Practice session - new track

We decided a little change of scenery might be a good thing for all of us.  Some fellow club members had visited the racetrack in Fremont, OH and had good things to say about it.  We were unable to confirm that the track would be open for practice when we planned to go but decided to take a chance.

We found the track okay with the help of our GPS but it was vacant except for a large SUV and very large trailer parked nearby.  Spotting a fellow on a tractor in the back of the property, I decided to walk that direction.  He spotted me and introduced himself as Kit Henry who leases the property and runs the track operation.  He didn't think anyone would be out to run that day so was trying to get some work done on the property.  He gladly opened the road course up for Lian.

The course is similar but different.  Many of the same curves were there but in a different order.  Kip commented that the key to speed on the course was the sharp, right-hander (similar to our club course). He observed that she had a good line through it and most of the other turns.  Soon, she was putting up some impressive lap times.

It was a hot, humid day and Lian didn't get a break from the track much because she had it all to herself.  For her last run, I mounted our new GoPro video camera on Lian's helmet.  Once again, I'm having trouble getting video on the blog but I'm working on it.

Meanwhile, I decided that even a slight leak in the engine exhaust valve was more than ideal and probably will not get better with time.  Rather than trying to "lap" the valve to re-seal it, or sending it out for complete re-build, I elected to just purchase the component I was concerned with: the engine head.

Baker Racing "stock" head with matched valves and seats.

I contacted a engine builder that does only kart engines.  In the conversation, he identified our engine as one of the older versions of the Animal with an older head that probably does not flow as well as the current version.  I bought a new head, machined by him to - but not beyond - the WKA limits for a "stock" engine.  Here it is:

Lightly machined surface that mates with engine block.

 Installing this was more than unbolt and bolt-on.  Turns out the previous owner of the old engine changed some of the fasteners over to "standard" verses the original metric so I had to locate several metric fasteners to replace.  Additionally, the exhaust pipe braces mount to unused bosses on the head that had to be drilled and tapped.  I didn't realize this until I had the head on the engine so I had to tap these while installed.  Fortunately, there was enough room to maneuver the tools.

Looking forward to seeing if there is any performance improvement on the track.  I'll let you know right here...