I burned up the clutch this weekend on the strip at silver lake. The wierd thing was when i got to the end of strip and realized i couldn't move, i shut the motor off, got off, and noticed oil flowing out the front vent line (by the water pump) I can understand why i might have burned the clutch up, but why the oil leak? I would say about half of the oil leaked out the vent line. I had to ideas:

1. Crankcase seal went and pressurized the case, puching the oil out, but i can't find the leak, and it was not smoking like it was burning oil.

2. The other idea was that becasue i had been riding the clutch pretty hard to get a good holeshot, i heated the clutch up to the point where it either burned or boiled the oil causing it to overflow out the vent line.

I asked a couple of the banshee gurus at silver and they were stumped. Any ideas?

Eric

 

The fibers were thinned, some were wore smooth, and the steels were quite discolored. The clutch did not go on the hoe shot as i have had happen before, but while i was making a run, and by the time i got to the end...gone.

 

That sounds right, there was all kinds of gunk in the bottom of the side cover that was the remains of my fibers. I'll throw a new clutch in and make sure she is adjusted right and let her rip. i was using 1.5 quts of Klotz Flexdrive 30.

 

Interesting point OhtonRacing, typically when I hillrace, I'll shoot the hill, turn at the top, get pointed back downhill, and pull the clutch in and very slightly rev the engine, and coast down to the bottom, click into 2nd and roll up to the line.

Pulling in the clutch allows more oil between the plates, cooling them. Heat transfer is the only way they have to cool off. Or am I waiting for disaster...

Also by slightly rev'ing the engine, you spin the water pump impeller faster which circulates the coolant better. Cool motors run better.

 

Hey 409LongRod. How was the dunes? How long did it take you to get in? couple of hours? Decided to do some trailing cause of how big that weekend usually is and I wasn't dialed in. Wanna make it for 4th of July. Also, are they checking for decibal violations??? I heard they were but don't believe it.

 

With the new voucher system, which i was skeptical about at first, i only waited in line for about 10 minutes. We had the 1-3 pm time slot and drove up at 1:00 and we were going through the gate to entrance hill by 1:15. Everything seemed to be going very smoothly.
I didn't see them checking decibel readings anywhere. THe dunes were pretty nice until it started raining. The dry strip was pretty rough, and the wet strip was smooth until it rained and then there were big puddles.

 

Im confused (not uncommon!).

Anyway, is it better on the clutch to coast downhill with the clutch lever pulled in or is it better to drive down the hill in gear and not touch the clutch. What is the difference?

 

where is the vent tube located

 

Doesn't revving the engine create more heat, there by cancelling any effects that spinning the water pump faster may have??

 

My EGT's will only raise about 50 degrees difference. I'm also only rev'ing about 100 to 200 RPm's faster than idle, not much...My thoughts are as the air is able to flow across the rad. better why not circulate more coolant thru it so that more can be cooled. I'm going to install a digital water temp gauge soon and will have to see the different results.