lawson]

We are slowly making progress on the October track/test day. A few have sent their $$$ already and others have given me a date to watch the mailbox. I’ll ask the rest of you to pony up at this point as well. Check or M.O. is best, if you are super-tech I can also take PayPal but prefer the old fashioned methods.

I know late October can have overnight lows in the 30’s with High temps only in the 50’s BUT, the sealer the boys put down in early July right before the CES race had TONS of grip and I do not expect that to change in October. On stone cold new “sticker” tires right out of the pits I had full grip. Curt told me as we circled the course that Thursday evening, pointing out the work they did and how they kept everyone off of it before the event, that a “Track Record”  could be achieved that weekend because of the aggressiveness of the sand/aggregate in the polymer. Guess what happened? Thats right…. track record!

So, the cold will play a role on your coolant but not so much on your grip level. Its best to transport with Antifreeze if you need to run the engine before arrival, and flush in the AM before hitting the track. Or, bring it empty…. just be sure to empty the engine completely! Much easier to deal with on a CIK as compared to the enduro.

I’ll want to run the rebuild before getting loaded up so Antifreeze will be the ticket for me. I also finished the roof prep and sealer on the trailer. Man did that turn out nice! A bit of foam insulation inside the roof panels now should make it toasty in there when its cold outside!

I shot video of the process, check it out on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU__d49WpYDlKa7VRiCL9Ww?view_as=subscriber

More to come!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Thanks Steve, I’ll put you guys down in Ink!

We still need a couple more. I have a few I’m poking at yet so it looks good thus far.

Yeah, my dancing days are far behind me now. I was watching it on the monitor while recording which makes it more difficult….. like cutting your hair in a mirror!

The trailer roof project is a toughy…. hours and hours standing on a ladder is killing my feet. It will be worth it when its done though, will outlast the rest of it for sure!!!! In the Spring (or maybe yet this Fall?) I plan to paint the trailer the same color as my truck. The white panels are so hard to clean and the paint is actually getting thin from doing so over the years. It needed a refresh, I’ve done the frame once before but it may need another grind and paint soon too.

The MIS gig is officially OFF. My contact at the Speedway sent a note yesterday wanting to know what was happening. It never took off so we shut it down.

Much to do while waiting on the cylinder to return!

[Robert Lawson]

The WAITING is the worst part of engine rebuilds….

….. what is a guy to do????

Turn up the SOUND!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Todd,

ANY story from the past is a GOOD story, regardless of the outcome!!!! The portable I used was a “mandrel” type hone like my Sunnen midget hone, it was just “well used”.

I ordered a new piston kit & bearing, from Italy, it will be HERE Monday! Now, it was a whopping $67 with the shipping, so I took a chance and went with the cheap “uninsured” method for $6. Its going UPS, I just hope Jim Carrey isn’t the delivery guy!!!!

US Chrome will receive the cylinder Monday as well. With the new elevated costs I chose to only send 1 and to wave the $100 “in a rush” fee to get it back right away. So, Pitt is out! Grattan is lurking, I really would like to see a few more guys signed up so I could rest easy. But if it doesn’t work out there is  “The Frozen Tundra of the Corvette Museum Speedway” in Nov.

Will just have to wait and see how it shakes out.

Fortunately, I now have a bunch of time to get some other things on the list done. Going to address the trailer roof this weekend!

Later Y’all!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Getting 20 guys together for any kind of testing isn’t going to happen.

Called Sam and made a plea for him to accept a much reduced amount for the lease. He declined!

I then sent a note out to the list of guys I got a previous positive answer from, asking them if they would be interested in paying more per driver. Some have not responded yet but its only an additional $25, so I’m counting them as “in”.

We are just 3-4 guys away from getting the Grattan gig financed. 15 is the minimum, I’ll pay the rest, but I won’t go more than that.

Options:

[Robert Lawson]

Sunday afternoon before heading home from Gingerman I took a tour of the paddock, pen in hand, and gathered many email addy’s and stirred up interest in a Grattan test in October. Also, spreading the info of April testing to many whom still had no idea it had been going on for years.

I’m cautiously optimistic about getting one of the available Sunday’s in October locked down. I need the testing, we broke a piston during break-in at Gman and didn’t learn a thing.

The MIS gig isn’t dead yet, I’ll give it until Oct 1st as I intended. It certainly doesn’t look good though.

Never fails, 3 years in a row now I call Pocono and then saw an engine in half before getting over there!!!! I REALLY need to get the laydown 4 banger together so we have at least 1 reliable kart in this garage!!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Loading up tomorrow, heading to Gingerman this weekend.

Got a note in to Steve at Pocono, hope to hear back from him soon with a window of dates to run over there and figure things out.

These Test Day dates are dead in the water right now, no new inquires.

More coming,

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

I have 5 guys for each venue as of now. Were 1/4th the way there!!!!

Not getting too excited about it just yet, thats for sure.

Got the engine rebuilt today so I’m looking forward to Gman in a couple weeks. Chuck has his little project done and will be bringing his Smoker out to the track. Smoked Brisket all weekend sounds good to me! I hear rumblings that the Rumsey Team Boys, Matt & Johnny, will be running a couple of Larry’s shifters in Unltd. That should make the helmet cam video interesting!!!! Again, I’m aproaching this as testing, otherwise its really like a RWYB without a class.

Its all good, food fun & friends is what its all about. Gonna beat up on this new rod and see how it holds up.

If we dont get the numbers for either test by October 1st I’ll have a plan in place to get to Pocono and do a config/surface test. There is talk of an event there in the future……

More to come,

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Attention!

For those of you whom asked, here is your video…. spread it Liberally!

Contact me if you are interested in either venue.

More coming,

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Check out their website and design your own!

https://www.sawan.com.pk/

[Robert Lawson]

Among other things I have been in heavy contact each morning with a Karting Suit manufacture, having my new suit made. I designed it myself, size and location of logos, cut/crop/trim, colors & tints….. the works. After well over 30 emails its finalized and being sewn.

I should have it in time for Gman, although the kart will not match until April. (its a fashion show out there boys!)

I’ll share all the particulars on how you can do the same when it gets here.

I may need a new helmet now……. hee, hee, hee!!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

The Crank and Parts are off to be rebuilt, I now have a ton of work to do to the kart itself.

The new radiator is big, but, according to the “rules” I have 110″ of overall length and 24″ straight back from the rear of the axle to fit it in. The plan is to keep it low, on a very slight angle, between the frame rails, just inside the rear bumper. More extending of the bumper was necesarry but as I said there is plenty of fudge factor to play with back there.

I tried to link an Italian karting news site here but it wouldn’t let me do it. They actually want you to “subscribe” to read their articles but they give you just enough of a look to see whats up. The story was about the New Line karting folks and their new radiator set up for CIK shifters, obviously for Euro Sprint Racing. Guys, this rad sits absolutely flat! Horizontal, parallel to the track surface. The artice was about the development of this set up and the composite 2 stage “scoop” and deflector used to produce a water temp of 47C (116.6 F) on a Sunny 13C (55F) test day.

I think you’ll start seeing these things soon, maybe by Daytona.

Take a look:

https://www.tkart.it/en/magazine/tech-focus/new-line-presents-horizontal-radiator/#1

I have no intention of trying to bring in cooling air from under my full bodied, full floor trayed, laydown chassis to feed my rad ….. this practice did not work for us in the past! But I do intended to keep the full radiator under the standard enduro bodywork and duct the cool fresh air to it, AND use the flow of air exiting the  under side of the kart to help draw away the forced air coming in from above.

With the added length comes added bodywork. I’ll make a new side panel and split it in half using each bit to extend the exsisting right and left sides. A center panel will be worked up too to complete the new extended rear.

IF we make Gingerman and IF we leave there with a running kart I may try to work out a day to test Pocono before it gets too late in the season. That would be a nice way to finsh off the year.

More to come, check the YT channel for whats going on….. I record everything!!!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Parts are here!

That rod is sweet! Super happy so far, lets get um in an engine and thrash them and see how they hold up!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

I just have to share this with Y’all….

John West offered to help me with getting this old engine back up and running. In the process he inadvertently sent me out into the nether regions of internet shopping to find the cheapest price for a rod kit and he would match it.

Guys, I found the honey pot. The poor guy of karting’s paradise!

John has Pavesi rods kits, so I searched Pavesi parts to source out the cheapest deal I could find. It lead me here: http://www.pavesiengines.com

When you get there simply click the blue rectangle in the middle of the screen….. then HOLD ON!

It takes you here: MONDOKART Racing . com Its an Italian online store.

Many different Manufactures of engines, OEM, Standard or HP parts, even Generic Engine Parts or “aftermarket” in straight English!

If you have an ICC, KZ, even some air cooled stuff its worth looking at for your parts. If you visit the site check out the “retail store”, its like a Department Store! Huge!! You can look around at pic’s of the walk-in store front & shop. They have a machine shop and offer to “Tune” your pistons by machining to lighten them! Crazy!!

My Vortex Factory replacement Rod Kit (bearing/pin/washers/rod) is $350 from OTK and only minimally less here. The Pavesi OEM or Std. parts are cheap too but the Aftermarket equivalent was mind blowing cheap. I ordered a rod kit, a Meteor Piston kit, top end bearing, Main bearings, 2 sets of seals and new carbon reeds, all delivered to my door, in just 2 days, for $277.03! Some of the items I looked at just out of curiosity showed 10’s of 1,000’s in-stock. They must purchase in mass quanity to sell these OEM or Std bits so cheap.

I had an issue with their payment page not being “secure” so I went about payment with the help of my Brother, Jerry, via an unorthodox Paypal deal.

Parts will arrive here Thursday, I’ll post up some video of the rod kit so Y’all can determine for yourself it is a good deal or not. I figure to test these parts in the old engine and if they pass, run them in the newer Homolo as well.

Puffy in action, online shopping while my Che’ is fast asleep!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

OK, So Why???

This is the inevitable question….. and I have the answer.

First the Question: Why did the LRB check out well before its scheduled maintenance window?

Its a bit involved and goes back to the last time I ran it before buying the newer Homologation. You see, I stuck this engine at the April test in 2017…. I have posted the video here. It blew up when I ran it out of gas, it stuck so hard it cracked the cylinder at a mounting point which caused it to leak H2O externally from the water jacket. That cylinder had gone to the plater and back before finding that issue. This was the reasoning behind buying a newer engine…. the spare cylinder for this old engine was also in need of plating so the engine went on the bench. While playing with and testing the newer engine I sent out the spare and my A kit HRC cylinder for Rich to US Chrome for replating. I rebuilt this old spare with new clutch, reeds, plating and top end….. and there she sat until after MIS last year. Another mistake was using the air filter from the newer engine after that rod bearing was launched on this engine. I found debris embedded in the piston & head plus a broken reed after running it last Fall.

Now, to current day, I stuck this old engine at Grattan on Saturday morning. This was due to a lazy change made at Gingerman last fall, adjusting the needle instead of the main….. I leaned the entire throttle position curve (0 – 100% throttle) by dropping the needle all the way down AND removing the washer that was under the clip. (2 full clip pos.+ washer = a full jet size)  If I had read my notes from Gingerman this would have jumped right out, I went through the carb but not the slide needle!

So we have a second seizure, a second lock-up and spin, on the same rod bearing. Then to add insult to injury (literally!) I run it to 14.900+ RPM’s when its back together and THAT is the answer to the question of “Why”.

A hard blow up, ingested shrapnel from a dirty air filter, a second blow up, and to top er off lets run the guts out of er!!!

Mother always said “Hindsight is 20/20”

I say, maybe not Mom’s…. cause I’d run it again if we were going tomorrow!

I’m working on tomorrow right now…..

Peace Y’all,

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Inspection results:

[Robert Lawson]

“All’s well that end’s well…..”

Or that’s what they say!

I come away from Grattan a bit confused and a bit relieved! The wheel work and tire test went well, very well. The cooling system mod also worked, so I went 2 for 2. The confusing bit was how I could so mildly stick the engine in practice, go for a high speed spin, find the damage almost non exesistant, all after I had run the engine hard at Gingerman last September! Oh I got it fixed and running right before the Green flag flew at race time, even found why it may have stuck to begin with…. but after just 12 or 15 minutes of running it may have lost the lower rod bearing. I wont know for sure until I get it apart but I have heard this noise 2 other times, the latest at MIS last August. Confused because I had at least another 5 hours of safe run time before reaching the rebuild window. Confused because all the data, just like the AM issue, looked safe or good.

I ran that VP gas. It smells like a damn Meth lab!!! Multiple people questioned the smell, although, others were running it or the same brand/blend. Who knows!

It was a great weekend though. Met a bunch of folks that look in here, at the YT channel, AND more guys that are interested in April testing that had no idea we did such things!!!

Not giving up on MIS this Fall but I guess myself and 3 others are the only guys silly enough to think its a good opportunity. We’ll see but they are not busting the door down over here for sure.

More to come, here is the race video from Saturday:

[Author]

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