Questions & Answers

Briggs introduced a new coil in 2025 to replace the PVL. Tillotson purchased PVL a few years ago. Tillotson is trying to take over the 4-cycle kart market, and Briggs didn't want to support their efforts.

Briggs, as with all updates to the Lo206, made sure it wasn't a performance improvement

The tach signal for onboard data is taken from the plug wire, rather than the crankshaft. The onboard tach can show a few more RPMs with the new coil, but the actual RPM of the engines, as verified by measuring the crankshaft speed, has not increased. The ignition timing, measured with a timing light under all conditions, has not changed.

We are focused on Trackhouse. Our shop doesn't have enough capacity to accept new engine customers from other tracks.

The performance of the engine is not affected by the angle of the mount. The choice is based on air filter to rear tire clearance (or other clearance issues).

No, Autolite has ceased operations, and Briggs has not announced a replacement.

The stock engines ship the same day if ordered by 3:00. Kits are shipped the next day.

We use the special break-in oil sold on our website.
Run the engine for 3 hours.....3 oil changes. Run at 2,000 RPM for 1 hour (on the stand), change oil, then run at 2,500 RPM for 1 hour. Change oil again, and go 3,000 RPMs for another hour. Then change to the Stewart race oil before taking the engine on the track. Do not run the kart on the track with the break-in oil......the full 3 hours must be on the stand.
We do the break-in on our special built dyno that allows us to put a small load on the engine for hours. This is better.....but 3 hours is the most important aspect.

Always position the carburetor with the rear bolt at the top of the slot (full clockwise rotation).

Don't try to make the carburetor level, don't try to match the intake floor/roof with the carburetor outlet. The turbulence created by the mis-match of the intake floor and roof helps atomize the fuel. This is far more important with this carburetor than overall flow.

On a properly prepped engine, the valves don't not need to be adjusted between rebuilds (20 hours).

The rocker arms "wear in" after about 2 hours. We run our engines for 3 hours to break them in, so everything is stable when we do our final adjustment. If you purchased a "prepped" engine from another builder or you are prepping it yourself, adjust the valves after 2 hours and you will be good until the next rebuild.

We set all of our engines at .006" cold, intake and exhaust. Set the exhaust with the intake open, the intake with the exhaust open. (more accurate than trying to find TDC on the compression stroke). The proper valve lash is determined by the cam profile. We don't use it as a tuning tool.

You should change oil after every day at the track. It is best to drain the oil while the engine is still warm after the race/session. Refill it then.....so you don't forget. The oil we sell was developed for NASCAR racing, so it will easily run a 500 mile race. However, the Lo206 doesn't have an oil filter. If you race in the rain, change the oil immediately after the race. Warm the engine up with the new oil. If it shows any sign of moisture, change it again. Stewart oil comes in 14oz bottles (the correct amount for the Lo206)

Every 20 hours

New black exhaust sleeve smokes at first, and turns white over time. It has nothing to do with how strong the engine is....they all do it.

Of course, you and everyone that has installed new black header wrap knows this. The Interent is ripe with misinformation on these very simple engines.

Stewart Lo206 oil is compatible with all of the oils we have tested. Be sure to warm the engine up before draining your old oil.

Quality control at Briggs is significantly better than a few years ago. An engine that is properly broken in (3 hours with special oil) with the valves and carburetor set correctly will be within 1% of the best "prepped" engines. The other 1% is getting a perfect seal on the valves.

The Hilliard Flame. 

Install the shoes in leading edge orientation, no weights, 4 white springs. All classes, every track. The clutch should never slip during a lap. Light springs with light shoes yield the smallest RPM range between engagement and lock up. Lots of other combinations work, we have found this to work best with the Lo206.

Clean the grooves in the shoes after each weekend of racing. When the grooves are too shallow for all of them to clean up, replace the shoes and springs.

The Lo206 performs best with no exhaust wrap, so we want the minimum allowed by the rules.

The rules require the wrap to start approximately 3" from the flange, and extend to the lower bracket. This is basically bracket-to-bracket. We sell a form fitting sleeve in 13" lengths. This is the minimum allowed.

Trackhouse uses a different pipe. We sell a pre-cut roll of wrap that nets the correct length.

We install the clip in the 2nd groove from the top....every class....every track.

The Briggs Lo206 doesn't respond to tuning for weather, elevation, or track conditions.

The Lo206 has 29 degrees ignition advance, 8.5:1 compression, runs on 87 octane pump gas, and has carburetor that does a terrible job atomizing the fuel. THIS IS NOT A RACE ENGINE

This engine (and all engines) should be tuned to provide the smoothest idle possible given the camshaft, compression and timing. The fine tuning can be done with the idle mixture screw. Our carburetors leave the shop with the idle mixture 2 turns out. You can adjust this sightly to achieve a smoother idle for your weather/elevation.

.880" (.910" on carburetors we prepped)

The float height is not a good tuning tool. The correct height is where the jets are always covered, and fuel doesn't splash over in the corners. A proper catch can allows you to verify that everything is working properly with the float and needle. On most tracks you will have less than 1/4" of fuel in the Stewart catch can after a session. The PKT gauge is the best tool for this.

We offer trackside support at all of the Karting Challenge events at Trackhouse in North Carolina. We also attend the CKNA National events, Daytona Kart Week, plus select APEX  events.