Listless Rok...

26 March

Today I finally get off my arse and grab the engine back
to Singapore for Ah Khiang to take a look.

I was hastened and had asked Jason in Plentong to check
it out 1st. However, as mentioned they had problem starting
it up and after checking they deem it's the stator motor that
is the problem. Replacing it will cost a massive RM1400 or so!


Suspecting there might be an alternative to it, I had to
bring the engine back.

Initial diagnostic is not too good. The piston looks too wear out.
I had since suspect this as I was running lean to Too Lean when
we all shifted from Premas to Plentong. Using a main jet of
160 or 162 just do not give the engine enough fuel to burn for
power.. In long term, piston suffers. And now this is the case.
SIGH

I do not know now how much it may cost to repair it.
But I just hope after the repair, the engine and kart will perform
better than previously.
A blessing in disguise then... I really hope this is.

Front, Back... and something in between

19 March

Went to the track today, to install the new front bumper and
new rear bumper.


I need these 2 bumpers as the front was of the cadet size which
is not protecting the front wheels. I learned it from Race 1.



Rear bumper will hopefully prevent bad crashes which may
destroy my axle. Also lesson learnt from race 1.

And well it make the kart look better too!

One of the other main purpose of going to the track was to
adjust the ignition timing.

However, after some fine adjusting on the stand, I did not
managed to even to warm the tires on the track.

Firstly, the rev will not go beyond 7000rpm.
Then back in pits, to look at it, the engine will not fire up...
The exact cause is yet to be known.
Just hoping it will not required an expensive solution.

Realised also that the front alignment was awfully out.
I should have check that after the crashes from race 1.
The misaligned wheels may partly explained why I was
generally slower as the tires was pointing one way
when the steering is in another direction.

Darn it. Should have checked before race 2!!
Anyway, lesson learnt and just hope it will be better in
April Race.

Aim for Wins for Championship

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has accepted the proposal put forward by Formula One Management to award the Drivers’ World Championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season.

If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.

The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system.

There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place.

The Constructors’ Championship is unaffected.

The WMSC rejected the Formula One Teams’ Association's proposal to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively.

Should the new format have been in place last year, then Felipe Massa and not Lewis Hamilton would have won the title by virtue of the Brazilian having scored six wins to his rival's five.

My take... is that wouldn't this allocation neglect the reliability of car along with driver's consistency?

I just have to wonder out loud here, if Massa is the champ last year having won 6 races but DNF the rest of the 12 races, will he be considered 'worthy' ?

Not saying Hamilton is worthy and Massa not... but will we see top teams
pulling their cars in once they feel they are out of the reckoning for race win?

All in all, just hope this will get us more exciting races

Lost... and Wet

15 March

Race 2.

Horrible! Horrible in qualifying. Last, except for Ivan who
did not did his qualifying I was last!!
Timing was almost 2 second off the front guys!
Maybe I got the tire pressure wrong. Maybe I had too much
fuel in. Maybe the engine was off... or perhaps I was just slow
Darn it!

However, when Heat 1 got underway I realised that my kart
just does not move out of corner at the same speed as the rest.
After that, the rest will just move further away from me.
Is it that an engine servicing due?

I have this suspicion confirmed when Tony managed to lap
me at about the start finish line... I tried to move together
with him for the long straight to test the engine output.
I reckon even if the skill level differs, the engine should be able
to push relatively the same on a straight line.

Apparently, it can't! Even though I was using a slightly higher
torque setting on rear sprocket, I just cannot get close to Tony
through the corner and from there his engine just seems to have
more power for the long straight. Both of us are using Rok.
I was bemused. Ending the race in fifth from 8th is not too bad.
However, consider all things it wasn't good enough.

I wasn't even able to get into a position to really race with
the front runners. It was disappointing.

Heat 2 started when the track is all wet and it was still drizzling.
We waited for Mary to come on to the grid for about 10mins
and yet she did not arrived since she had problems starting her
kart.

By the time, it was signal that she wasn't able to start the race, I
had problem starting my kart too.. darn! Allan had the same
problem too.
However, it may be a blessing in disguise as the rain then came
down heavily. Tony spun out. Leo did too.
It was tricky to a point it was rather dangerous too.

Even the rain master, Noel, said to me after he finished 1st of
the 3 runners that it was plain crazy to run in the condition.

Before going off, I saw the Woodland Checkpoint was very jam, so
I asked Tony if he knows how to go to Tuas Check point which
looks clear. He said he know.... but we end up driving for 3 hours
before I got home... we practically drove off course for 76km!
And had to make a about turn for that distance.

That sums up my Sunday.... but I will believe there will be
some good Sundays coming!

Targets

I would have to admit sometimes I will go into a
race weekend just to have fun.

Personally, it is always fun to be karting whether
it's a leisure weekend or in a race.
Regardless the result, I will always try to enjoy it.

Unless, there's a huge shunt like the one I had in
Feb race.

Anyhow, I had given it Some thoughts. Just some..
that I should at least give myself a target to work on
so that I will not go into any race aimlessly.

The coming, I will aim to:
* Qualify in the upper half of the field.
* So that I will finish in the front 4 by end of Heat 1
* Then try to remain in the position to challenge for a
'podium finish'

High target? High time to do so!
=)

What's up, Sparky?

One of the essential component of any engine
is the spark plug.

'what is a spark plug?'

Here is it from Wikipedia:
A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed aerosol gasoline by means of an electric spark. Spark plugs have an insulated center electrode which is connected by a heavily insulated wire to an ignition coil or magneto circuit on the outside, forming, with a grounded terminal on the base of the plug, a spark gap inside the cylinder.

pic from http://www.centuryperformance.com

Thus the primary functions of the spark plug is:

a. To ignite the Air/Fuel Mixture
b. To remove the heat out of the combustion chamber

Also from http://www.centuryperformance.com, it has
a good article on Influences On Spark Plug Temperature
and Performance which I think it can be applied to karting.

Because some of us may kart in different parts of the world
with very different climate, so we will have to be concious
about using the correct spark plug for the engine.

Here you go with the detailed yet easy to understand article:

Below is a list of possible external influences on a spark plug's operating temperatures. The following symptoms or conditions may have an affect on the actual temperature of the spark plug. The spark plug cannot create these conditions, but it must be able to deal with all the levels of heat, otherwise performance will suffer and engine damage can occur:

1) Air/Fuel Mixtures seriously affect engine performance and spark plug temperatures.

• Rich air/fuel mixtures cause the tip temperatures to drop, causing fouling and poor drivability
• Lean air/fuel mixtures cause plug tip and cylinder temperatures to increase, resulting in pre-ignition, detonation, and increase the possibility of spark plug and internal engine damage.
• It is important to read spark plugs many times during the tuning process to achieve the optimum air/fuel mixture.
• Computer-controlled engine applications do a pretty good job of maintaining the optimum air/fuel mixture by using the various sensors that report back to the ECM, but even during periodic maintenance the spark plugs can offer insight as to how the engine is performing.

2) Higher Compression Ratios, Forced Induction, and Nitrous Oxide will elevate spark plug tip and in-cylinder temperatures.

• Compression pressure, defined as cylinder pressure (not to be confused with static compression ratio, though it is also part of this calculation), can be increased be performing any of the following modifications.

• Reducing combustion chamber volume (higher compression domed pistons, smaller chamber cylinder heads, milling the heads, lowering the block deck height, thinner cylinder head gaskets), which are all examples of changing the static compression ratio.
• Adding a forced induction system to the engine (supercharger, turbocharger, nitrous)
• Camshaft change, where the changes in new cam timing affect the cylinder pressure in the engine.

• As compression pressure (cylinder pressure) increases, a colder heat range spark plug is required, as well as higher octane fuel and paying careful attention to ignition timing and air/fuel ratios.
  

3) Advanced Ignition Timing, or moving the point of ignition farther ahead of where the piston reaches TDC (top dead center).

• By advancing the timing 10° you can easily add 70°c to 100°c (158°f to 212°f) to the spark plug temperature.

4) Engine Speed and Load changes will increase the firing end temperatures of the spark plug.

• When a vehicle is cruising down the highway at a steady rate of speed the spark plug firing end temperatures will be fairly constant, affected by the load on the engine (weight of vehicle, aerodynamics, rolling resistance, type of road you are on, etc.). Changes in engine load will affect the tip temperature of the spark plug.
• If your vehicle is constantly running at a high RPM, carrying/pushing/pulling heavy loads, climbing mountain roads ... a colder plug may be required. You must read the plugs to see how they are handling this use.
• The heavier your vehicle, or greater the amount of work the engine sees (racing applications, heavy-loaded construction trucks, vans, RVs & motor homes), the more critical this becomes. Hopefully the engineers that built your vehicle did their homework, and you are using your vehicle within its intended design, that way the specified plug heat ranges are accurate. If you have deviated much from the intended use of your particular vehicle, plug reading becomes more important.

5) Ambient Air Temperature, defined as the incoming air that enters your engine through the air filter and into the combustion process.

• As air temperature falls, air density volume increases, resulting in leaner air/fuel mixtures. This creates higher cylinder pressures and temperatures which causes an increase in the spark plug's tip temperature. Fuel delivery should be increased in this scenario.
• As air temperature increases, air density increases, as does intake volume, and fuel delivery should be decreased.
• On computer-controlled applications, this is compensated automatically as the sensors report information to the ECM to make adjustments in the fuel curve. But, on carbureted applications you may need to compensate the jetting or available adjustments if you operate the vehicle primarily in constant extreme high or low temperatures.

6) Humidity, or moisture in the air.

• As humidity increases, air volume decreases. The result is lower combustion pressures and temperatures, causing a decrease in the spark plug's temperature and a reduction in available power.
• Along with increases in humidity, the air/fuel mixture should be leaner, but it will also depend on ambient air temperatures. The opposite changes are needed as humidity decreases.

7) Barometric Pressure and Altitude

• Affects the spark plug's temperature
• The higher the altitude, the lower the cylinder pressure becomes. As cylinder temperature decreases, so does the tip temperature.
• Many tuners will attempt to "chase after" optimum tuning by changing spark plug heat ranges.
• The real answer is to play with the jetting or air/fuel mixtures in an effort to put more air back into the engine.

Slippering Away...

March 8, 2009

Happy International Women's Day to all ladies out there!


Today's at the track, I mainly need to find out if my
shoulder can take the 'strain' of karting once again.
And that part of the test went ok, as I did not have any
immediate reactions while I was in the kart.
I hope there will no 'after' effect tomorrow too!

After adjusting and doing some simple maintenance on the
engine and chassis, I went out for a the 1st couple of laps
after the huge accident from the last race.
The track is just so slippery earlier on.
There is huge understeer coming up to the pit area.
Not only the lap times is slipping away, I feel I am slipping
into the grass and wall... Fortunately, nothing nasty happens.

During one of the test sessions with Track B, I caught up with
Julian on his Axiro.. Because his kart has very good torque which
will just have him pull away from me on all the straight sections,
I had to spend about 3 laps behind him. During these 3 laps, I
started to realize that somehow his rear bumper started to MELT!
At the beginning I though I am having heat stroke which is causing
me to see things... Then after awhile I saw the reason why the
plastic is really melting . His exhaust outlet is pointing downwards
and directly at the bumper! Gees!
I tried to overtake him then and tell him about it, but I guess he
was engross in blocking me and overtake me again...
So I had to pit and Red Flag him into the pits before part of the
rear bumper got dislodged.

Then it's lunch time. Had a small packet of rice with vege and fried
chicken. Free! Louis treat! Hard to come by!

However barely 10 mins after I finished the lunch, they are ready to
start a15 laps using the track configuration for the coming race.

WHAT The...... I was afraid to Burp out in the middle of the race,
and slid out! Although it's funny, it is very very uncomfortable
to be racing so soon after a meal.

Since everyone is ready to go (Louis, Graeme, Mary, Julian, and me,
yup that's everyone for today) I had to go too!

I was asked to be on the P2. Rolling Lap... and Julian just go off like
crazy fro the back! Meaning we have to reel him in and do another
rolling lap.

End up, Mary and I was at the front. Then Green Flag... Race start..
while we are up at the 'hilltop' we then knew it is a false start.
Some cork up somewhere some how again.
All this means another 'rolling lap' .

Okay, by this time I was bored. I can't remembered what I started.
But by end lap one, I was fifth, read LasT. However, I was very close
to Mary and Julian.
Julian then just slowed after the downhill 'chicane', nearly causing
me to whack into him. Luckily I managed to just move to his side
and drive on. Within awhile, I caught up with Mary on the hairpin.
Followed her for one lap, then overtook her on the hairpin as she
seems to have problem throttling on from the exit.
My guess is that the carb is flooded... Because the corner is so
slippery, the kart will go sideways or head on straight which will
probably implies we will have to be very careful on feathering the
throttle and have the correct line through it.

In any case, Mary head in to the pits slightly after I overtook her.
After which, I just kart away the rest of the laps. Since by then, Louis
and Graeme is too far ahead.

For today, although I did not manage to get any good times I am
just happy that my injuries from the accident did not cause any
'driver problem' on the track.

So I will just look forward in the race next week.
Aim to have some accident fun 1st!


leaving with this pic en route into the track.
rock roads, palm plantation warming up to the early morning sun