Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Bench Racers Journal
Chapter 120

I could not get home quick enough. Thinking about some of these articles had me stoked. I just hope it doesnt get all political like those other articles in Karting World magazines had been lately.

The whole reason to stop by Franks was to get some input from him about the piston ring grooves. But he seemed so upset about nothing fitting like he had expected, I didnt even bother. Guess I am on my own for now. I just dont want to set up all three engines the same and they fail when we make our next race.

Let me think about this. Maybe leave the other two engines alone. Both Chris and Steves engines will have the E-65 pistons with all three rings. I will use my engine for finding out what does or does not work so well. The one backup engine can be left alone too. That way, in case my engine bombs, I wont be out of play for all three of the heat races.

So tonight was a total bust, except for the borrowed magazine I picked up from Frank. I am still uncertain on which way to go on the test piston in my engine. There wont be much chance of getting any sleep until after reading Franks magazine cover to cover either. But I sure dont want to wake up more engines blowing up again in my dreams like last night.

Frank actually ordered all of the upgrades we had talked about. Well everything I had suggested. I did spend a bunch of time checking out the kart tests and every ad having anything to do with either the Super-K or A-bone even before considering my recommendations to him. Unfortunately that did not amount to very much.

I remembered reading about one kart test for the Rupp Super-K in last years May 1960 issue of HOT ROD. It was probably the best information for what I was wanting to find out. The article had actually suggested shortening the wheel base on this first version. After testing it on the track, in the drivers opinion the wheel base was way too long.

There were some other issues that plagued the test kart. The tread width was too narrow on the rear. Some oddball drum brake did not hold up so well. But Herb Rupp(aka Mickey) had mentioned in the article this first model had been built over the winter and not track tested yet. Seems they had a massive snowfall in early spring laying down three feet of white fluff.

According to the article Rupps only attempt of testing the new prototype Super K was inside a huge gymnasium. Maybe like an FFA arena or something along those lines. There was nothing more specific. I didnt think you could get much feedback driving on a flat hardwood basketball court.

I wonder why Frank had figured all of upgrades would just bolt right on without any alterations? Hmm, with that engineers mind of his, I think he would have asked a whole lot of questions when ordering the parts. He did say how tight he was with Mickey Rupp, aka "Mic" if you are Frank. Maybe I am missing something here.

After calling it quits for the night, I spent my time focused on this February 1961 issue of Popular KARTING. One thing I immediately noticed is how out of date most of the articles seemed to be. A lot of them were similar to others from  last year in the very first magazines I had even read. Many of the ads were still advertising karts with dead axles.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5126]
Popular KARTING Feb 1961 cover

Well this is a February issue. It would likely have articles carried over from last year to fill up the pages over the winter. Some less than premium filler articles and reports not worth using during the racing season. The crash helmet article was not so informative like I had hoped. But I did learn that 19 of the 33 entrants at the 1960 Indy 500 Race were wearing McHal helmets.

This article also mentioned that the SCCA rules had made Bell helmets mandatory in all events. They just recently come out with the new 500 model. Sure looks cool. But way to pricey for me right now. I will stick to the old drabby colored Buco that Frank sold me cheap enough.

The next article was coverage of the inaugural Pacific Coast Championship Endurance Race at Vaca Valley Raceway just outside of Sacramento, California. Wow that sure was a mouth full. This has some very good information relevant to running a long distance race. Useful ideas and problems worked out by the drivers during and after the races.

Some of the other articles were not so much worth reading right now. Mostly boring or out of date already. The one surprise was about that WESTBEND Soup-Up. Well if you could call it that. Some of the things that were done did make good sense. Well from Frank, that would be good smarts. But I sure would have not even considered modifying the intake and exhaust ports the way these were done.

The modifications consisted of mostly bolt on parts. They used the Go-Power intake manifold with stuffer. This is probably the one most important improvement that made the engine run so much better. This article must have been written back before the newer style intake manifold like the engine comes with now.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5127]
Westbend stock intake manifold

The early style manifold had no stuffer. It was just flat with either a 4 or 6 petal reed. Frank made sure to inform me his engine was a deluxe model. It should have the 6 petal flat reed and newer model Tillotson. But still only a flat plate with no stuffer.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5128]
Westbend step 2

The new style Westbend intake manifold has a full stuffer and also their own style V-reed four petal cage. It is a lot different from what Go-Power copied from Homelite and sells now along with the new 6 petal pyramid reed.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5129]
Westbend step 2b

Another modification is filling the voids with epoxy on the side cover similar to what is done on the Clinton engines. Most articles I have read consider this a good improvement. But the epoxy does not seem to like alcohol, if someone were to go with alcohol or different exotic fuels.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5130]
Westbend step 2b  

Replacing the stock piston with a higher compression style sure didnt hurt. It still has the thick rings like the stock piston tho. I know there are thin ring pistons available. But I am betting this is a much older article that never got chosen to be published until now.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5133]
Westbend step 3

For some weird reason the mechanic that did the modifications chose to square the ports only on the bottom. Does that even make any sense at all? I guess when the piston is all the way down, it must be below bottom of ports. As per the article, these ports were lowered 1/10th inch and squared off just on the bottom. But the tops were left stock and still round. This sounds goofy screwed up to me.

At least the ribs were narrowed a little bit, but not nearly as much that could have been done for all out modified. Well I am bench racing again, since only going by the pictures of the work done. So I dont actually have a Westbend of my own that runs, then may be wise to keep my opinion to myself. But what fun would that be?

There have been plenty of articles about fully modifying these Westbends. Some very impressive looking work on the ports too. Unfortunately this article would not even qualify for a consolation price. So no chance of this article making it to the main event. It is that bad, based on my limited knowledge about kart engines I have picked up on in the last six months.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5131]
Westbend step 4

I went ahead and put pictures up of the work done in the journal here. This looks too far out for someone to believe not actually seeing the proof. I now wonder why Frank had this article circled on the cover. Then he suggested I read up on it to enlighten myself. Just from everything else I have read about modifying engines, this way is not the way to go.

Now the engine builder did change over the earlier model stock HL-15 carburetor to a Delorto. I sure dont know much about them. But it does have a 3/4 bore. It is also a slide valve, so there are no restrictions when the carburetor is fully open. No choke, butterfly, or shaft to restrict flow. This is one thing that can make a huge difference, even if the porting is all wrong. But that is just my not always so humble opinion.


[Image: attachment.php?aid=5132]
Westbend step 6

I realize over the last couple of years, I have become a lot more opinionated about certain things. I get into arguments with adults over particular subjects. I know I should respect my elders. Everyone but Frank, of course. Things I know I am right about. But arguing with Frank, well after a few run-ins with him, I decided it was a complete waste of time.

Even when I was right trying to argue with Frank, which has been every time so far, I found out soon enough it makes more sense to subtly put the idea out there. Get him to take the bait. You know like ask him for advice or his opinion, then ask him about other ways I have seen. Then let him make the decision or figure out for himself, instead of just going at it directly. Unfortunately he usually misses the boat and sinks.

If I drop a few hints from time to time, or even express my opinion about something without arguing against him, he sometimes comes around to what makes more sense. But I do get impatient way to much of the time. Its like when I spent all that time fixing his kart at the track after he spent all that time fixing it himself.

I had asked him about some of the things he improved on at his house before going to the track. But his answer made sense up until it was proven wrong on our last practice day. I really wanted to throw it in his face about all the time I wasted fixing his mechanically challenged improvements.

But I also learned so much by working on his kart that day. Then getting to actually drive his kart after the work was done. Well, I would have bet my next bologna and cheese sandwich he never had any intentions of letting someone else ever drive his kart. He is that anal about it.

Now Frank made a point for me to read up on this article. I dont think it is a good way to modify the engine. Well at least the porting is not the way I would ever try. I wonder what his angle is here? I am going to keep my mouth shut this time and see where he goes with it.

If Frank does quiz me on what I thought about the modifications, then just play dumb. I will try to get it turned around to find out what he thinks about the mods covered. If I get him talking, he will tell me everything quick enough. That is one thing he is predictable about. He likes to talk about himself and his exceptionally gifted brain with that store bought education.

So back to reading articles in this magazine. The next one is about building your own kart. But this one seems to be a few years out of date like most of the others. It is the basic Go-Kart 400 kit. Simple enough for people without any equipment needed to do a very early model style frame build. So that was sort of a waste of time to read. I have read better articles in HOT ROD and Rod & Custom from 1958.

The general welding article was not too much good either. Basic information for someone that has never welded before. Those semi-inexpensive home kits for the real do-it-yourselfer. The information given would be best served to someone that never actually follows thru and buys one.

Unfortunately without some initial instruction, then a ton of practicing, any new guy has little chance of welding thin wall tubing successfully. Then that chance of building a decent kart frame is more of a pipe dream. Or most likely a pipe nightmare burned thru. Just a nightmare full of holes.

The kart test is finally something I thought worth reading. Except for what I assumed are mistakes in what is given as the specifications. After reading the article I did figure out this is their first kart test. Tho is written as ROAD TEST No. 100. It should have been 001.

As I spent more time checking over the pics with a big magnifying glass, the kart has some good ideas. But a few things not so great. One very obvious thing is the steering shaft is 1/2 inch. Another negative is the welded 3/4 round steering wheel. Can you say bad idea and cheap?

At first I thought it more closely resembled the Hornet S-85. But after seeing a good side view in the 100 miler race, it looks like this frame may be slightly closer to the one of the Bug kart frames. It is also cool to see there were a few of these entered in the 100 mile race at Vaca Valley. One of them finished second in the B-Super class.

What makes this a potentially good kart, although with some serious flaws, is there were 106 entries but only 42 actually finished. That means the kart is probably well built, but with several things I would change. Me and Steve have learned a ton of things since last spring. But it has been probably been more than a year and a half ago since that race even took place.

A whole lot has changed just over the last year. I dont know when this race was run, but had to be no later than in the summer of 1960. After all of the information from Mr Jack Peck about what they learned from traveling to the 1960 Nationals in Azusa, it makes a lot of sense to me right now.

From the Nationals in 1959 all of the competitive production karts changed over to live axle. One year later, tread widths and wheel bases were always changing out and trended more toward shorter and wider now. This years karts are getting even shorter and actually handling so much better without having to use all of that body language.                                          

Man, the more I read this magazine, the more I wish I was already asleep tonight. But I do have to read all of it before putting the magazine down. They have a KARTS MARKET PLACE for new items. One thing I had to read again, just to make sure it was for real.

Solving the problem of driver identification while on the track for scoring has been an issue since the beginning. Especially for larger number classes and long races. Jim Rathman, yes that Jim Rathman, has solved this very problem.

There are not any good places for putting your numbers on a kart. But Jim came up with a solution. He has devised a unique fix for this by mounting a number panel using suction cups on top of any helmet. Yep you read that right.

You have a 6 by 8 inch number panel sticking up on top of your helmet. Now everyone can see what number your kart is as it buzzes around the track. It has been track tested to 125 miles an hour according to the information given. So these have been out for more than a year now and this is the only time I have seen any information.

Now back to that article covering helmets. My original assessment was not so great. I read the first two pages, then got totally sidetracked with the 100 mile race coverage that followed. After catching up to the rest of the helmet article in back of the magazine, it turned out to be very informative. A lot of good information covering things I knew nothing about.

Well I have school in the morning. Oops, it is already morning, just the sun has not come up yet. I need to catch some z's before it does make a showing. Then finish this week of school. Hopefully some afternoons that I wont have too much homework. My brain really needs to keep focused on getting our engines finished.

I will try to make another run to Franks house in a few days offering some help again. If he needs bushings for the steering shaft, they can be made on my lathe. That is if he didnt already pick them up at the hardware store first. Maybe he wont be too juiced up this time. Well it is lights out for now.


Attached Files
.jpg   Popular KARTING Feb 1961-1.jpg (Size: 1.01 MB / Downloads: 108)
.jpg   Westbend stock manifold with carb.JPG (Size: 476.02 KB / Downloads: 102)
.jpg   Westbend soupup Step 2.jpg (Size: 263.81 KB / Downloads: 101)
.jpg   Westbend soupup Step 2b.jpg (Size: 265.33 KB / Downloads: 99)
.jpg   Westbend soupup Step 1.jpg (Size: 234.54 KB / Downloads: 98)
.jpg   Westbend soup up Step 4.jpg (Size: 348.22 KB / Downloads: 90)
.jpg   Westbend soupup Step 6.jpg (Size: 301.71 KB / Downloads: 87)
.jpg   Westbend soupup Step 3.jpg (Size: 257.45 KB / Downloads: 85)
Reply
Chapter 121

After school today, I spent some time going over how the fixture needed to be built so the carburetors can hopefully be bored out fairly soon. I sort of worked out something in my head, but still not sure about the details just yet. There needs to be some type of plate to bolt the carburetor down regardless of how I build the fixture. Which as of now I am completely in the dark. So at least this is something that can be made at home tonight for starters.

One piece of that scrap aluminum I picked up last week from Mr Sadeskey is 1/2 inch thick plate. I am fairly certain this one part of the fixture wont change so much before figuring the rest of it all out. There will be two sets of small holes drilled so the carburetor can bolt to from flange side and from the air horn.

There will be a hole drilled in the center large enough for that one long tapered reamer to pass thru. The size and shape of this plate is not important yet, just so long as it is larger than the carburetor bolted to it. For now it can be square or rectangle and should work. Then cut down any excess after I figure the rest of this fixture out.

While the flat plate was clamped in my small drill press vice, something hit me like a ton of rocks. Lets say that figuratively so it doesnt cause a major headache or concussion. I mean just like that I saw something without it being there in plain sight. This prompted me to hurry up and finish drilling out the two sets of bolt holes and a large one in the center.

My first thought was hoping this drill press might use number 3 Morse tapered mandrels just like most of the larger drill bits and reamers I am using to bore out the carburetors. With this flat plate now finished, I see how easy it might be to use the drill press on very low speed to modify the carburetor bodies.

Before destroying a good carburetor, I should do a test run with a junker first, just to make certain it does work. If successful, I can finish these tonight. Then just chuck up on the lathe and polish the air horn blending it in to the venturi.

After some in depth thoughts in my head, I realized all that needed to be done is set the travel of whatever reamer or bit being used. Then swap out carburetors one at a time. The flat plate gets clamped in my small vice and carburetor body is centered automatically when reamer is fed down. So long as depth is correct, then all three carburetors will end up exactly the same.

First by feeding the reamer down, it centers to existing bore, then I clamp the vice in place on drill press table using a big C-clamp. So much for semi mass production techniques on the shops lathe in school. Of course this looks like it will work, but I am still thinking about the rough sketch Mr Sadeskey had drawn out for me. Something is making more sense now that I have part of the fixture worked out like he was trying to explain to me at school.

Now that I am seeing things more clearly, this fixture really isnt that complicated. What I kept missing on is how the carburetor body would be centered when chucked up in the lathe. The carburetor still needs a way to be moved around on the fixture itself to get centered to the throttle bore or air horn.

I decided to scrap the idea of using the drill press tonight. Instead go ahead and work out any bugs on the main fixture. It sure isnt complicated as I first made it out to be. So long as there is enough adjustment, nothing even has to be running perfectly true when mounted in the lathe chuck. Well it does need to be close. I will try to make it run true as possible with what there is to work with here at home.

It amazes me sometimes how much work can be done without constant interference and distractions. Tonight I managed to complete the fixture and so far should work great set up on one of the lathes at school tomorrow. Using my small lathe here in the garage, there is too much guess work and compromises trying to hold those big reamers centered, since they dont fit the tail stock. Otherwise I did manage to work thru all the steps and figured out how to do everything on the scrap carburetor.

OK, I know what your next question is. You want to know why I am going to all this trouble if I have already bored one out on the small lathe here. Well that first carburetor was all guess work. I was doing the work in small steps. So nothing was set up for a repeat performance, so to speak.  With the fixture and now sure of which tools I need have eliminated any problems attempting to repeat what I already tried on that first carburetor.  

This morning I am waiting for Mr Sadeskey to unlock metal shop. He accidentally locked the keys in his car. He did say a spare car key was hidden, but did not tell where. With last nights confidence boost, I am really hoping to finish these carburetors today before school starts. The teacher finally returns and now it is time to show him the fixture.

Mr Sadeskey looks over everything and studies the fixture closely. I had already bolted up a carburetor body so he could see exactly how it fits together. While he kept his focus on the rectangular plate, I explained about the over sized holes and bolts that hold it together.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5154]
carb fixture 2

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5155]
flat plate

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5156]
carb fixture 1

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5157]
carb plate screws

You may wonder why I went to so much trouble cutting these bolts down to work. Why not just drill the hole oversize instead? Well that is what I had planned to do. But while digging in my big bucket of bolts and beyond, I found these and thought how cool. They should work perfectly.

When the fixture is chucked up, I use either a center in tail stock or even a reamer that fits in one end of carburetor body to make sure it runs true. Then tighten the two special 1/4-20 screws that holds the plate. The shank of screws are undersized and holes in plate are drilled out larger. So there is some movement to get carburetor centered. You tighten the screws and start boring it out.

This is very well thought out Rick, urr, uh his brother. Sorry uh....Terry. You did a good job figuring out how to set it up and work around potential issues. I think you are on the right track to reaching your goal.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5161]reamers

So these are tools you are using to machine out the carbs?

Yes sir. On the left is one just for throttle bore. The next one is for venturi. These next three will open up the air horn in stages. That big tapered one is only used to flare out the end of air horn.

With what I brought here today, the carburetor bodies should be all done with nothing else but finish work. That can be done at home if I run out of time here in school. I almost short cut the fixture and planned to use just that flat plate on the drill press last night at home. But ran into some snags and afraid they might not all turn out exactly the same. Or worse even messing them up.

It is good you thought all of this thru so there will be less chance of ruining them. You show good mechanical aptitude. I think your little project is going to work out well from what I can see looking over this fixture here.

If you want to go ahead and set this up and start, then get busy. I have some school work to attend to. But I will be back to see how things are going. That is unless you need my help directly.

No sir, I dont want to hold you up. I have worked out most of the problems in my head and dont expect any major issues than cant be addressed. If I do need your help, will you be around somewhere?

Oh yes, I will either be in the attendance office or next door in the teachers lounge. If you do need me, I can help you out, not a problem at all. Dont hesitate if something is amiss. That paperwork is not nearly important as teaching you kids. Well in my eyes it isnt, but the school secretary might not always agree with that.

Once again, I was left alone in the shop to work this morning. The last time here in the shop Mr Sadeskey actually spent most of the morning showing me how to operate this lathe and giving me ideas on how to build the fixture. It would not take too many mornings with his help to find out just how useful this shop could be for most of my other projects.

I looked over my shoulder and reminded myself of the near disaster where the chuck key was embedded in the wall. So chucking up the fixture in lathe, I used one of the reamers to center the carburetor. Then tighten up those two screws. Checking over everything again, making sure the fixture is secure in the chuck, AND setting the chuck key down on the work table first, it is time to power up the lathe and make some chips.

Working thru the usual trial and error, again heavy on the error part, I figured out it was better to bolt the carburetor on flange side first. The reason for this is to machine face of air horn to make sure it is flat and square to the bore. It seems that surface is not exactly square to anything.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5158]
Machine air horn

Next step is run the 13/16 reamer in and open up the venturi. As of now the biggest carburetor venturi is still at 3/4 inch. So this one is bigger. Follow that up with the 15/16, then right behind using the one inch reamer to open up just the air horn. This diameter stops then transitions down sharply right at the base of venturi.

I am using a slightly larger reamer next that dad thinks originally was for kingpin bushings on something. Not sure if a big truck or could even be for a forklift. He did not have a clue. This reamer is only 0.015 inch larger and tapering smaller right before blending into where the venturi chokes down.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5159]bored out air horn

This is followed up with a #4 Morse tapered reamer. It is only used to taper the outer part of air horn. Just a slight angle like a funnel shape. This makes it a lot easier to blend everything together later using course Emory cloth. Then following that up with some finer grit for a smooth finish.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5160]
throttle bore

With the face of air horn now machined square to the bore and flat, I can flip the carburetor around and run a long shallow tapered reamer thru to open up the throttle bore measuring just over 7/8 of an inch. This is big as these chainsaw carburetor bodies can be opened up before breaking thru the low speed fuel chamber. The long shallow angle of reamer will taper down and blend smoothly to diameter of venturi.

Normally most carburetor throttle bores are cut in straight with just a square edge. Since the air flow is from the other direction may not affect anything if done this way. Well that is what I am assuming since all of the Tillotsons are machined the same.

So I took a stock Tillotson like used on most chainsaws over the last 5 or 6 years opening the original throttle bore from 13/16 to just over 7/8 inch. The venturi could be 1/2, 9/16, 5/8 or 11/16 diameter on any of these carburetors. Now this one measures just over 13/16 inch when finished. The tapered reamer used for throttle bore blends to the 13/16 diameter that was first done and opens it slightly larger.

The most obvious difference in appearance is how much the air horn is enlarged. On all of these stock carburetors the air horn is 7/8 inch. After getting bored out, the air horn starts at 1.015 and tapers out larger to 1.030 inch. So nothing restricting air drawn in to venturi then pull fuel thru metering circuits.

I had just over an hour working in the metal shop here at school this morning. Mr Sadeskey left me to my desires. I have been successful in modifying three more carburetors today. There was enough time to use the Emory cloth and blend the different angles and transitions from venturi out to the face of air horn.

Mr Sadeskey came strolling back in shortly before the first bell even rang this time. I was already cleaning up the lathe and boxing all the reamers and parts back up. As he approached I handed one of the now finished carburetor bodies to him for final inspection.

I am very impressed Rick. Uh, anyway this looks like excellent work. It is a shame you are not enrolled in my shop class this semester. Your project would definitely get very high passing marks. I hope you put this much effort in other endeavors. If so, you should have no problem overcoming obstacles than may fall your way in life.

I will be very happy to help you in the mornings when I am available. Which is usually most days. I really enjoy working with students that come to school to actually learn things. Just give me a heads up when you want to use the shop. I am already looking forward to having you in class next semester too.

After the carburetors were bored out I made sure everything was cleaned and put away. Then wiped down the lathe with oil. I heard the first bell ring and decided it was time to head out. After washing my hands, I thanked Mr Sadeskey,  loaded up my toys then walked across the hall to draw more stick pictures in Drafting.

When we jumped off the bus after school, Steve followed me home again and in to the garage. Not so common on school days, but I can tell he is itching to get back out to the track and race again. He had time to finish most of his homework on the bus ride home. Any more progress? Steve asked me this since we normally sit together, but the bus was already at capacity and we were at opposite ends today.

Heck yea more progress. We are on the home stretch Steve. I hope by this weekend it might be possible for at least a practice at the track. I wish there was more time to do a couple more sessions, but I want to go race. The last few weeks with all this work is getting old.

Even tho I am enjoying working on the engines, it is time to put some laps down. I think everything is ready. Just need to bolt the engines together. I worked thru most of the holdups and will find out if everything actually works or not. I am leaning towards it working tho. Like in a big way.

OK, the carburetors are finally bored out so they can be put back together. Do you want to work on those today?

Heck no, I dont want to get near those things. There are too many little parts inside to screw up or loose. No, you keep up the fight, I will be here for moral support. And if you got a Coke or something, even a Mountain Dew, then I can grab a couple for us to drink.

Tell you what Terry, I will bust my butt when engines are ready to bolt up to the karts. I will even put your engine on for you. That is how nice of a guy I am. Hey man, got any more M&M's left? I sort of got a sweet tooth today. You know maybe trade for some work?

Wow Steve you are so helpful some times. Just hardly ever when you are over here for some reason. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a hand full of change from coke bottle deposits. Here, go double up on everything while I get busy. Steve snatched it out of my hand really quick. Dont open up my M&M's and eat any of them this time. Make sure not to put them in you pocket either, I dont like mine all melted.

Gee, you sure are bossy today. Maybe I should go home and come back over later in case this is a Twilight Zone moment taking place right now. Steve ducked outside and disappeared as I tried to take a swing at him.


Attached Files
.jpg   Carb fixture2.JPG (Size: 432.23 KB / Downloads: 73)
.jpg   Carb fixture plate.JPG (Size: 367.88 KB / Downloads: 70)
.jpg   Carb fixture1.JPG (Size: 485.59 KB / Downloads: 70)
.jpg   Carb plate screws1.JPG (Size: 64.2 KB / Downloads: 70)
.jpg   Modify carb bore out air horn.JPG (Size: 788.19 KB / Downloads: 63)
.jpg   Modify carb air horn finished out.JPG (Size: 483.56 KB / Downloads: 62)
.jpg   Modify carb tapered reamer.JPG (Size: 621.71 KB / Downloads: 63)
.jpg   Reamers for carb mods.JPG (Size: 486.39 KB / Downloads: 65)
Reply
Chapter 122

Steve came back from a quicky trip to 7-11. Then decided he needed to leave so not to be late for supper. He does not like missing any meals, especially mom made meals. I snacked out on some warm M&M's and a not so cold Mountain Dew. Fortunately this is one soda I could drink hot or cold if no other choice.

I had to call it quits early tonight because of school work. Mom does not usually press me for doing homework unless she has that sense I am slacking. Or that fateful report card agrees with here sixth sense. So tonight my head is in the books.

Much as I have grown to hate Algebra I, my brain still wants to figure out how to do it and what the heck I could use this stuff for. There has to be something I can put to use with all of these equations. If just one thing I could apply to say like the kart stuff, then my brain might absorb more of it and I can finally decipher its encrypted meaning and function.

Another great project I have been putting off is that English assignment. Originally I had planned to skim off last years Language Arts project. Just do a rewrite on my story and call it all good. But after looking over my choices, something came to mind. It naturally would have something to do with racing. Well karts in particular. That is one subject I wont get tired of for a while yet. Maybe never.

Instead of writing a bloviated story about our short time in the realm of karting last spring, I was thinking more about an advertisement or something like a presentation. Unfortunately this particular choice would involve doing an oral report in front of the whole class. Yuck!

So not only the printed advertisment, but at least a five minute oral report to boot. Now why would I waste this extra time when I could get away with just a written story? Obviously there is some motive here and I am putting the details together as this is being written down in the journal tonight.

For my assignment, doing an oral report means less paper work to turn in. Also less grammatical errors to get down graded by. So this may be a winner taking the extra time in front of class. To make sure the oral presentation is decent, this means time in front of the mirror practicing until satisfied with my performance. Then a trial run in front of Steve or even Chris. Chris would enjoy learning about anything kart related, but Steve will be a lot more critical about my presentation.

To kill two birds as they say....... I will do my assignment on building up and modifying the Clinton engines. But not just any Clinton. No, I am talking about one of the rarest of them all, The BLACK PANTHER. Yes that very engine. The one they said was never sold over the counter. It is so rare I might have the only one known to exist, or that was never even made. Well that is after I build the first one.

I will make an in depth pitch to the class about this engine. Sort of like a presentation about the Special Racing Division of the Clinton Corporation. Wow this could actually work. I can get into making good grades for building engines for the karts. YEA HA!

Introducing a limited production engine already fully modified from the factory. Wow, this will allow me to pull off playing on our kart stuff later into the night and put all that effort on getting the engines closer to finished so we can go race. Just think about receiving an A+ for all of the work already done to one of the Clintons so far.

To really top it off, I can paint up this special engine all fancy in Satin black with the ghost outline of a Panther on the shroud. OK brain you are on a roll tonight. Lets make this really happen. So all I need to do it put a portfolio together more or less detailing my project and turn it in tomorrow by the time English class is over. It is the deadline.

So I do an in depth write up of the modifications done to the engine compared to the stock one. I could just clip out some ads from magazines with detailed captions or ... Wait for it ... What if I actually build up an engine just for the presentation, having a completely stock engine for comparison sitting side by side. The engine does not have to even run, just look fast.

To make it even more believable, ad some dyno charts to show how much difference in power output the modified engine has over the stock one. Now this is how teaching should be. Apply it to something actually useful so that students would stay interested and apply themselves.

But I was just thinking about someone else doing this based on something they might be interested in too. I sure dont want to listen to some girl raving on about ballet dancing and how exciting it is to be on stage tippy toeing around in pink tights wearing a tutu.

Mom dragged me to a recital to watch the neighbors kid one time. She said I needed some culture. Watching them dance really looked painful to strut around all stiff like on the tips of their toes. Some of the dancers had their hair drawn up so tightly in a bun, causing what looked like facial disfigurement. The skin was stretched so much they had a forced smile like Howdy Doody and could not even close their eyes.

At the recital when this one girl tried to breathe, I could see her nostrils flare open really big. Its like she had just sniffed a bunch of pepper and trying not to sneeze. I started a fake cough then excused myself before laughing too much and upsetting the parents.

Fair enough, if someone can sit thru my presentation, I can give the same respect back. Well I can sit there and tolerate it just so long as I get a good grade on my assignment. When that day comes, I will be sure to volunteer first, just to get it over with. After that I can drown out anything too boring or just plain lame. Maybe work on Algebra or sketch out some ideas for the Hornet S-85. Yea I got this.

Well I dont remember if the portfolio is a major grade or even being graded. Just something the teacher can get a feel for when the actual assignment is due. If the portfolio is counted for even 25% I would have to put a lot more effort into this tonight. Tomorrow another day in paradise, err I mean school again. Good night journal, for now.
Reply
CHAPTER 123

Wow what a mess. I just about screwed up big time. In English class I did find out this Portfolio does count for 25% of the grade. Fortunately today is just a rough draft of that Portfolio. Hey journal, you notice it is now capitalized since the assignment has some weight behind it this time.

So I squeezed by again. I have to bust my butt on the real thing and make the final draft up to snuff. Mainly a typed up outline and possibly add some pictures for effect and have it in a folder to look more impressive and official.

So all of this extra paper work even before I do the oral assignment. Argh!, this really sucks. But the whole project actually counts for 25% of the semester grade. I was wondering why that figure was stuck in my head. Basically this is the term paper or final test for the class. It just comes in small pieces and put all together at the end of the school year.

From what the teacher explained, this Portfolio draft today is what she uses as a base line for what each of us will have learned during the year. Basically I can really play dumb on the first part. Then step up my game and make a grand slam on the final presentation so she thinks how much I have improved and obviously been taught due to her masterful skills in the classroom. This should help to get a better grade. Well maybe it will.

It might be fun to make up a bunch of cool stuff about a certain Clinton engine built specifically for racing in the bushing class. How much power can you get out of that little engine that could, and might still last a few races without turning into shrapnel? That is the question. To run or not to run, but for how long?

This afternoon I decided to call Chris. The last couple of weeks seems to have flown by. It has been at least a week since the last time I talked to him. For a while we talked just about everyday. But then I was working a lot, so not around to take his calls. When I did get back it was too late to use the phone, being a school night.

But today, I enjoyed talking to him the whole time. Even tho I needed to stay focused on the engines, a short break was in order. After his kart was finished and left with him, Chris has only made it to the track to work helping out Paul Fisher. He would be assistant grid steward or corner marshal. The rest of his free time was either swimming or track in school or working at Pauls place of business.

I filled him in on everything done so far. At first he was fairly quiet, but not long after him absorbing everything, the questions went flying non stop. I told him everything in as much detail that made sense without him seeing with his own eyes. I think he figured out most of what I explained. Some of his questions sure made me think he was on top of what I was telling him.

One major bummer that was fast approaching is this Friday is a teachers meeting day. School is out, but there is no way the karts would be anywhere close to being ready for a test run by then. Then Chris asked if it would beneficial if he dropped by to help.

I tried to explain he would only be doing grunt work and that gets pretty boring. And sometimes he might not even be doing that much.

Terry, I can do grunt work really well. That does not bother me at all. What time would be good to show up? Do you want me to bring my kart over too? Do you think we might be able to get my engine put on? Are the engines close enough for that to even happen?

I didnt reply back just yet. My mind started snowballing everything that still needed to be done even before the engines could be bolted to the karts. Or even bolted together for that matter. I just realized short of engine assembly, nothing really major needed to be done now.

I have not replaced the old tires on my kart yet. But that should not take too much time. If I stay focused on the engines, maybe by Friday, we really could have three karts just about finished. My mind was processing this for a few moments, then I put the phone back up to my ear.

Yea Chris, that, .... Hello? Anybody there, Chris? Daunt ... daunt ... daunt. Huh, I guess we got disconnected. I hung up the phone and waited for a moment still thinking about the possibility of our karts finally finished. Wow what a thought.

As I was about to pick up the receiver to call back, the phone started ringing again. Hello?

Hey Terry, this is Chris. What happened? I kept asking you stuff and got no reply back. Did you have to go do something? I didnt know what else to do so hung up.

Uh, no nothing happened here, but I did start thinking about what you said bringing your kart over and maybe bolting the engine on.

Really, do you mean it? I mean are they finished already?

No, not yet, but so close I might be able to get them done by the weekend. I didnt realize this Friday was almost here. My plans had been to use Friday as the next practice before racing again. But so much work I needed to get done before the engines could be put back together.

I am in the dark about a couple of things, but that stuff can be worked around for now. Nothing critical, just things that might help make the engines run a lot faster. Or blow up. I dont have a clue until just finding out by running them for a while.

So what time can I come over? I want to help out any way I can. Even if it is stuff not that important. Just so I am helping and not in the way. I know I ask a lot of questions, because I want to learn how to work on my kart, but I will try to keep in check.

I know it takes a lot more time showing me how to work on things and explaining it too. But I learned so much when my kart was getting upgraded. I have told everyone at the track about all of the work you did on my kart. I cant wait to try it out and see what a real live axle kart drives like.

But if you think I might slow things down, I wont bother you about coming over this weekend. At least until you tell me you are ready for my kart so the engine can be put on.

Oh heck Chris, you wont be slowing us down. I think now that you have worked on your kart might be able to help out a lot more than you realize. If I can finish the engines by Friday, all my kart needs is the tires changed out. Then nothing more than bolting on all three engines. You know chain adjustments and carburetor linkage set up right. Then go over the karts to make sure nothing falls off before we get back to the track.

Steve can finish working on the linkage for the other two engines. We have one ready to go. But there are three different intake manifolds. New linkage has to be made to fit each of them, since they are different. You can change out my tires while I finish the engines, if there is still more to do on them Friday. How does that sound?

You mean you would trust me to change out your tires? For real? Yea I would really like to do that for you. I am sure I can do a good job since I know how to do that the right way. I really enjoyed learning how to work on my kart and seeing it all come together so well. My kart is in the garage right now. Just about every night I double check all of the nuts and bolts practicing using my new tools just to get a feel for working on it when I start racing again.

So do you want me to come over Friday morning or maybe even Thursday afternoon? I might even be able to do that. But I need to check with Paul to see if he can pick up my kart and drive me over there.

OK Chris, it is still early in the week. Let me see how much I can get done, then figure out if everything will be close enough to ready for Friday to happen. Find out from Paul if Thursday afternoon might work, just in case. Then we will go from there. But for now, it is in the wishful planning stage. I dont know if homework is going to slow me down this week. Right now, I dont think there is anything major as a problem. Well except for Algebra.

Having you or Steve over and spending the night is not too bad. But I cant handle both of you together for the whole time. Steve can bail out and head home if things get too stressful. I really want to wind this up without all of the headaches me and Steve had when we built his kart. Man that was a mess.

I am sorry Terry. I dont mean to be a big pain all the time. But I had so much fun when I was over there. I will try to stay out of the way so you can get things done.

Oh no Chris, you were not any trouble at all. I should have explained it better. Me and Steve tried way too hard to make some things happen that were not meant to be just yet. We got impatient and in each others way the whole time while nothing was working at all. I just dont want a major headache like that week was. It sucked biggly.

I dont think you will even get in the way if asking me questions all the time. I have most of the problems worked out already and just need to iron a few things out before this weekend. Everything else should be smooth sailing.

When me and Steve were working on his kart, I was so much in the dark about everything. I mean I sort of knew what to do, just not getting it done like I wanted. Everything I tried to do took four times to get it right. Steve was having the same problems too. The harder we tried the worse things got. I was done with it for a while.

I stopped for a day then tried to figure out why everything kept backfiring. I fell asleep early while chilling out watching the TV. Sometime in the early morning I woke up all fresh and ready to try again. It was like magic. The whole day went like clock work. But that evening I had done what me and Steve had been beating around on all week with no success.

Later that evening my dad offered to help weld the frame together if I was up to it. He said I looked really mentally drained. He knows how much trouble we had all week. But I was so relieved after finally getting this far, it was do it now or maybe not ever. That night is when I burned my eyes from trying too hard making sure there were no mistakes after all the time I had put in to finally getting this far along.

You remember I yelled at you for watching me weld when we were fixing you kart? Frying your eyeballs hurts like nothing I can explain. There is no way I could deal with your eyes getting burned that day. I would not wish that pain on anyone. Even Steve after all the work without any results to show that week.

Chris let out his signature double chuckle after I almost making Steve an exception from my concerns.

For the next couple of days, I could not do anything. My appetite was not so great either. I do remember mom preparing my dinner by cutting up the chicken then mixing it with mashed potatoes, gravy and English peas. You know those really small ones. She served it in a bowl with a spoon to scoop out. That was my first meal on the road back to recovery. After finishing that one meal, all I could do is go back and lay there in bed. It felt like I was imprisoned and stuck in limbo for the remainder of my sentence.

I have to admit except the terrible pain, for that couple of days, doing nothing really did get me back in good spirits. Soon as my eyes started to heal, all I could think about was seeing that kart to the finish line.

Wow Terry, that is horrible, you almost had me crying. Then I heard Chris sniffle and clear his nose a few times. I had no idea how serious it was about burning your eyes. Could it have blinded you?

I didnt burn them that bad fortunately. Just a very light case. But yes, if I kept staring at the welding, they could have been a lot worse. I didnt even realize it then. I was just making sure everything was lined up right before dad started welding. I remembered only a couple of times catching the bright light.

But sure figured out real quick the next morning how bad it was tho. I already knew the dangers, just never got that close to happening before. I could still see, well sort of just barely, but there were little blisters all over my eyes. It felt like there was sand in them and nothing would take away the pain.

You dont know how relived I was just knowing it was only temporary. I was fairly sure my eyes were going to be fine, but not for certain until dad checked them out. The pain was nearly unbearable but knowing I might also be blind, well that would be more unbearable than I could take with the pain.

Dad told me since I was so drained and tired, my reflexes were really slow and I didnt react quick enough the couple of times my eyes got bit by the bright light when the welding rod was arced.

I kept hearing Chris with the sniffles. Hey Chris, whats wrong? Are you catching a cold or something?

Uh, no nothing is wrong. I just felt bad for you about your eyes. He cleared his throat then sounded back to normal. I will plan for Thursday and check with Paul. So let me know soon as possible. I will let you go now. It was so nice to talk. I hope to see you this weekend, hopefully Thursday after school. Good bye Terry.
Reply
Chapter 124

During the week I had to make some very important decisions. I spent this morning talking to Mr Sadeskey about a couple of the issues that were plaguing me. The most difficult problem was deciding on what to do about the pistons and filling the empty ring grooves with something.

Mr Sadeskey rubbed his chin several times, then a couple more times. That is an interesting problem and an unusual solution. I have no idea about filling the ring grooves with some type of epoxy.

I dont see this as a long term fix. But in your case, it might do just fine. With all of the space rockets these days, I am sure there is some new technology already out there that should do the job. But I am not up to date for things like this.

The is nothing I can recollect reading anything of this nature in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics either. New fangled high temp epoxies would be something notable to cover in a article. But it escapes me as I try to remember.

Have you thought to inquire about this to Coach Rhimes? He does teach Physical Science and Biology. But I dont recall him actually having a specific degree in either field. Let me do some checking and see what I can find out.

There is one other thing with deciding to use the stock piston with both thick rings or attempt to fill the lower one like on the E-65 pistons. Again this is does depend on what he finds out about the epoxy.

For now the three of our engine blocks are ported exactly the same. I still plan to build up the modified engine originally on the Cates kart as a back up. But this will only happen if time allows.

I am satisfied with the original intake manifolds that have been modified to use the Go-Power six petal pyramid reed assembly. Steve did good when he bought the three cages. We finally get to find out just how well they work.

Only my engine will be used for testing the waters, like filling the ring grooves and the lightened flywheel at first. I also planned to advance the ignition timing a whole bunch on my one engine. From an article I read, it may be possible to really bump it up a lot. I figured with the compression so low, there should be a big buffer zone to work with.

Since we absolutely can not spin the guts out of a bushing engine like Frank tries to do with his deluxe model Westbend 580, I thought about a totally different direction to go. My plans are to use the lightened cast iron flywheel with most of the cooling fins machined off. Cut the shroud back roughly the amount of fins removed from flywheel. From my guesstimate that is somewhere around 1/2 inch to be sliced off of shroud.

This had already been done on the Cates engine. But I found out later after talking to Mr Cates something that he had not been aware of at the time. Mr Cates told me his stock cast iron flywheel had been sent to California to a big wig kart shop. They claimed massive gains with a lightened flywheel. This is right before the newer style aluminum flywheels were available.

He sent in the old flywheel and they shipped a lightened one right back to him. They already had these cut down ready to unload, I mean sell. But I found out over the summer there were several different weights of the cast iron flywheels. After a lot of cutting and weighing, I ended up with a light weight flywheel that still weighed more than the stock one.

It took some head scratching to figure out the cut flywheel was an older model and the fins were a lot thicker. It was very noticeable only after cutting down and comparing to the newer flywheel after it was also machined and sitting side by side. So Mr Cates only gained the loss of drag from cooling fins removed without any advantage to less rotating weight. This is the only reason why he had decided to lighten the flywheel in the first place. Just to lose the weight.

Mr Cates told me he did not bother to weigh the old flywheel before sending it off. But it still seemed to be just as heavy when the special cut down flywheel arrived a week later.

The one thing Mr Cates did attempt to explain to me is how well the port tuned exhaust worked. It was weather sensitive, but usually could be worked out by slight adjustments. So far I have not put aside the time to study up on his tuned exhaust. It looked just like a plain old rusty muffler to me by the time we found it.

There was an article in an older issue of some kart magazine. I dont even remember if it was Karting World, Racing Karts, KART or another issue. But after doing the calculations this article claimed the optimum pipe length for a Clinton engine would likely be close to 32 inches. This I laughed about before figuring things out. Where would you put that much pipe on a kart anyway? Maybe run it thru a frame rail or something?

After Steve found the old rusted exhaust out at the track several months later, it was not very impressive to look at. But I finally investigated the exhaust thing a lot closer. The larger diameter pipe bolted to the engine is about 11 to 12 inches long. Originally I thought this long of a pipe must be very restrictive. There is still so much about all of this I have absolutely no clue or understanding about.

This long pipe curves around and down under the engine then slides into the exhaust looking thingy. The muffler is about 4 inches in diameter and 10 inches long. The entry pipe I later realized travels the full length to a back compartment. What this does is now adds the overall length to almost 22 inches give or take an inch.

The next big surprise is discovering the exiting pipe extends around half the length of exhaust and sticks out a couple of inches. Now the overall length works out to right at that magic 32 inch number. Another unexpected surprise is the exiting pipe is even adjustable. I can lengthen or shorten almost two inches. One thing I could never get past is how small the exit pipe was. The outside diameter is right at one inch. One small inch does not seem like is big enough for any size engine.

So while I have been wrapping my brain cells around the engines to squeeze more horsepower out of them, all this time overlooking something that can be bolted over the exhaust ports and make more power without doing anything else. Is this Voodoo magic or what? Maybe just some good sales pitch.

There was also a major article in Karting World magazine covering mufflers for the engines. All of them based the findings against an open header. It made the most power. Some of the mufflers did kill the engine completely with dyno tests showing the drop in horsepower. So why would this big old rusty muffler make more power than an open header? Once again call me skeptical.

This exhaust is one thing I have been wanting to test out. But so far is the last thing on my mind every time. Suppose I quit bothering with all of these minor details. Just leave the engines mostly stock and put some attention to the tuned exhaust. What could it hurt? The Cates was originally running right up with David Watkins when I first drove the kart. It sure wasnt my driving that made me able to stay up with him that one time. He was the fastest driver out there that night in the junior bushing class too.

So should I spend some serious time on the exhaust or forget about it for now? There is no way I can copy it and have another one or two ready for this weekend to try out. I dont really see any chance of getting this one even set to try for myself. I gotta stay focused on putting the engines together. Thats all, nothing else.

Back to other concerns. At first I was sure that bumping the timing up a whole lot would help out great. But now finding out the stock timing is already set at 35 degrees advanced. Comparing that to around 26 degrees on other small engines is a big big difference.

Could I go a lot more on the timing? Would it be harder to start or cause problems like pre-ignition on regular gas? I keep thinking that without the extra drag of the cooling fins, engine should rev up quicker. Still with a lot of weight from the cast iron flywheel I am hoping it will be strong running out of the turns and even taking advantage of using a smaller axle gear.

Remembering back about some of our tried and failed attempts over the years, a lighter weight flywheel has a tendency of shearing the key if timing is too advanced. Usually caused when it sometimes backfires, but the heavier cast iron flywheels would carry over the crankshaft almost eliminating any chance of backfiring to shear the key.

I always thought this sounded backwards, but a heavier flywheel helps keep engine from a possible backfire, lessening the likelihood of a sheared key. Sounds simple enough. Or is it? This is mostly when trying to crank over a cold engine when the flywheel shears the key. May not be an issue on the kart tho.

Another reason for keeping with the heavier flywheel for now is the bored out carburetor. I want to make sure there is enough momentum maintained if pulling a lot smaller axle gear. Will it stall out in a really tight turn when under a heavy load? For now this is my plan. Then start changing things over once we get some more track time to do back to back comparisons.

Since Chris is a featherweight driver, his engine will be the least altered. For now I want to keep with most of his original parts. Well mainly with the two thick ring piston. He is a great driver from what I remember at our first race. Considering how bad his kart was jacked up and now fixed, he should be a rocket. Especially with a much faster engine.

Using the new Go-Power intake manifold and pyramid reed cage and bored out carburetor, his engine doesnt need any experiments to start with. The internal modifications are the same as the other blocks. Ports, slipper cut piston, E-65 side cover and cleaned up intake passage are matching.

Steves engine has been strong since our very first practice. Odd since it was also completely stock with exception to chainsaw reeds and small Tillotson carburetor. I think nothing more than the modified intake manifold with Six petal reed cage and bored out carburetor it should be very competitive. His engine will match mine mostly with exception to using all three rings on the E-65 piston. I dont want to take any chances with this engine until I have proven reliability in the other modifications.

Now it comes down to what is different on my engine. I have no problems using high temp epoxy to fill the empty ring grooves on piston. Instead of using the high mileage Bradfield connecting rod, I am considering two or even three different possibilities.

I could stay mostly like the other two engines, except for no bottom rings. Or I could also consider using the E-65 engine block over the A-490. I could swap out the cranks or machine a special full floating bushing for the steel rod.

By swapping in the A-490 crankshaft, will be nearly a direct fit. Not much to worry about. But I would prefer to have the extra counterweight on the E-65 crankshaft.

Another option still is swapping out the A-490 crank with an E-65 in my A-490 engine. This still requires a full floating bushing for the rod. I think it can be done easily enough. Just dont know if there is enough time before the weekend. I would need to make sure the backup engine was ready to go if I went this route.

One other thing needing to work out is cutting back the pto side of engine block for shorter crankshaft from E-65. I checked everything over and think it should work. But a lot of material has to be machined off to fit the shorter length. Just more things to do and running out of time to get it all done. But this has been the story all along.

Without all of these problems that need to be worked out, this journal would really be boring. If I could send my engine out to a real professional, then all of the work needing to be done is just setting up the chassis. That is no fun at all. With a really fast engine almost any idiot could go run out in front. What fun is that? Even if we get our butts kicked at first, I will have learned so much from trying things out. So after a while, not so much guess work getting to the front. I want to be that idiot that figured out everything for himself and can make a decision based on proven testing. Not what someone wrote down on a piece of paper that cost a small fortune in box after someones magic hand waved over the engine.
Reply
Chapter 125

If you wandered what ever happened to that Hornet S-85 kart frame that was picked up a couple of weeks ago, well I will tell you now. OK journal here is the reason I have not made any mention of it until this very entry.

Well first I had put that frame completely out of my mind. Not really, it was still there in my thoughts. Somewhere way back in my mind. My grey matter is always figuring out ways to make the missing parts. Just like when we copied the Cates kart so Steve had his own to race.

Way back in the dark reaches of my brain, it was already past a lot of the obstacles in how to build a set of matching spindles. Instead of making nearly exact copies of the original parts, I was working on alternative ways making slight adjustments to build parts with what materials I already had to work with.

Since the S-85 also has Reverse Elliot style spindles, I was thinking about making them from the materials we used for the Cates. The spindle tube on front axle was longer on the S-85, but not so much a little alteration would make so much of a difference.

My Cates frame has the original spindles. They actually look wimpy, but no problems so far. These are made from 3/16 inch thick strap folded over to form a "C". I would consider something more beefy if having to replace these later on.

The spindle stubs use very thick 3/4 inch tubing that is threaded just on the very end. Those Timken bearings do not ride on any of the threads at all. We ended up getting longer bolts, then cutting the threads back just long enough that the nut to ride flush on the end for Steves spindles.

The bolts ended up longer than my spindles. There was no other way with keeping the bearings from running on the threads. Since Steve is not using the same brand wheels, the stub axes could have been shorter, but my wheels would not fit his spindles. We decided to add spacers here too.

Now both sets of wheels will interchange on our karts. But Steve can adjust his tread width. This is something that could even help. Maybe find out one of these days if we ever get that next practice in.

For the S-85 spindles, I dont know yet if they will be 5/8 or 3/4 diameter. But the spindle frame is cut from flat plate then bent to form the channel. The arm is part of the flat cut plate, so no extra welding is needed.

The copycat Cates spindles are made from 2 1/2 inch square thick wall tubing. These spindles for Steves kart will work on mine if washers are used for spacers. Dad had suggested this in case we needed to make replacements. He also mentioned it would be a simple way to change the weight of front end bias, if ever the need. I had never thought something like this. But how much could such a small amount really help?

So Steves spindles will work on my kart with spacers, but he is out of luck if needing a replacement at the track for now. I guess building a pair of extras would be a good idea. Just add to the never ending list of things to do.

So back to why I brought all of this up right now. While digging out behind the garage looking for some scrap sheet metal for the throttle linkage, there was the Hornet S-85. It was leaning up against the garage just as lonely as you could imagine.

This is when all of those things in the back of my mind came pouring out in broad daylight. It seemed so simple right then how to mock up a set of spindles for the frame. I didnt even need an old one to measure or copy from.

The spindle tube on S-85 frame measured right at 2 3/8 inch long. So the box tubing would need to be about 2 7/8. Not a size I would find available around here anywhere. But if I cut down the tubes a little bit shorter then use the same square box tubing as we did on Steves kart, problem solved.

It took everything I had inside me to walk away, and fast. When I start thinking like this it is too easy getting sidetracked and loose sight of the existing projects at hand. Much as I could have wasted the rest of this afternoon messing around with the Hornet S-85, it could not happen. So I needed to redirect my focus back on our karts and trying to get them ready to race once again. Anyway........

I was so very pumped after Mr Jack Peck had given me this worn out frame. I met and talked with him for like ever that Saturday night when we went to the South 77 Strip. We had just finished up working so hard on the converted over and assumed to be a Simplex frame for Chris.

Jack Peck had changed out this early version of the S-85 chassis with the latest model for a customer. Then delivered it to him at the track. But the customer had no interest in his old frame. Jack Peck did not want to drag the worn out frame back to the shop, so offered my dad to take off his hands and give to me.

It wasnt until the races were over before dad had even mentioned anything about Jack Peck offering up the frame. So why have I not been wrapped up with one more project to get involved with?

I wanted so bad to start making parts right away and build up this frame just to try out. Watching Richard drive the S-85 around the track was almost magic. He won the three classes the karts were entered in that night. Actually dominated two of them with completely out of the box stock claiming engines.

So after Chris had left the next evening, I was totally focused on my new to me old worn out frame. I even took some close up pics to add here in my journal. My mind was going overboard thinking about fabricating all of the parts here in the garage and have a potentially great handling kart to try out. That is right up to when reality hit me square in the face.

Except for the few minutes I took the pictures, everything else raced around in my head for only seconds. Then feet planted back on the ground after staring across the floor at that box Chris had left over in the corner of the garage. Before getting too curious, I first decided to run by Franks house and check up on the progress he had made on his kart.

After this slight waste of time, I returned home. Then thinking about how or if any of those old parts Chris left me could be put to use. Then after opening the box did I realize Chris had given me a new set of tires. Talking about leaving a big lump in my throat. At this very moment, I realized my focus needed to stay on getting our three engines built and making another practice day at the track, just soon as possible.

So the Hornet S-85 was totally wiped from my mind and put on the back burner. Until reading that track test on the Bates Eagle, I had really pushed it way down in to the dark reaches of my memory hole. I even put the frame outside behind the garage so it would not be so enticing or distracting walking past it every day. Temptation is such a terrible thing.
[Image: attachment.php?aid=5226]
Hornet S-85 front
[Image: attachment.php?aid=5227]
Hornet S-85 side
[Image: attachment.php?aid=5228]
Hornet S-85 mount
[Image: attachment.php?aid=5229]
Hornet S-85 rear

These pictures were taken with that roll of free color film that had already expired. May even be that first roll. The color of kart frame is almost like a baby blue. Not my first or fifth choice of a color for a kart. I might even choose this grey color in picture before a baby blue. Oh well, not a big deal. The frame needs some minor work before spending time and fabricating all of the missing parts.

I need to figure out a good way to check making sure it is straight and not tweaked. There is no way I can work on this frame and also expect the other karts will get finished any time soon. So this project is staying on the back burner until further notice.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=5230]
Bates Eagle1
[Image: attachment.php?aid=5231]
Bates Eagle2

The article in Popular KARTING was decent and had some good information about this kart. It would be so cool to get a chance to test drive, but dont expect to see one of them around the local tracks.

I realized that this article is more likely from much earlier in 1960. So you can see the out of date things like 1/2 inch steering shaft and welded on steering wheel. Even my early model Hornet S-85 still has a 1/2 inch shaft, since it was built last year. But an easy fix to update and make safer and have a better hold on a new style steering wheel.

If you strip both the S-85 and this Eagle down to bare frames, there is a lot of similarity. But now thinking about modifying the S-85 to be more like the Eagle sounds interesting to me. I am thinking about adding the front porch extension and moving tie rods and linkage behind the steering shaft.

Moving your body weight slightly forward and making room for legs sure seems a smart way to go. I still dont understand why so many karts have a wide steering support. 

Since I have to do repairs on the rear section, and also removing that welded on motor mount, another idea is cropping in my head. I dont know if the Hornet s-85 or Eagle has a shorter wheel base, but may shorten this S-85 if longer.

Those cool looking swing mounts on the newest version of S-85 would be so easy to make using some some 3x6 box tubing. Just a bunch of cutting and hand fitting to make it happen. This will put the engines directly over the axle. If wheelbase is longer, it could possibly be shortened a bit.

So that is why the frame is sitting outside and out of sight. I dont have the time right now it would take to make the parts and modify this frame. But something to think about later on.

Now you know why I have not followed up with anything about the S-85. I cant work on this right now. Not until after the engines are running and our next test day has taken place. But after all that is done it will be time to finally go racing again. Yea-ha!

Just in the time it took me to add a page to my journal, I have worked out so many more details needing to make the parts for my future Hornet S-85. Gads, I have to stop this madness!


Attached Files
.jpg   Hornet S-85 frame front.JPG (Size: 787.13 KB / Downloads: 38)
.jpg   Hornet S-85 frame side.JPG (Size: 757.29 KB / Downloads: 38)
.jpg   Hornet S-85 frame rear mount.JPG (Size: 805.33 KB / Downloads: 37)
.jpg   Hornet S-85 frame rear.JPG (Size: 756.28 KB / Downloads: 38)
.jpg   Bates Eagle closeups.jpg (Size: 360.52 KB / Downloads: 38)
.jpg   Bates Eagle front end.jpg (Size: 128.05 KB / Downloads: 38)
Reply
Chapter 126

It is now Tuesday and I am going totally crazy. Homework had kept me from doing much of anything last week. This afternoon, I just got home and thought about going and checking up on Frank. I should really stick around here and make some headway on our engines, but....

If Franks kart is not ready to go, then we dont have anyone watching over us when going to the track just soon as a Friday off day happens. There is a teachers meeting coming up in a few days, so I need to get busy just in case this one works out for us.

It is late enough that Frank should be home already. No sooner as I approach on my bike, there he is wacking away on his kart with a big hammer. I ride on up and just stand there watching as he keeps pounding on his frame.

What the heck are you doing there Frank? He was so wrapped up in his precision handy work and with all that noise from the beating, I must have caught him off guard. He just about fell over spinning around so fast. Then I heard the beer bottle crash and explode on the garage floor.

HOLY CRAP! WHO THE WHAT? Frank grabbed something that stopped him from spinning any farther and then zeroed in on me standing right outside of his garage door. He has the hammer raised up in attack mode. Dont do that again. I lost a few years of my life from you intentionally spooking me like that just now.

Do what Frank? I just let you know I was here so you wouldnt get startled like that one time a while back. You almost karate chopped me in two pieces if I remember right. Good thing for your super fast reflexes or I might have ended up with a split personality. Then be stuck in the hospital getting both halves stitched back together. I hear that only people holding in some serious guilt about something usually jump like you did when not paying attention to their surroundings.

Did you get any work done on your kart? Or just mad about something and taking it out on your frame?

I was actually working on my kart before you interrupted my progress. I was just finishing up stress relieving the newly welded in frame sections. I was totally immersed in my work when you strutted yourself in here unannounced. Now you can clean up the mess you caused me.

OK Frank, fair enough. I startled your in depth work causing you to drop the beer bottle while beating up your frame with a hammer. I will clean the mess on your floor. That is the least I can do to help out after being so inconsiderate and not realizing you have a guilty conscience.

I thought humoring Frank for now was not a bad idea. I dont know what the heck he is rambling on with stress relieving his frame is all about. I think it is more likely stress relieving himself beating something down with a hammer.

After doing a clean sweep and throwing away the broken glass, I snagged Frank another beer from the fridge. He grabbed it without any acknowledgement taking a swig, then realized the cap had not yet been removed when banging up against his teeth. Handing it right back to me then on to hammering out his frame. I stood over next to him while he was slamming away.

After checking his frame over, I see he has already managed to cut it down and weld everything back almost the way we had gone over during my last visit. I know Frank does not have a welder, but someone has done the work and welded the modified and new parts in place.

Time for a break. So why are you here bothering me today? I am trying to get my kart back together but hard to do with your distraction and interruptions. I stood there holding out his open beer bottle looking offended as possible.

Gee Frank, you make me feel so unwanted. I am hurt. You remember I mentioned about stopping back over sometime this week, if there was a chance. Just wanting to see if you got things done. I see you have been busy. But if I am in the way, just tell me to get lost.

But before you throw me out, can I ask why you are beating up the frame?

I am not throwing you out. But you interrupted my work. I am stress relieving the newly welded joints. This makes sure the frame will be settled down without all of the problems I had earlier when the kart went pure evil and didnt handle for a while.

I need to tap each welded area in the rear approximately 3347 times according to my calculations so it will take the stress out of the welded unions. I crunched the numbers and realized how simple it would be not having to run in the frame before it can be set up to handle properly.

The other areas dont need to be focused on so intently, since they are not as robust. Those wont take nearly as long. I even factored in the indirect stress relieving for the other areas will suffice enough.

You know Frank, I was just thinking something. It might not be possible for me to get a good college education like yours. You see, my brother is currently in college burning up all of the money my parents have managed to put aside to send us on to a continuing education. So if I am lucky, maybe they wont have any left when I am old enough to go.

The whole time I was talking to Frank, he was just tapping away on the new welds at the back of his kart frame while counting to himself.

You are a right lucky kid. Getting that education will be the best money ever spent. You are fortunate your parents can afford to pay for it. There are so many people not able to do so. Mark my words. Some day you will thank me for encouraging you to take that next step to utilizing your brain.

The more Frank makes a big deal about going to college, the more I am sure it isnt going to happen for me. If he is a shining example of the outcome, I will take my chances and rely on my lowly high school diploma when that time comes.

After standing here for a half hour, Frank finally finished beating up his frame. My ears were still ringing from the constant pinging and echoing inside his garage. I cant imagine his neighbors are very happy with him right now.

So Frank, I see you got everything welded together. Who did the work? Those welds on your bearing hangers sure are beefy compared to all of the other ones. But otherwise look really good.

Around those flat bearing hangers the weld was built up and filled in almost flush. More like what it would look like smearing clay all over the welds and then blending smooth in to the frame like one piece instead of two different parts welded together.

I had my welder at work do exactly as I instructed. He argued plenty trying to tell me it was not necessary to do it that way. But again, it didnt take me long to realize he was just a grunt that was lucky to finish high school. He could lay down some decent welds, but it was obvious to me he had no understanding at all of structural integrity relating to welded components.

I was specific about using short arc G-M-A-W with a CO2 shield. Frank actually spelled it out that way too. But once again the welder thinking I was an idiot and didnt know anything, he went into explaining to me that there was several types of welds for this application that would work fine. After complaining to his superior, he was more accommodating to my expectations of his work.

My work at Texas Instruments is all inclusive to different types of construction and fabrication techniques. Just because I dont do much welding myself, doesnt mean I am going to just rely on his recommendations for the work I was needing.

Gee Frank, that is cool. I didnt know big companies like that let employees do personal projects at work? Doesnt that get expensive for the company to do side jobs with no benefit for them?

Actually we do testing all the time like this. I mean a lot of it is on the down-low. Those bean counters try to mess with expenses on anything they can. If they only knew about how things are in the real world. I just have to be able to classify some of my personal work to a given project. How I achieve the needed information is up to me. The engineering I accomplished on this frame resulted is a lot of information for finalization on a current project.

This way I am applying the actual testing to real world application. No guessing or just crunching only the numbers. Real world test results is what I now have that confirms all of my calculations. In the long run it can save the company thousands of dollars, if not more. Being able to have confirmed results before investing all of the capital based on just a set of complex equations. Proven results matter.

So why did you decide to fill in all of this around the frame where these bearing hangers are welded on? Wont it make that spot a lot more rigid than everything else around there? Gee Frank, there is no where else on your frame that has welds like this.

Guess I sure have a lot to learn about those kind of things. Maybe my brain is not big enough to learn so much of that engineering stuff. College seems like something that is getting farther and farther from ever happening the more I become aware of all these things.

Frank went on rambling about technical jargon that went so far over my head. I am not sure if he even believed what sounded like hogwash being spewed out to me. I might have to make a trip to the library just to confirm some of the things he was spouting off about.

Frank finally shut up, sat down and held his hammer hand in his lap. Then started complaining about how sore he was after all that work de-stressing his frame. His beer was gone in a few swallows, then motioning to me with a wilted flicker of his sore hand for another one.

I walked back from the fridge and told Frank to catch, while tossing his next beer in the air. With those lightning reflexes he has managed to snap the beer right out of mid-air. I was almost impressed.

Well Frank, your arms must just be allergic to working, because those super fast reflexes work fine. That was very talented how well you caught your beer. You must work out a lot.

Well kid, I did it so you wouldnt be cleaning up another mess. Then being responsible for the cost of two beers instead of just one. So be sure to leave the money on my desk before you head out of here in a few minutes.

So did you stop by to set up another practice day or to bore me to death? I am not too far away from having my kart set up more perfect than was the last trip out to the track. It should drive itself this time.

Gee Frank, I remember your kart did a pretty good job of driving itself the last time. Since you had no control over making it do anything you were wanting.

Frank gave me the usual reverse hand gesture he has been good flashing at me more and more in recent weeks. I guess he was too tired to blow in to his thumb and inflate that finger Frank likes to display too.

I walked over to his kart and studied it closely looking at all of the things that he actually changed. I see the wheelbase was shortened like we talked about. The pedal mounts were added, new bushings for his steering shaft, and the rear cross member almost looks factory installed.

The only thing I dont understand is how much the welds are filled in where bearing hangers are fitted. The one big surprise is noticing the front axle was also welded. What happened here, Frank? Whats the deal on your front axle?

Well, I talked to my favorite brother and he had talked to Mic about this very frame. I find out it was one of the earliest models with a live axle. This frame is one of the first built over the winter last year. Well actually getting closer to two years now.

After the initial frame design was tested in California at the Go-Kart Raceway, they had some serious suggestions for improvements. His next batch of frames were then tested locally in Ohio at the Dart Speedway and they broke all previous records due to those changes.

I got all of the newest specs, which are considered top secret. So no reason I could think of not to do a proper upgrade on my kart. Your suggestions were sub-standard and incomplete compared to the amount of work that went into this now fine racing machine.

I was adamant about these changes and my fabricator at work did exactly what I wanted. He knew his job would be on the line if deciding to take shortcuts or changes on his own. This chassis is better than the latest model Mic builds himself right now.

So you didnt actually do any of the work yourself I take it.

Yes kid, I did the hard part. I crunched all of the numbers and spent plenty of time calculating weight transfers, load factors, horsepower requirements, and other things you would not understand. So yes I did the major portion of work.

My fabricator just cut and welded what I had already worked out. I even had the drafting department draw up a blueprint. He had the easy job. Any useful idiot with a sixth grade education that can read a tape measure and use a file could do the hands on work. I did the hard part.

Without engineers, not much chance of things ever becoming a reality. There are just too many variables that are so more complex than most peoples brains can comprehend. Thats where I come in. That is how important I am in the scheme of things.

Wow Frank I had no idea that much work went into building a kart frame. I bet Duffy Livingston must me super smart. All this time I thought he ran a muffler shop. I would be lost trying to keep up with those guys talking about karts. Man do I have a lot to learn. My brain just isnt set up for that much knowledge.

It is a good thing my brother thinks he is so smart. Maybe I can learn just a little bit from him when he gets finished with his college. Of course he might be so smarted up by then I wont be able to understand anything he is talking about.

Oh well, guess I will just have to make do with what I have to work with. My brain already feels so overloaded, I dont know how much more will fit in there. Good thing you are so educated Frank. You can watch over me when at the track and racing. Make sure I dont do anything that might be dangerous and hurt me.

You know kid, sometimes I think you are mocking me, but what you are saying makes me think you are almost using your smarts. Maybe you are just too honest or naive for your own good.

Well Frank, glad to see you got someone else to build your kart. That might save me a lot of my time fixing it at the track next practice day. I let out a big laugh after saying this. Even tho being serious, I didnt think Frank would figure out that I was.

This Friday, I am off from school. But spending the whole day working on our karts. So dont know what will be happening this weekend. If your kart is ready, maybe I can be pit crew and you can make your first race this Saturday night. That would be so cool Frank. What do you think?

There is a possibility I could be ready for racing this weekend. I have more than enough track time. That track is not nearly difficult to drive as where I raced in Ohio. I can spend some time following one of the local fast guys in my class making sure the kart is perfect. Then show those guys what fast really is. Yea that is something I might be able to do.

Well I need to jet out of here Frank. Lots of things to do before this weekend. Chris is going to be helping out on Friday so we can hopefully get close to being all finished on our karts.

Who is Chris? Is he somebody I should know? I dont know anybody named Chris. Why do you keep mentioning him when I dont know that person.

Gee Frank, he came over here a while back with me. We copied your bearing hanger so I could make a pair for his kart. I already told you about that the last time over here.

Oh thats right, the kart you did all of those custom changes on without any forethought. Just chopping it up and changing it from the way it was originally designed. Like a Frankenkart. An impossible task if expecting that project to even having a remote chance of working out.

I am sure you spent a lot of time cutting and welding. Might have even gotten some limited experience. But without the correct calculations, is likely a complete waste of your time. I hope you dont expect too much out of your little failed endeavor. You should have checked with me before spending all of that energy going in circles.

Glad you have so much faith in me Frank. I will remember that. But right now, got to take leave. If possible will let you know what we do this weekend. Otherwise will check you later.

I headed back home on my trusty bike. It has been a good one. I found it thrown out and broken. Originally it was a three speed, but the hub was trashed. I swapped out to a single speed and no trouble since then. Schwinn sure makes good bikes. Of all the different brands I have ridden, nothing comes close to how this one rides.

After making it back home safely, Steve walked up. I still dont understand how he does that. Way too many times, he just shows up no sooner than I step off my bike.

Hey man, whats up? Any chance of things happening this weekend? I am clear and available. Dont have much time this evening, but lets doing something while I am here.

Sure Steve, we need to get the karts checked over so one less thing to bother with when the engines are put back together. I have everything just about ready to assemble them. I have about given up on all of the high tech ideas and just leaving them alone for the time being.

If we can get some track time soon then finally plan out next race day. Chris is supposed to come over Thursday night or Friday morning. Dont know which day yet.

So is motor mouth going to help out or hinder our progress?

No Steve, we got a lot done when he was here learning how to work on his kart. After you left we got a ton of work done. I was very impressed. He is going to keep busy with anything not too critical. All you need to do is help me keep an eye on whatever he works on to make sure it is done right. If you want him just to do grunt work helping out, he will be more than happy to do that.

OK, I will try to keep him busy. What can I do tonight to speed things up for Friday?

Great Steve, I need all of the pieces here washed up for the engines. Everything needs to be cleaned and wiped down. I have some more things to do on other parts before bolting them together.

After that you can look over things and figure out some linkage for the throttle like done on the first engine. All three manifolds are different, so one for each of them. On your engine make two just a like. I want to put the stock manifolds that were modified on our two engines.

Chris will be using his new Go-Power intake and four petal reed cage. I am not sure if that linkage will be the same as that modified one for the Palmini manifold. But that manifold is going of the backup engine. I want to find out if these old stock ones are going to work out. No reason they should run any different than either Go-Power or Palmini.

I dont know if there is enough time to get all four engines together, but is possible. My original engine is mostly complete anyway, so maybe I can make it happen.

Chris is going to change out my tires. So long as you keep tabs on him, I will stay totally focused on just the engines. I am hoping to have everything finished by Friday night. Then we can try planning what to do next.

For the rest of the evening, well while Steve was here, we didnt talk so much. Just kept pushing forward on the karts. By the time Steve had to go home, just about everything trivial was taken care of. It was up to me getting the engines finally assembled. I was thinking it was possible to do and might have spare time left over Friday.
Reply
Chapter 127

For rest of the week I wanted to focus all of the time available trying to get the engines put together. So far there was not any real hold up. I gave in and decided against all of the hot rod ideas for now. Well not all of them just yet.

It was one very late nights worth of work altering the E-65 side covers so they can be used on our A-490 engines. I also drilled lubricating holes to feed the crank bushing directly. Still no reason why these were not already done this way.

These E-65 covers originally had needle bearings on flywheel side. The A-490 had a lubricating passage routed from intake manifold bypassing the flat reeds, then running thru drilled passages. For a drone engine or rotary lawn mower might be totally functional. But had such a long route to travel, I didnt think for racing would be wise to leave it that way.

After grinding out a small trough I drilled a hole from intake tract that feeds the flywheel side bushing directly. So long as fuel was passing thru, that bushing and seal would be lubricated just fine. That I am fairly certain about. Famous last words some people might say.

Why would the side cover already has cast provisions for drilling that lubricating hole? But just wasnt finished out to use that way. I still dont understand the long winded indirect way it was done before. But makes no difference now. On to more important things.

The side covers are sitting here waiting for assembly. Just like several more parts of the engines. I worked thru the problems and think the solution is going to work just fine. But this is one more thing I did not find any information about when reading all of the hop-ups for our engines.

Those articles went in to a lot of detail on some things, but never mentioned about better lubrication to the crankshaft bushing. The side cover has a place for this hole to be drilled. But I am curious why it was not done. The very long and indirect route to oil both sides of crankshaft does not look very well thought out at all. Sure hope this is not going to be a big mistake.

Wednesday morning I caught up with Mr Sadeskey right before school. He mentioned looking into that high temp epoxy, but so far nothing he could put his hands on. I thanked him for his trouble. Without all of the details i did fill him in on something I had found out.

I did a the usual coke bottle run for return deposit money up at the car wash, yesterday. This keeps some pocket change available when grabbing a snack at the 711. I was close enough to Bailey Crankshaft to stop by. If anyone might know if epoxy would work, I figured he might just be that person. I guess my grandfather may be the one other person that might know something too.

Mr Bailey didnt have a good answer, but saw no negatives about trying it out. A customer was there picking up a few crankshafts. He overheard our discussion and offered some free advice. Mr Bailey introduced me to Dave Pluebell. I have heard his name before, but the first time to meet. He explained what should work and likely work well.

From a reliable source he told me this retired dirt track racer, uses very fine aluminum powder with the best epoxy. Find the best epoxy I could buy. Mix enough in to thicken the batch up. He said it should hold up just fine for filling the piston ring grooves not in use. Make sure the surfaces are very clean and slightly rough for good adhesion.

Mr Sadeskey scratched his chin with an interested expression on his face. Hmmm, I wonder if that will work? Did the gentleman give any working examples of what he used this for?

No sir, just told me to trust him on this. It will hold up for my intended purpose. Do you know where can I find aluminum powder? It it used in anything for someone to get a hold of?

Well Rick, ur uh, Terry, that can have a lot of uses. Just none come to mind at the moment. I believe you may have some luck talking with the Chemistry teacher. He can probably offer some of it up to you. Or at least lead you to somewhere that sells it.

That is interesting. I will have to think on what he told you for a while. I wonder how much difference there is in expansion rates between epoxy and aluminum? This has peaked my curiosity. Let me know what you find out if deciding to test his suggestion. This might just be something useful to know if your results are positive.

The first bell rang, so I decided it was a good time to head across the hall and get ready for Drafting. Yes sir, I will let you know if it works or not. But might be a while before risking an engine to find out just yet. Thanks for all of your help so far Mr Sadeskey. I am going to class.

After school today I hustled on home and got right to work. Time is running out as the weekend approaches. There was one thing I had put off. One thing I had actually forgotten completely about. It is something more than just timing the engines. Well setting the points gap was not the problem.

I wanted to advance the timing slightly past the stock engine specifications. This is one engine that already has a lot more advance compared to all of the others I could find information on. The timing is at 35 degrees. That is so much more than I had expected. So one less thing I can change that could have made a lot of difference.

If stock timing was closer to the 26 degree setting like a lot of other chainsaws, bumping it up that much would be very noticeable. But no such luck. Gotta find another edge here. One thing that was mentioned it two of the articles I read was the fixed air gap clearance of ignition coil to flywheel magnets.

According to these hop-up articles, this gap needs to be closed up just much as possible. Since the coil is under the flywheel, it could almost touch since the centrifugal force would try to sling it out if I am thinking this thru correctly.

Engine equipped with an externally mounted coil, when the rpm increases that flywheel has a tendency of running out far enough to hit the laminations on coil. With load, vibration and crankshaft flexing, the gap needs to be at least 10 thousands using a feeler gauge for setting the clearance.

But on the Clinton with under the flywheel mounting, it tries to sling out away from coil. So clearance can be at a minimum without any major problems. Even if it does slightly rub under certain conditions, might not even be a big problem.

One slightly major problem is making this adjustment difficult. There is no adjustment. Everything is in a fixed location and laminations are permanently riveted on to the points box. To resolve this, I have to drill out the rivets, enlarge the holes, then replace rivets with nuts and bolts.

The bigger problem is there is no way to measure the gap. The flywheel fits over everything and no way to access the underside or measure with flywheel bolted on. Since after cutting all of those stock cast iron flywheels during the summer, I decided not to use the really heavy ones that are from very early models.

So back sometime over the summer when first hashing thru and pondering all of this, I decided to cut up the old heavy cast iron flywheel. Hoping it might allow some way to make adjustments possible.

At first I was thinking about only cutting a window in the flywheel. Or get totally carried away and cut off every part of the flywheel except what holds the magnets in place. This sure sounds like a ton of work. Not to mention a ton of scrap iron and very messy job.

First thing would be to remove what is left of the cooling fins. Then machine down the outside diameter, just to reduce the bulk and weight. I could cut out a pie shape that keeps the center hub then angles out only wide enough to include the magnets.

With what is left of the cut down flywheel, I bolt it to crankshaft. There should be plenty of room to check air gap. Then rotate the flywheel around slightly allowing access to each screw so coil can be moved closer to magnets.

If I can remove all of the unnecessary sections of flywheel, maybe even cut a window right over the coil to see everything. This should make a super easy job to adjust the air gap then tighten in place. I guess notching the outer edges might also work out. I needed to make the new screws accessible after setting the gap to tighten them up.

One thing that might help is to glue a piece of brass shim stock to magnets, then would be nearly fool proof to use. Just have to find some shim stock the right thickness of air gap. Wow! So cool!

By setting the air gap close as possible is supposed to make for a stronger spark. Well so far from everything I have read. Maybe this is one of those things that doesnt hurt to do, but hard to prove enough or any significant advantage worth all of this effort.

This is just one more thing that would make sense to do a back to back comparison at the track one day when practicing. But I already have a long list to do just that. So until the engines are built and we can plan a serious practice day, I wont ever find out for sure one way or another.

I put a lot of effort into making this flywheel lighter. Just for ease of use. Also having less bulk to cut out using the hack saw. But it still ended up very heavy. It took a lot of work too. At first I wanted to rough it out just enough so adjustments on the ignition could be made. But I know from past experience nothing would get any further done past this point if the flywheel was not finished out the whole way tonight.

So if this timing adjustment does make a big difference, it becomes something that will needs to changed on every ignition we have sitting around. Also making sure we have a spare in the parts box as backup. If it does work, all that effort chopping up the flywheel would now be worth it.

Spending the evening cutting down excess bulk off the flywheel was time consuming. After finishing up with the lathe, it did make it easier to cut with hacksaw removing the unwanted section. Cast iron is not so hard to cut with a hacksaw, but the thickness sure puts a slow down of things. It took some time to cut completely across.

Machining this down, I had hoped it would be thinner, but a few hours later working the blade, well make that several blades back and forth, most of this flywheel was now occupying ground zero below the pedestal mounted vise. Cast iron dust and small chunks were spread all over the floor. But something now looking more like a counterweight was the result. Or something that would make the engine run way out of ba1ance if attempting to do anything more than spinning over by hand.

A year ago me and Steve would be all over attempting to start an engine with a flywheel cut down like this one has already been done. Watching it vibrate so far out of ba1ance would be hilarious to watch self destruct. But now realizing if it let go at any speed could kill someone. That is still a heavy piece of cast iron spinning around. I dont want that someone to me or anybody else I know.
Reply
Chapter 128

This week is flying by too fast and Thursday is coming around a lot sooner than I would have liked. But so far, I was sort of ahead of schedule. The engines are very close to being assembled. Well Chris and Steves engines are almost finished. OK mostly in my head so far as what work is still needing to be done. I was still holding out for some speed secrets to try out on mine.

Made no sense to me doing all of this work and deciding against trying out some of the things that have been bouncing around in my head. I am sure most of the modifications should make a difference. Just dont know which things might actually help enough for the time and effort. Not to mention being reliable or not. If I left my engine alone and then tried some of the ideas on the modified engine might not ever get a chance to run it in a race.

The current plan is keep the modified engine as our spare. To use if one of ours takes a dump. Not to rely on as a main engine. My thoughts on this is having the fastest engine ready only as an emergency backup would make sense.

I could try some of the ideas out on this engine and since it would not be run except in an emergency more or less, should last for at least that one race. This is what I kept thinking. But I still wanted to find out if these trick mods did work and just as important if they would hold up. Cant find that out if an engine just sits in a box as a backup.

OK for my engine I have decided to use an E-65 piston for higher compression, but leave off the two lower rings. I will try out the epoxy mixed with that aluminum powder. There is only one way to find out if this works or not.

If it does not work, I will swap out to the backup engine. If Chris and Steves engines stay fairly mild, there should not be any problems or chance with one of them cratering during the race.

Since the Cates kart engine is already set up for the chopped down flywheel, I will go back with the lighter version of it this time. Not the one Mr Cates paid for and did not realize was even heavier than the one he sent out to get modified.

That engine from the Cates kart ran so well after swapping out intake manifold and bigger carburetor, so all three of our engines will eventually be set up similar to the same way. One thing I had not thought about until a long time after lightening up those first flywheels, is removing more cooling fins.

I could set up and remove every other or every third cooling fin. Just depends on how many there are on the flywheel. I dont know for sure to guess how many to cut off. I wonder if algebra could be put to use here? But I would still need to know how many fins are there either way. It not worth the trouble right now to walk out to the garage and count them. Since I should already be asleep.

Maybe I could throw this on Frank and see what a smart engineers brain can do. I bet he would go into some stupid spill about how the stock flywheel has been designed for a particular amount of airflow and should not mess with what has already been calculated in to the original design. Some help that would be.

My argument would be just the same. But Frank, since the flywheel is not being used as originally designed, then modifications can be made for its current use. This would probably cause a blank stare from him. To put a kink into his engineering brain waves is fun to do.

For now I need to cut back the shrouds to make up for the shorter finned flywheels. Eventually all of the four engines will be alike. One less problem when swapping them around. Not that there should be much reason for that or issue there.

Another option is swapping out to the aluminum flywheels. I have not cut the fins down on these yet, but they are less than half what the lightened cast iron flywheels weigh in at. This is another one of those things I wanted to find out on a practice day, but never happened.

Chris and Steves engines will be set to the stock timing at 35 degrees before top dead center. Mainly setting the point gap to the factory specifications. I want to try the timing bumped up a little bit more on my engine just to find out if this helps. I dont know how much yet, but not more than a degree or two advanced.

The carburetor bodies have already been cut, but still waiting to be assembled. I wonder if Chris would be able to put these together after I show him the way my first carburetor is set up? That will be a big help if something he can learn how to do and hopefully be good at. Steve doesnt want anything to do with the insides of these. Too many small parts to loose. He said I build it, he will bolt it.

Everything is mostly finished on the one engine for Chris and just about ready to finally bolt all the pieces together. His engine will keep the stock piston for now. His intake and exhaust ports are opened up a lot more, compared to what they were, so should make some difference there.

For now I decided to keep the ports round instead of squaring them off like on the Cates engine. I tried to measure and calculate the differences between them. The Cates engine has ports squared, but not so much enlarged. Our three engines have all of ports opened up from 7/16 to 1/2 inch.

It looked like I could still enlarge the ports more on the Cates engine by running the 1/2 inch endmill thru. But those ribs will end up thinner than I am comfortable with. It might be better idea to only widen the outer ports. This would just increase the overall width without decreasing the rib size anymore than already has been done. Dont know what to do for now. Should just leave it alone I guess.

For the exhaust, I wish there had been enough time to try out that tuned port muffler thing. Right now, I am running the tubing that came on the Cates engine. Steve is running what used to be that big box muffler.

We ended up chopping off everything from the stock box muffler. It is basically an open exhaust, but is directed straight down to the ground. Instead of blasting out the side like most everyone elses is. But we could remove the steel cover plate and have a very noisy straight path out.

Chris has what used to be a stock muffler from a chainsaw. That is what he told me. It is nothing but an extension of the exhaust port opening coming straight out about 3 inches. Originally it only had a small slit cut in on each side. Now there are three additional 1/2 inch holes drilled thru the end. It is very loud. When out on the track then you know when he is getting ready to make a pass.

So there are a lot of minor differences between the engines. I am keeping the engine for Chris just reliable as possible for now. Maybe a little bit down on power, but I would rather he finish every race instead of being a missile then watching the end of the race from sidelines because his engine fails.

Steve has been consistent no matter what. So his engine isnt going to be anything radical. Same thing as Chris. I want him finishing his race instead of watching it. He will have the E-65 piston, but with all three rings. Since my engine ran so well just from swapping out carburetor and intake manifold, his will be very close to that set up.

My engine can have all of the experiments done. I am not so worried about finishing the race. Right now I am mainly interested in finding out what works out to make the engines faster. Then figure out what will be reliable. A ba1ance will have to be found between very fast or long lasting.

The pictures of engines and everything going on right now will have to wait until they get developed. Unfortunately that may be another week or even longer. Just have to finish out the film rolls and drop off at the drug store. There should be a lot of pictures if I stay focused on things for the journal.

Pictures sure make up for a poor description. Makes for even better understanding of specific details. So will add them soon as possible. But may be after we make another race. Wow just thinking about that sounds so awesome. Finally getting back to the track and actually racing again.

So much work has been done for what little time we have spent racing. It has been a lot of fun doing the work. But without finding out what helps the most sure can be draining. I need some track time. Then my second race. I can not wait!
Reply
Chapter 129

Thursday afternoon is already here, and we are on the bus heading home from school. I cant believe the school week has gone by so fast. Last night I talked to Chris on the phone. He was planning to come over today sometime after he gets out of school.

Chris is relying on Paul Fisher to drop by his house and pick up the kart. Then drive over today with everything. Just Chris didnt know yet when Paul could break away from work to deliver him and the kart.

I dont usually get too stressed or worked up about things. But the pressure has been building up to get things finished. Mainly because time is running out. Its like everything keeps getting delayed or not working like I had planned. Time for concessions if this keeps up. So far the engines are still in three boxes, not yet assembled.

As of now I do have Chris and Steves engines more or less partially put together. Well everything is ready to assemble their engines. But mine is still a complete basket case. Tonight I have to commit on those particulars that have kept me from getting any farther on all three of them. Especially the hold up on my engine.

Last night I mixed up some epoxy. I dont know if this is the really good kind or not. More of what my grandfather had picked up at auctions from work before he retired recently. I figured if it is used on military aircraft, then should be good enough for a kart engine. Hope I am right about this.

So when I talked to the Science teacher on Tuesday about aluminum powder, he told me there was several grades to choose from. After explaining to him what I need the powder for, he recommended some that was not such a fine grade and less commonly suited for most types of experiments. Other than that, he had nothing else to add. I was on my own moving forward. It seems like the epoxy should hold up for a while since there is no real direct heat on the two lower ring grooves.

But trying to think using my smarts, the Frank Price way, I come up with holes all over the place why there may be unforeseen problems that will plague me. Other ideas come to mind using the epoxy that could help. What if I fill in the grooves with something and use the epoxy to secure in place instead of as only a filler?

I could cut a ring from aluminum that fits loosely in the groove. The epoxy will keep it held in check. Maybe or maybe not. I am leaning towards this idea for now. There needs to be enough clearance for the epoxy to fill the void, otherwise it will just get scraped off when the filler ring goes in place.

The aluminum filler ring can be slightly thinner and might keep the epoxy from breaking away from being too thick. I like this plan. Now just have to make two filler rings. I need to use some aluminum that would sort of hold its shape or not just bend or worse even break when attempting to install in the piston ring groove.

I had already considered the idea of filling the ring grooves this way. Yes, thought about it some time back. But now I am working out the details of what and how. Also considering the downsides of this turning into a bad idea or even a calamity.

My first attempts at machining a filler ring from the scraps of aluminum on hand failed miserably. It was almost impossible to make something that thin on the little lathe. The three jaw chuck would distort the ring into a triangle. Or would just fly off the chuck when trying to make a cut.

The ideal material would be a piece of thick wall aluminum tubing. Since the piston is 2 1/8 inches, a 2 1/4 inch diameter would be about perfect. But it is not like the local hardware store sells short pieces of tubing like this. I should have asked Mr Sadeskey about some tubing at school. But too late now if planning to get it done tonight.

All I had for scraps was just flat plate. Mostly 1/4 and 5/16 inch thick. There is some thicker plate, but way too much waste if I use it. So sticking with this thinner stuff for now. I roughed out a piece then machined it round leaving it sightly oversize. Chucked up again and tried to cut out the center close to finish size. This is when the problems started happening.

It took a little bit of thinking to come up with some type of solution that will cradle the ring when it gets too thin and not holding shape anymore. At first there was not a problem cutting round. It was when the inside diameter was getting larger, then would not hold up to the cutting tool. The ring would spin around, deform or collapse.

One solution or something I thought might work is machining a wide and thick sleeve that would fit inside of the filler ring. As I started cutting this, then realizing something that would help even better. I added a flange on back face of the sleeve.

Now the filler ring would fit snugly over this flanged sleeve. Cutting a slot in sleeve would allow it to expand when the chuck is tightened. The filler ring could rest up against this flange staying square and held in place while being cut.

This flanged sleeve fixture will fit over the chuck jaws and inside of filler ring. I back out the jaws and they open up inside this sleeve. The filler ring is pushed up against the flange. Well that is the plan. Time to find out if it works or not.

The next thing I needed a parting tool that is narrow enough so I can get at least the two filler rings from a single piece. The plate I used to cut this ring is 1/4 inch. So I need a parting tool no wider than 1/8 inch. Now maybe I can machine this on the lathe without a problem.

Since I am using flat plate, it has to be roughed out with a hack saw. Then it gets center drilled somewhere close to the middle. This is where the liver center in tailstock pushes up to and holds the flat plate against chuck. This is very time consuming, but the only way I have to make it from the materials here in my scrap pile.

First I cut the filler ring outside diameter to roughly 1/2 inch larger than inside measurement of piston ring groove. The reason for this is the extra thickness will hold its shape before installing on the flange fixture. Now I chuck up on the outer diameter then cut center to the actual diameter of ring groove.

Sliding over the flanged sleeve fixture, and tightening the chuck holds it just fine this time. The next step is using a parting tool that is offset the same width of ring. Basically the 1/8 inch wide parting tool is centered on the 1/4 inch wide plate. If everything works, I will have the two filler rings 1/16 inch thick.

I also had to make a holder so these thin filler rings could be sanded flat removing any remaining burrs. To do this, a step is cut on the back side of flanged sleeve fixture. It would be just slightly larger than ring diameter. Depth would match the width of finished ring size but no deeper.

So flipping around the flanged sleeve, pushing this up against the chuck jaws, then tighten down. The recessed step can then be cut on the back side. Now a ring should fit in this machined step. It is there secure while I sand flat over a piece of Emory cloth laying on a piece of thick glass plate.

A saw cut is made so the filler ring can be expanded enough like a piston ring to fit in the groove. Carefully I worked this filler ring around the piston and it fit fairly well. There was clearance and play in the groove. So that is what will be filled in with the epoxy mixed with fine aluminum powder.

After a thorough cleaning in lacquer thinner, I used some course Emory cloth to rough up the surfaces so the epoxy would adhere to both the filler rings and grooves in piston.

Now I am back to the part of mixing up the epoxy from earlier in this entry. The aluminum was added as I stirred the two parts of epoxy together. Adding just enough powder until epoxy could hold its shape without much sagging before setting up. I thought this would be more than thick enough to work.

I had no idea how much to add or if it would even help. Only going by what I was told from a reliable source. From someone that knew someone that had good luck at what he did racing at the Devils Bowl Speedway. So a retired customer of a customer of Floyd Bailey is who the information came from.

Time to make this real. I filled in the two lower grooves in piston with the epoxy mix, then carefully worked around each of the aluminum filler rings in place. I noticed the rings now did not close all of the way because of the epoxy behind filling in the groove. A quick fix here was using wax paper wrapped around, then tightening down a hose clamp to hold the filler rings securely in place while the epoxy set up.

The piston skirts on both E-65 pistons had already been cut down shorter so the throws on A-490 crankshaft would clear, so there was no excuse not to finish up Steves engine while the epoxy cures on my piston.

I have already partially assembled Steves engine several times. Well getting all of the internals test fitted and ready to bolt together with side cover installed hopefully for the last time, this time. Then adjusting the ignition timing to stock settings at 35 degrees before top dead center.

I am using that big degree wheel my grandfather had come up with for this purpose. According to him it came off some type of control equipment from an environmental chamber. Supposedly this contraption was once used for simulation testing of aircraft parts.

All the while he was attempting to explain this machine of sorts to me my brain went into a fog. I had no idea of what he was even talking about. Some monster sized box welded together using thick steel plate. It was heavily reinforced, and also very well insulated.

This chamber as he called it, could be pressurized or under vacuum to simulate real world extreme weather conditions for critical testing of precision parts to find out how they reacted under non ambient situations not at ground level. Also equipped with heating and cooling capacity too.

It took me a moment to think back at how he described all of that to me. Maybe I didnt get everything just right. Well close enough. Its not like I need a chamber like this to do any track testing. At least I sure hope not. Now having some way to test all of this guess work on the engines before going to the track... Wow something like a dynometer that could be worth something to think about.

While piddling with Steves engine after finishing up with the epoxied piston, I was trying to figure out if there was any to cut back the time when cutting these rings. After making them the only thing still coming to mind is using a piece of tubing close to the piston diameter.

Either way after machining, install the filler rings, using the epoxy, then clamp them securely in place. After the epoxy is cured, then cut down the outside diameter of these rings to blend with side of piston. This would be almost like a one ring piston now, instead of two old grooves filled in not looking so professional without them.

Putting together the engine for Chris would be the least trouble. I had no intentions of getting crazy with this one. What my plan was is nothing more than copying my engine originally setup with the Palmini intake manifold and bored out carburetor. Except using his new intake manifold instead. I was not even thinking the bored out carburetor was worth it for him just yet.

I had only used the modified carburetor once on our last practice day. It worked better than I could have hoped for. But it is still an unknown without some more time on the track. I really would liked to have used it for our first race. But that day, there was already way too many unknowns to deal with.

Now this engine now has larger ports, and new Go-Power intake manifold with four petal reed cage, should run very well using his existing Tillotson carburetor. Chris managed to get the carburetor put on his engine with some help from a guy at the track last spring. Since then, according to Chris, the carburetor had been working just fine.

I am fairly certain my bored out carburetor would be faster, but not until his engine is running just good as it can be first. Then swap it out and confirm the results before a race day. That makes sense right now. I have not put enough track time on my carburetor. So not ready to just throw it out there expecting perfect results for anyone else who tries one copied from it.

Since everything else will be the same, I can have the carburetor ready for a quick swap on our next trip to the track. His carburetor works good enough so a back to back comparison will confirm if there really is that big of a difference.

My original plan back when trying out the bored out carburetor, was to use the stock intake manifold. But one we did open up the passage and installed larger reeds from a chainsaw. Then I got crazy that morning before we left for the track. I swapped out not just the stock Tillotson carburetor with my modified one, but also changed over to the Palmini manifold and a four petal reed cage.

So from our second practice day, I can not be for sure which parts or combination of parts really worked the best. What if the smaller carburetor works better? What if the modified carburetor is faster on the larger chainsaw reeds? I am still curious how well the modified intake manifolds with the six petal reed cage works compared to the other ones with chainsaw reeds.

Thinking about all of the changes we did on his kart, the first thing Chris will have to do is learn how to drive it. From what I understood, he has never driven a live axle kart before. Now after we did the conversion on his kart, will not be anything like he is used to.

So making sure his engine is reliable as possible and with fewer unknowns is what I need to keep in mind. Once Chris is used to driving his kart and after any necessary adjustments have been made, then start worrying about his engine. For now reliable and consistent. After his kart is handling perfect, we can work on faster.
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)