Top 4 tips to get your Go kart Carburation spot on (X30 and OKJ/OK)

If you’re an X30 Junior, X30 Senior, OKJ or OK driver and you’re struggling to get your carburation right, then this guide is for you.

The reason why we want to have the best carburation we can get is because that will allow us to have a higher performance overall from our go kart thus making us more competitive during the races.

A good carburation is neither too lean, nor too rich.

It’s too rich when there is too MUCH fuel used for combustion and you see lots of smoke coming out of the exhaust.

It’s too lean when there is too LITTLE fuel pumped in the engine and that will oftentimes result in an engine seized due to a lack of lubrication.

Now, let’s get started and see what you can do to feel and tune the carburation accordingly.

1. Feel the throttle response 

The first thing I can advise you to do is to feel the throttle response once you go on power in the exits.

If you feel that there is some slight delay between your throttle application and the actual throttle response, than it 95% of the times means you’re carburation is way too rich.

You should contrast that by giving less fuel and then see how much it improves.

That is the most simple thing to notice once your carburation is too rich.

2. Listen to the engine sound

Okay so this is a little bit more complicated to feel and it usually takes a bit of time to get the feel for it.

It can be easily noticed by pro drivers but also for them it took quite a while to learn it.

What we’re talking about is feeling the engine sound on the straights.

If you notice that the engine is not so loud it means you’re probably more to the rich side.

If instead you notice that the engine is really loud and actually louder than usual, then it means you’re too lean.

In that case you would wanna give some extra fuel on the bottoms or you could cover the air box filter with one hand at the end of the straight.

By covering your air box filter you will automatically send more fuel to the engine which will make it slightly richer and reduce the chance of having your engine seized.

So to sum it up: if it’s not loud at all it might mean you’re too rich whereas if it’s louder than normal it means you’re too lean and you should make an adjustment.

3. Look at the exhaust temperature

The third tip I have for you is to pay close attention to the exhaust temperature from your Mychron or Unipro.

You should both check the top Temperature and the Bottom temperature by looking at the Maximum and Minimum temperature respectively.

When the Max temp is above 620 or the Minimum is above 450, then it usually is too lean and you should give more fuel.

Whereas if the Max temp is below 590 or the Minimum is below 410, then it probably is too rich and you should try giving less fuel.

You should check the exhaust temperature both after the session via telemetry analysis and also during the session by checking at the Max temp on your Mychron at the end of the straight.

If for example you see that it oscillates between 640 and 650, then you know that you’re too lean and you should take action to make it richer.

4. Cover the air box filter and see what happens

Finally, as we’ve already mentioned, you should try and cover the air box filter with one hand at the end of the straight and see what happens.

Before explaining it in detail, you need to know that when you apply this technique, the carburation will get momentarily richer since there will be more fuel going to the engine, thus reducing the chances of seizing the engine when you’re too lean for example.

You should do it for just 1 or 2 seconds, not more. It will be enough to understand, trust me.

Here are three possible scenarios that will happen.

The first is that nothing changes and therefore your carburation is spot on.

The second is that the kart will slow down, and that will mean that you’re too rich.

The third scenario is that it actually makes you go even faster and pick up speed and that will mean you’re too lean and should therefore make it richer.

I hope these 4 tips to help your go kart carburation were helpful and I look forward to hear from you directly. 

Put these things into practice and let me know how it’s going 🙂