Leopard questions

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Patrick Roth
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Leopard questions

Post by Patrick Roth » Tue Feb 21, 2012 11:19 am

I've recently changed from a Rotax to a Leopard motor and had a few questions (one Leopard related and the other rain related):

1) Do you run an air filter inside your air box? If not, do you put one in if it rains? My gut tells me that any schmutz (technical term for dirt and debris and any small animal that may make it past the airbox screens) is not good for the motor and that I should be running an air filter but at the same time it seems like it is optional.
2) What do you do to run in the rain outside of putting an appropriate cover over the air intake? WD-40? Grease? Covers for Mychrons/GPS/etc? Buy a cover and cutout two eyeholes to look through?

Thanks!

Patrick

Jean Michel Gaston
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Re: Leopard questions

Post by Jean Michel Gaston » Wed Feb 22, 2012 6:38 am

Hi Patrick,

I haven't even taken the air box out since new. The screens should be good enough to keep any big contaminants out, but not sure how well it does for dust.

As for rain, you want to keep the water out of the box, so Abie recommended turning the air box so that the holes point toward your thigh, in addition to running some type of cover. I spray the electrical connections with WD 40, and for heavy rain, I covered the Mychron with a plastic bag.

We've had two rain races recently, and I haven't had any issues with my kart with the set-up described above. Both rain days were not downpours, so I cannot give you any input for that. The last big-rain race in Sept or OCt last year was not popularly attended.

Bryan W. Joplin
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Location:Magnolia, Texas

Re: Leopard questions

Post by Bryan W. Joplin » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:31 am

With regard to the filter, I would at least keep one in my tool box. There is no doubt that the filter protects the engine, but its use is a matter of personal preference and track conditions. Some shops will tell you it has no affect on engine performance, so run the filter and protect your motor. Some drivers will say they find it difficult to tune their engines and prefer not have the filter. From a very, very technical perspective, any restriction will affect performance, its just physics. The katy track is relatively clean. Considering the frequency of rebuild cycles, you can get away without the filter. What can suffer is your reeds. Any large debris is like a bullet going through the reeds. The screens work pretty well to prevent damage. If you go to another track, watch the conditions. In Oklahoma, there was so much dirt in the air I had to have the motorhome cleaned after the trip. Everything was covered with dirt inside and out as well as my trailer tools etc. I ran a filter to avoid pumping dirt throught the motor. See you on the track.

Bryan

Miguel Garcia
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Re: Leopard questions

Post by Miguel Garcia » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:55 pm

I second Bryan on his ideas about the filter: I think that the Katy track is pretty clean and debris shouldn't be an issue. I don't run a filter on my airbox (I do, however, keep one on my toolbox).

Keep in mid that if you do have out of tracks excursions the possibility of having some dirt/dust etc admitted to the motor thru the intake is higher. Nevertheless, the screens of the airbox should take care of the big particles and only "dust" might be an issue.

If you don't happen to have a filter and you go out of the track, I would recommend to kill the motor and to do not try to get back in the track by just driving the kart into it again (of course, with the adrenaline of a race, you may just do that... I'm just throwing in one more little idea for you to consider in those fractions of a second when you need to take a quick decision hehe)

As for the rain, google "righetti ridolfi rain hood" I found that little fellow very handy, easy to install and cheap.

See you at the track!

Miguel

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