[Christian Fox]

Hi Tom. The new cylinders and ECUs are being released only to those who have registered for the Florida Winter Tour. I guess they have limited availability, so they are making them available to those who need/want them first. They haven’t said when they will be available to everyone.

I don’t know of anyone who has gotten one, so it’s not clear how they perform. I think it is safe to assume they will be unequivocally better than average to good current stuff, but how they compare to the best current stuff remains to be seen. Also complicating matters is whether or not you can combine new/old cylinders with new/old ECUs. Initially it seemed as though you could use any combo you wanted. Now I am being told you can only use a new ECU with the new cylinder. I guess we’ll have to wait for the new rules to come out. If that is the case, it will be a headache for any local racing, where tech will have to monitor cylinder/ECU combos for all the Micro/Mini/Junior classes.

[Christian Fox]

Connecticut, we are based out of OVRP. New carb has been sold, the one race carb is still available. It was used for one F-Series race, that’s it.

[Christian Fox]

One rad sold, pipes and other rad still available

[Christian Fox]

Hi Samir, like Mark wrote, lettered cylinders have been around since 2011. Prior to that they were numbered by year, so a “9” stamped on the cylinder indicated a 2009 production year. Every few years Rotax mandates that certain parts will be phased out. Last year, for Micro and Mini, 2010 cylinders and older were no longer legal. Many good 2009 cylinders were taken out of circulation, so everyone began hunting for good lettered cylinders. As far as Junior and Senior, the original plan was to ban numbered cylinders this year, but although it’s not been made official, I’ve been told that numbered cylinders are going to be allowed again for 2016 for Junior and Senior. The latest batches of cylinders from 2015 have proven to be quite even performance-wise so far, the problem is they aren’t as good as lettered cylinders from 2011 and 2012.

[Christian Fox]

The letters are the production batch codes. They vary by year, and they vary in performance, sometimes by a lot. Many thousands of dollars are spent on dyno time trying to find the good ones. No one is going to just tell you what the good ones are. Once good ones are sorted out, they fetch a lot of money. The top ten in Junior at any National event are all likely on the same cylinder batch.

[Christian Fox]

Jeff, the rule was made to conform with Canada. In Europe they still run Mini on 950’s. I thought the cadet chassis looked way overpowered when I watched the Mini classes at Rotax Worlds this year. There were a number of bad flips in Mini.

In some Canadian series they run Micros and Minis on Vega Blues (which I’ve always found strange), which have a TON of grip. I wonder if the 1010 rule has anything to do with that. An Evo Mini on a cadet chassis shod with Vegas would be bicycling around every corner.

[Christian Fox]

Hi Tom, the min weight for Mini is 290 lbs. whether you are on a 1010 or a 1040.

[Christian Fox]

I have mixed feelings about the 1010. I agree that the chassis rule has probably diminished numbers. A lot of people only keep their kids in Mini for a year (dumb, IMO) and don’t want to buy a new chassis for one year. But in Evo form the Mini engine has enough power that I think the 1010 is a lot safer than a cadet. A decent Evo Mini motor has 7 or 8 more hp than a Mini Rok or Mini Swift. It’s also a nice stepping stone from a cadet to a full size. The problem is most chassis manufacturers give very little thought to their 1010 design. We’ve been on a Nordix and it’s…not great. It’s nothing more than a stretched out cadet with ill-fitting body work from a full size chassis. It’s impossible to use workable front hubs that don’t cause the front wheel to jam the side pods in tight turns. We are constantly fighting for rear grip. We are testing a prototype chassis and hope to get a more tunable chassis.

In our region Mini has always been a stepchild class, but last year was actually the best numbers wise we’ve been in a while. Rotax nationals had more Minis than Micros, which never happens. In our region we see a lot of people move their kid up to Junior too early. That’s another reason you see small Mini fields, but big Junior fields with 2/3 of the kids 1.5 seconds off the pace.

[Christian Fox]

Your carbs floats are upside down, your needle is jammed shut and fuel can’t flow into the carb.

[Christian Fox]

https://new.ekartingnews.com/forums/topic/new-wire-harnesses-for-2016/

[Christian Fox]

Hi Tom, assuming you are not wiring a DD2, there is only one ground wire to be dealt with (the long one). The longer of the two wires attaches to back, inside cylinder head nut. Be sure when you attach it to make sure there is no tension on the wire. Give it as much of a loop as possible and be sure to zip tie it to the bracket so it can’t swing around, other wise it can break and ruin your day. The new harness grounds to the bracket itself, which is a big improvement. And yes, the unused wires can just be ties or taped back.

[Christian Fox]

The new bracket looks much better, I think it effectively sandwiches the coil and ECU between metal plates with rubber isolators so they don’t flop around. Not sure how I originally signed up for updates, but I do get emails from Maxspeed with the stuff.

[Christian Fox]

Yes, there is a new harness and a new bracket for the coil and ECU. You get one new harness per engine serial number. You must exchange your old harness in order to get a new one. They are starting the exchange process at round one of the FWT in Homestead. They have not stated yet how the exchange process will work for everyone not  going to FWT.

If you sign up on Maxpeed’s email list, they send these updates out.

[Christian Fox]

Tim, the claiming rule is an attempt to level the playing field, motor-wise, by removing the incentive to spend many thousands of dollars part selecting a “super motor.” The theory is no one will spend 10 grand building a motor only to have it claimed for 4 grand after the race. One hole in the theory is maybe a huge budget racer/team won’t care….they just want to win super nats, and give no thought to a 6 grand loss…cost of racing and all that.

My question: how much performance variation is there in X30’s? I’ve always been under the assumption they are much closer out of the box than Rotax motors. Do builders part select and Frankenstein them to the degree that happens in Rotax?

[Christian Fox]

Yes, it’s legal to weld. If it’s a special pipe, go ahead and have it fixed, otherwise run-of-the-mill used pipes are cheap and easy to find. The new Evo pipes are nice and very equal performance-wise (vs. the high variablity in older pipes).

[Christian Fox]

If you’re going to do it, don’t be tempted to run it on brick tires. The temptation is to make any already bargain class even cheaper, but there are fun, sticky tires that last with 206 motors. Out west they run them on MG Reds, and up in Canada in ECKC (HUGE fields), they run on super sticky Vega NordAms. Vegas last forever on my son’s Rotax. You’ll have way more fun on tires that have grip, leave the bricks to indoor karting when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground.

[Christian Fox]

Don’t think EKN is covering Rotax events any longer. There was zero coverage of Grand Nationals this summer as well, not even results let alone reporting.

[Christian Fox]

I wouldn’t spray WD-40 in the cylinder, I’d just drip a little 2-stroke oil in there. I’d pull the reed cage to make sure they look/feel ok, and while it’s off put a bit of oil under the piston down into the crankcase so the crank gets some oil. Turn it over by hand a few times.

I would also:

-take apart/rebuild your fuel pump

-replace your pulse line

-overhaul your clutch (at least pull the drum and clean it)

-Might want to run a little heavy on the oil in your fuel first time out

Have fun!

[Christian Fox]

found some, so I’m good!

[Christian Fox]

Um..we’re talking about a kid kart/Micro driver here…leveraging your “personal brand” is a bit much at this point. As Tim correctly pointed out, local businesses sponsoring kid sports is a goodwill gesture, not some part of a grand marketing scheme with expected returns. And keep in mind sponsorship brings pressure to an activity that for a little kid should be about fun and learning. If a local business wants to help out, that’s very cool, but their expectations from the relationship should be a hearty thank you and a decal on your kart. Bottom line is their isn’t a whole lot of sponsorship in karting, even at high, national level stuff. Every parent/family there is forking over 99% of the budget. Karting isn’t a big enough market for equipment makers to give away too much stuff to very many people. If they do, it isn’t the big ticket stuff. It’s a captive market; no one gets free motors in a single motor series when everyone has to buy the same motor anyway.

[Christian Fox]

On a track with a long straight, a good Evo Micro can hit close to 11,000, and a good Prevo can get 10,500. There is a big difference between good and average with regards to Micros. Depending on the track, max rpm has a lot to do with how your driver enters the straight. Did you race Micro prior to Evo? If so, what rpm did you hit then?

[Christian Fox]

Josh, the throttle stop is for Micro only. You are fine there. Have you stripped and cleaned the carb? A tiny particle of dirt in the main jet will cause the exact problem you are having. The carb is so huge it’s very easy to work on. I would swap coils and ECUs between the motors just to check, although the electrical issues usually prevent the motor from starting in the first place. And try a different plug…you can order Densos from Amazon at great prices. Rotax motors nuke plugs…a plug that won’t start a Rotax will fire up another motor just fine. Good luck!

[Christian Fox]

Hi Samir, glad you found a motor. To answer your questions:

-You need to use the Yuasa/Rotax battery

-You can use Motul 2T at 50:1 ratio for NE Regionals or clubs, national Rotax events require Rotax XPS

-93 pump gas from the gas station down the road (O’Dell’s) is the spec fuel. Use 93; anything lower octane won’t pass tech

-Mojo D1, must be purchased from OVRP for the regional event (this is standard practice)

-drive sprocket lock is very handy

-exhaust springs do need to be Rotax. Black for old package, Evo springs are silver

-The tire protection system you are referring to s for DD2 only. All other classes use the regular black, plastic CIK bumper.

Good luck! We’ll be there tomorrow so Aidan can practice in his Mini Max.

[Christian Fox]

Hi Samir, yup, that’s me, Aidan’s Dad. I’m glad you guys gave the Rotax a shot. You certainly had a challenging start with the weather; that was some nasty rain. Rotax is a really good package, with big, competitive fields in the Northeast. Like I wrote before, they are tanks and easy to deal with when you figure them out.

It won’t be easy to find people selling upgrade kits at cost per se, but a lot of people who were planning to sell their motors waited until they got the upgrade kit before listing them. You should be able to hunt around classifieds (here or other karting sites) or ebay and find a decent used motor with an upgrade kit. I’ll keep an eye out. Stop by and say hello if you guys are at the next race.

[Christian Fox]

Mark (Parker), my friend Mark (Traylor) is 100% correct. There exists no actual baseline to test one vs. another. For example, we’ve beaten some brand new evos with our upgrade, but guess what, those evos had 2013 and 2012 cylinders. The 2015 cylinders that came with the motors were, after dyno testing,  chucked into the spare parts bin. They could have been running pipes from 2008 as well for all I know. What would you call that? An EvPro?? PrevEvo?? Any truly competitive Rotax motor is going to be a mishmash of various parts anyway, so short of part testing every component between an Evo and a Prevo, you’ll never know which part makes which motor better.

Micros are by far the toughest motors to get right…engine builders go through countless parts and hours looking for .1 hp (noticeable on the track in the hands of a good kid driver).

[Author]

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