[Jibberwobble]

Hi again

Well after a rather longer than expected interlude dealing with life's little obstacles it's time to have a look at the engine in my little sidecar (pushrod CG clone) and see if it will go any better with a bit of tickling!

We have now done three rounds of the British championships with my Zong powered outfit and we are looking quite competitive. There are 10 or 11 outfits in our grid and we run in about forth position usually which I'm pretty pleased with to be honest considering the norm is to get lapped every race for most of the first season.

The engine has run very well so far but is needing a little more power on the straights. The others are running various 80/85cctwo stroke moto-x engines, CB125 bottom ends with 160cc barrels or CRF150 four stroke Moto-x units. We have the least power out of all of them But for some reason I have come to like the Zong and would like to give it a fair crack of the whip before disregarding it as not good enough for the job. If I cant get it up to speed I will consider a different chinese engine before going Jap.

One point that is going to make engine development hard to measure is that the damn thing wont fit on any dyno I've come across yet! One way or the other the zonger needs to be putting out 20+ HP and ideally 22HP would be nice. I'm not sure this is ever going to happen though.

Currently I have a new exhaust going on soon and need to get onto checking the valve clearances before the next round in two weeks. Also got a big list of other mechanical issues to resolve.

So for some questions about these engines.......

I am running a 27mm mikuni, I want to try something bigger but what is too big? I'm thinking either a 30 or 32mm?? also a Carb that is not so tall as the Mikuni would be handy as it currently very in the way and stopping my laying down properly on the outfit. In addition I am considering a custom manifold to get the carb down lower but not sure how long the manifold can be before it starts to effect atomisation and power?

Is the clutch on these engine usually VERY stiff? It's definitely not the cable.

I need to have some gearing options, I am on 17-front and 24-rear (using 11" kart tyres (tires-american)). How big will I get away with on the front? Having an 18 and a 19 would be good but not sure they will fit. Cant find anything bigger than 17t for the Zong so is there a jap engine with the same shaft dimensions so I could buy a quality sprocket or two to fit?

Does anyone have any output figures from one these engines with all the restrictive rubbish removed?

Should I stick with standard Zong CDI's or is there a Honda etc variant that is the same or better?

Same as above for coil?

Anyone messed with valve timing?