Essentially all the engines mentioned have the same service time if used just for fun.
It's when you regularly start taking the engine close to its limits, particularly max revs, that the service times and reliability start to fall.
It doesn't take much either. One driver doing regular maintenance on a racing schedule decided not to change a piston circlip. The resultant damage wrote off the entire engine.
Clearly you have to use common sense. If you regularly subject the engine to the dust and dirt of the first few laps of a race, or drive in the wet without a wet box, then you can expect to get a lot more abrasive muck into the engine than if you only go out when the track is empty and dry.
Nor are the engines vastly different in speed, not enough to notice if only having fun. The difference on track seems to be largely because of the tyres, the restrictor used in Blue or the absence of adjustment on TKM chassis.
Theoretically a water cooled engine is more reliable than air cooled, and a TaG is a big advantage when running a clutched engine, you don't have to push it to the nearest external starter if the engine stops. But buying a second hand TKM should be cheaper than a Rotax or Blue. (And a Rotax might lose a lot of its value if it isn't sealed when it's time to sell it).
Running a Blue without the restrictor ought to give the best fun for your dollar, but a TKM is simpler to maintain (no water coolant, radiator, pump and hoses to worry about) while Rotax has a lot of kit about.
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arrows ax7 or tkm 115cc by 'painter4' (23 Mar 2009 @ 22:02)
