Congratulations!
Congratulations on your purchase or rebuild of your Carlson Racing Engine. Your engine has been machined, meticulously assembled, and precisely tested using our state of the art SuperFlow digital flowbench and Davenport dynomometer utilizing computerized data acquisition. Countless hours and years of experience are behind every engine we build. Carlson Racing Engines is proud to be recognized as a leader and always pushing the envelope on engine development in the karting industry. Your confidence and customer support are our primary concern. If you ever have a question about your engine, please feel free to contact us directly, and I can asure you, that as the individual who personally worked on your engine, I will be honest and forthright in providing you with all the information you could ever need on your engine and its performance. After all, it's in our best interest that you are competitive at whatever level of racing you pursue.
A few quick notes about your engine: First, you will notice that your engine has a CRE serial number stamped into the block along with several other significant engraving marks elsewhere on the engine. You will notice a three or four digit "engine #" located at the left rear of the block (to the left of the rear oil drain plug.) This is a very important number for future reference. Anytime that you have questions regarding this engine, please refer to it spefically with this number. Although we are very familiar with all of our work, we have several hundred customers with literally over 1000 engines having gone through our shop over the past 20 years. While engines often get sold and resold, this CRE ID # is unique to every engine that we have ever worked on.
Unpackaging your engine: You need to be aware of a few things. All engines shipped from CRE are shipped without any fluids! Each engine also comes complete with a detailed engine spec. sheet that is specific to that particular engine and engine number. This sheet should provide answers to the most common questions, and I will be happy to further assist ifneeded. Enclosed you will also find a detailed invoice.
Please take note if your engine has been dynoed and broken in, or if additional break-in is recommended. If your engine is completely broken in, it is ready to race, just add oil and fuel. If additional break-in is required, please follow our detailed engine break-in instructions carefully. Again, if you are unsure, please contact us.
Tuning your engine properly: If you haven't already, please check out the technical section of our CRE website online and be sure to read through the "tuning with temperature" tech article. This is a great foundation for understanding how to tune your engine for optimum performance year round. While air density typically dictates changes in fuel mixture in your carburetor, it is important to understand how to make changes to get the most out of your race engine. Your altitude from sea level will affect the proper fuel mixture for your engine. Please keep this in mind when travelling to different tracks. If you are unsure of the elevation, you can contact the closest airport for exact information. Other factors affect the correct fuel to air ratio as well. During the year, and even during the day, the temperature and often times the barometric pressure changes. The result is a change in the air density. Slight changes are not a major concern, however, if larger changes in the weather occur, you will need to compensate by rejetting your carburetor. When your engine was assembled, and or tuned, here in our shop, it was jetted properly for a corrected atmosphere at 910' elevation. Keep this in mind when you are racing at extremely different elevations such as at sea level or at higher plains or mountain regions.
Please take note of the current jet and needle setting notated on your engine spec. sheet. This is of vital importance. While tuning the engine with the needle is almost negligable when using alcohol fuel, it can be used to temporarily build heat in the combustion chamber on the grid, or give some slight relief to cool the engine by richening the setting while racing. As a general rule, you want to start with the proper jet, and the needle set at 1 1/2 turns out. That is, by winding the needle all the way in until it gently bottoms out, (being very careful not to put too much strain on the end of the needle assembly by bottoming it out), then backing the mixture needle screw out (counter-clockwise) 1 1/2 turns. This is the middle of the tuneable range of the needle assembly. This needle assembly mixture screw is tuneable from 1/2 turn out to 2 1/2 turns out. Anything less than 1/2 turn out, the fuel does not enter the jet smoothly and causes inconsistent fuel flow, or "spitting and sputtering" of the fuel into the bore of the carb. Anything beyond 2 1/2 turns out will make no difference in the fuel mixture whatsoever, as the needle is completely out of the fuel stream and can possibly vibrate out of the carb. causing an unwanted DNF.
In general, taping the flywheel screen is the best means of raising the engine temp, and on some engines, especially the restrictor plate engines, it is necessary to completely cover the screen. Extremely hot days may require removal of some tape. so try to place tape on the screen in short 2 or 3 inch long pieces with the ends dog-eared back for ease of removal. Remember as well, chasis set-up will also affect your engine temperature. For instance, a tight kart set-up tends to raise the engine cylinder head temp, as a free kart lowers it.
The RPM stated on your spec sheet is the optimal operating range of your engine as determined by dyno testing, however, it may be necessary to exceed or reduce this under some circumstances. For this reason, we have included two target rpm's for your engine. One that is sightly higher for tracks that put the engine in a bind, and one that is slightly closer to peak horsepower for tracks that are wide open momentum style tracks.
Engine care and maintenance: Your engine is a vital part of your racing program and needs to be treated very carefully to keep it at its peak. Proper care and maintenance can also save you a lot of money when rebuild time comes around. I cannot tell you how many engines have come into my shop that were very poorly maintained, and every one of these required more parts and services than if the engine was properly cared for.
Air filter maintenance: It is imperative that you use a clean and properly oiled filter and or pre-filter every time that your kart enters the track. Detailed instructions on cleaning and preparing your air filters can be found in the technical section of our website. If you have any other questions or concerns regarding air filter maintenance, please fel free to contact us directly.Cleaning the air filter properly requires just a bit of time and care to protect your valuable investment and keep it operating at it's peak. a bit of heavy duty. Remove your air filter from your engine, being careful not to allow any dirt or contaminants to fall into the carburetor air horn. After removing the air filter, use a short piece of duct tape to cover the air filter adapter to protect from anything falling inside the carb air horn. Gently brush any loose dirt from the outside of the filter with a soft bristle brush or soft tooth brush. Completely saturate the filter from the inside with cool tap water. Spray liberally, a degreaser such as Simple Green to the outside of the filter and let set for 15 minutes (not allowing it to dry). Wash / rinse the filter from the inside out. Then, repeat as needed, thoroughly rinsing the filter, and allow to air dry overnight. Never use compressed air to dry the filter, as it can damage the fabric inside the filter, allowing dirt to enter the engine. If you need to dry the filter more quickly, you may use a common hair drier on a low heat and air setting. When dry, spray the filter with a high quality fabric filter oil such as
PJ-1 or K&N fabric filter oil. Completely cover the filter with an even coat. The filter is now ready to install. If you use a foam pre-filter, you may wish to clean and oil it simlarly. Please be sure to use an appropriate oil designed for foam filter material. For convenience and expense, you can also use automatic transmision fluid as your foam air filter oil. Just keep a bit in a small container such as a coffe can, and be sure to wring the foam pre-filter out thoroughly before putting it over your fabric air filter. Having extra filters to replace during a racing event is a great idea. You can pre-oil the filters and store them in a ziplock bag. This saves a step at the track and prevents dirt contamination by trying to do your filter oiling at the track.
Engine oil: Again, please refer to our website technical articles section for detailed information regarding oil maintenance in your engine. I have my personal preferences, but the bottom line is that you need to keep your oil clean and contaminant free. I personally recommend changing the oil at a minimum ofevery 10 laps. In the big picture, oil is much cheaper than premature wear or catastrophic failure. Typically, I start the day with fresh oil, change after practice, run my heat race, change again, then run the main event. This can be adjusted a bit for days with multiple classes or multiple heat races, but the point is, keep your oil changed often.
Hardware: You will want to check and recheck hardware often. These engines have a lot of vibration which tend to loosen even properly torqued hardware. Consider too the surface at some tracks you compete at, or a slight imbalance or out of round wheel, tire, axle, gear, etc, tend to amplify vibration to your engine. As often as possible, (between races even), go over your engine and make sure everything is nice and tight. The main bolts to watch is the carburetor to tank bolts. We have a stripe of tech paint over the heads of each bolt to help prevent coming loose due to vibration. You can simply check that the strip is intact. With advancements in aftermarket gasket technology, cylinder head bolts should NOT need retorqued. If you do ned to check or retorque your cylinder head bolts, please check with us regarding torque pattern and proper gasket selection. Head bolts should only be tightened with a quality inch pounds torque wrench. Please refer to your engine set-up sheet for the correct torque values for your engine.
Washing the engine: A word of caution; do not "saturate" your engine with any kind of cleaner, degreaser, solvent, or water in general. Be careful not to soak the engine, causing undue rust or damage to electrical components. There are several areas that need to be addressed before washing the engine. Using a weather-prrof duct tape, make sure to seal the breather and carburetor airhorn at the filter adapter. Be sure to also tape off the end of the exhaust pipe, and make sure the spark plug is tight. It is also a good idea to tape over the vent on the gas cap.
Wet the engine lightly with cold water. Next, spray the engine down with a mild degreaser, and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse with hot water. Be careful with some chemicals, as they are very tough on paint, and may dull or even remove paint from painted sheet metal. Try to avoid geting water behind the blower housing and onto the flywheel. Although the flywheel will gather some dust and dirt, it will also cause rust and induce exces water around your electronic coil. Once the engine has been cleaned thoroughly, I prefer to lightly dry the engine with a soft lint fre cloth to get the exces water removed, then you may use a hair drier to more completely dry the engine. Do NOT use compressed air or high pressure water to clean and dry your engine, as the excess presure will likely force dirt through seals or damage fragile gasket materials.
Animal Carburetor specific maintenance: Alcohol is a very corrosive fuel which can and does eat at soft metal parts such as aluminum. When alcohol dries it forms a chalky residue similar in appearance to baby powder. This is why fuel should never be allowed to remain in your carb. I recommend draining the fuel from the bowl of the carb by removing the plug in the bottom of the bowl. Next, disconnect the fuel line at the fuel tank right after the shut off valve. Gravity drain the fuel line from the filter back to the tank end. Next, place the end of the fuel hose into a 1 gallon container of gasoline, and refire the engine. Since the engine is for the most part dry at his point, it will not run smoothly, and you will need to kep your starter on it until sufficient gas has filled the lines and the carb. bowl completely. Once the engine is running on gasoline, you need to continue running it for thirty (30) seconds or so to completely eliminate any left over alcohol in the fuel system. Do NOT rev the engine rpm up or allow it to run under a no-load situation. Always perform this with the kart on the ground (NEVER on a kart stand!) Once the engine has ben thoroughly flushed with gasoline, you may remove the end of the fuel line from the gas jug and let the engine run out of fuel. The engine rpm will increase slightly as it leans out. Do NOT let it rev above the clutch stall setting or for a prolonged period of time. If necessary, shut the engine off manually. You may now drain the remaining gas from the fuel system in the same manner you drained the alcohol. It will not hurt the system to leave it in the lines, however, if the gasoline is allowed to backflow into your fuel tank, it will contaminate your pure racing alcohol and cause a rules infraction in fuel tech. Additionally, some folks prefer to add a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil to the gasoline to help lubricate o-rings and ferrous metals. This is ok, but certainly not necessary. Be carefull not to add too much oil, so as to carbon up the combustion chamber with exces soot produced from the oil.
Next, remove the throttle cable and slide from the top of the carburetor, and lubricate it with Marvel Mystery Oil or similar
lubricant. Do NOT use WD-40 or similar products that become sticky when dry, or in general, attract dust and dirt. This helps lubricate the slide as well as clean it.
Fuel storage: Keep your alcohol race fuel in an air-tight container, out of direct sunlight, and off of any concrete surfaces. We have alcohol specific plastic jugs for fuel storage if you need. Do not store your fuel in extremely high or low temperatures, and try to avoid storage over a long period of time (ie winter). It is highly recommended that you filter your fuel each time you transfer it from one container to another, or add to your engine's fuel tank. It is recommended to use a stainless steel or plastic filter element. Do NOT use a paper coffee filter, paint strainer, cheese cloth, shop rag, or similar method of straining the fuel. It is also a very good idea to completely drain your tank regularly to make sure it stays clean. Fuel containers and pump arounds can contain small particles that cause a lot of unnecessary problem.
Spark plugs: Again, please do some studying up on our website technical pages. There is a valuable spark plug technical article along with a convenient pocket size heat range reference chart you may print and keep in your tool box or have laminated and put on your trailer wall for future reference. For the most part, there is no reason to change the spark plug unless there is a problem. A spark plug, (in my opinon,) is simply an assembly line worker. It does its job when it is told to do so by the coil, and when it fails to meet expectations, you replace it with a new one. Generally, it is not necesary to replace the plug any more often than on an average engine rebuild, 6-8 race nights, or 250 laps as a benchmark. It never hurts to replace them more often, and it is cheap insurance against a fouled plug or another unexpected problem. Gap your ND or NGK plugs at .023" and your Autolite plugs at .025. If you are using a high ohm coil, you may see a small bit of gain by opening the plug gap up a bit to .040-.045". On an Animal race engine equipped with the new style PVL ignition system, set your plug gap at .045".
Indexing: It is important on a flathead engine to index the spark plug properly when installing. Mark the opening of the ground strap with a permanent marker or oil based paint on the ceramic, then tighten the plug and use index washers to change the position if needed. It is important to keep the "heel" of the ground strap AWAY from the intake valve as with all the newer cams, the intake valve is designed to float and it will ultimately hit the sparkplug ground strap if not indexed properly. Kep the opening anywhere between the right front of the engine, and the left rear. It is my personal prefernce to aim the open end of the plug toward the right front, while some other engine builders will refer you aim it towards the left rear, (toward the exhaust valve).
Diaphragms: Similar to the spark plug scenario laid out above, the fuel pump diaphragm on a flathead carburetor should be changed at every rebuild. Some racers insist that the diaphragm be replaced every couple race days, however, I don't see the value of that if you are doing proper engine maintenance between race days. Use your own judgement. If the engine is ever hard to start, replace the fuel pump diaphragm.
Again, our sincerest congratulations! It is an "honor" to be your engine bulder of choice. Let us serve you humbly and with respect.
YOU are our #1 customer!