Back in the karting world thanks to my kids!

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

In a time, many moons ago, myself and about 10 other friends and relatives used to race highly modified yard karts on a banked 10th mile oval track built on my uncle's property. I am a machinist by trade, and I used to bore and sleeve blocks and put bigger 7 or 8 HP pistons and made custom billet rods to make them fit. We were using tillotson carbs, custom and store bought cams, headers, and running methanol. We had a blast doing it, but as we got married, started families, paying mortgages and daycare, we got away from doing it. I still have my old "race" kart in a shed out back, and occasionally through the years, I'll stop and get a gallon of methanol and fire up the old hopped up Tecumseh H50 I was running when we stopped racing.

Now fast forward to now, my kids are getting to the age that they want go karts. We ride them when we go on vacation, and they've seen my old kart, so I decided it is time. I have recently picked them 2 used karts. One of them is a nearly perfect Fox American Cruiser (made by Manco) with the Subaru Robin 5 HP OHC engine. The other is an older Streaker (I think) 2 seater with a blown 5 HP Briggs Fun Power flathead. I have a good running Tecumseh OHV 5.5 HP engine that I'm going to use to replace the old Briggs. I'm having fun working on it, so I figured I'd sign up here to some info and advice. A lot of things have changed since we were doing it, and I never thought I'd see an OHC horizontal 5 HP engine. -lol

 

[rushking19]

You should definitely fill out your profile, and add some pictures so we can see pictures of this awesome build

 

[OzFab]

Wait, you want to swap a B&S flatty for a Tecumseh? Some would ask ARE YOU NUTS?

Ok, both engines have their pro's & cons but, overall, the B&S is a much more popular engine, the company is still in business & parts are much easier to source than Tecumseh... just saying

Welcome to the forum

 

[rushking19]

Wait, you want to swap a B&S flatty for a Tecumseh? Some would ask ARE YOU NUTS?

Ok, both engines have their pro's & cons but, overall, the B&S is a much more popular engine, the company is still in business & parts are much easier to source than Tecumseh... just saying

Welcome to the forum

True you could put Briggs raptor parts in the fun power, but he did say blown 5hp Briggs, it depends on what he means by blown

 

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

The Briggs has a nice crankcase evacuation hole in the rear of the block and is full of water. I've noticed browsing around the board that Tecumseh's seem to get a lot of hate, but I've had great luck with them. It doesn't take much to make a Tecumseh OHV run very strong, and make way more power than a Raptor. My brother bought a Raptor from Jeg's back when we racing, and it was a nice engine, but it look a Dyno cam, porting, shaved head, carb, intake, and advancing the timing to run competitively with what we running back then. I built a very strong Tecumseh OHV engine back when they first came out and it served me well. If the Briggs was running, I'd leave it alone, because they are great engines too. I've raced a bunch of them, too. -lol

For my kids at their age, though, I'm sticking with a stock, governed engine for now. The one I have came off a low hour pressure washer. My father in law left water in the pump and it froze and cracked, so I've had this engine laying around for about 10 years. I cleaned the carb and tank, sanded the flywheel, changed the oil, and it really runs good, so I'm going to run it because I have it.

 

[rushking19]

The Briggs has a nice crankcase evacuation hole in the rear of the block and is full of water. I've noticed browsing around the board that Tecumseh's seem to get a lot of hate, but I've had great luck with them. It doesn't take much to make a Tecumseh OHV run very strong, and make way more power than a Raptor. My brother bought a Raptor from Jeg's back when we racing, and it was a nice engine, but it look a Dyno cam, porting, shaved head, carb, intake, and advancing the timing to run competitively with what we running back then. I built a very strong Tecumseh OHV engine back when they first came out and it served me well. If the Briggs was running, I'd leave it alone, because they are great engines too. I've raced a bunch of them, too. -lol

For my kids at their age, though, I'm sticking with a stock, governed engine for now. The one I have came off a low hour pressure washer. My father in law left water in the pump and it froze and cracked, so I've had this engine laying around for about 10 years. I cleaned the carb and tank, sanded the flywheel, changed the oil, and it really runs good, so I'm going to run it because I have it.

Yeah I get what you're saying its sitting there so why not use it anyway

 

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

I'll try to get some pics this weekend. You guys will probably trip out on the old race kart. Most of us used 2 seaters with the steering wheel moved to the center. They were wider and usually handled better on our track. We built offset spindles to get stagger and ran taller tires on the left side. Most people early on were running single tire pulling karts, so we ran clockwise around the track as opposed counter-clockwise like pretty much every other form of circle track racing. We found with enough tire prep, tweaking the frame, spindles, and running enough tire stagger that you force enough weight on the left rear tire to make them hook up when the track was packed. We would wet the track in the morning and would get all the karts out on the track to pack it in, and race all afternoon and evening. It definitely more than running yard karts around in a dusty field. We were Hi-Tech rednecks! -lol

 

[landuse]

Welcome to the forum!!

 

[OzFab]

The Briggs has a nice crankcase evacuation hole in the rear of the block and is full of water.

Uh yeah, that's seen better days... probably best not to use it

Tecumsehs do get a bit of a bum rap, it's usually the carbs that let them down...

 

[rushking19]

Uh yeah, that's seen better days... probably best not to use it

Tecumsehs do get a bit of a bum rap, it's usually the carbs that let them down...

True because, i was about to buy a Tecumseh ohv for the orange, before I had bought the Briggs and Stratton for the orange go kart ,but then I did my reresearch and found out that the carburetor on them sucked, and it's harder to find performance parts for it than a Briggs and Stratton 6.5 hp ohv utility engine

 

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

True because, i was about to buy a Tecumseh ohv for the orange, before I had bought the Briggs and Stratton for the orange go kart ,but then I did my reresearch and found out that the carburetor on them sucked, and it's harder to find performance parts for it than a Briggs and Stratton 6.5 hp ohv utility engine

The older Tecumseh carbs are definitely much better than newer ones. An H50 or even an old HS50 carb works well on a OHH engine, but I just cleaned this one up, and it'll will do OK for my kids (until they want to go faster later on -lol). There used to more stuff out there for Tecumsehs than there is now, but even back then, I had to make a lot of stuff for them. There was always more out there for the H50's and Star's than the OHH engines, but there actually used to be some stuff available that isn't anymore. An H50 carb (or better yet a Tillotson), 6 degree key, stiffer valve springs, and a header really wakes up a OHH50 or OHH60. To really make a lot of power out of them, you have to lose the long L-shaped factory intake. I made one out of a short, bent piece of tubing (to correct the angle coming out the head so carb would sit up straight) and welded on flanges. That alone really makes ones rev much quicker. I wish I still had my old OHH60 race engine, but I sold it to friend of mine a long time ago.


With all that said, I'm ready to learn a little about some of this newer stuff. What is the general opinion of the Subaru Robin 5 HP engines? This is my first OHC small engine, but it seems to run pretty good for a stock being as small as it is. The Fox kart I bought them had "126 cc" decals all over it, and I immediately thought it was a 3 HP engine based on the size until I saw the HP sticker on the engine. IIRC the old Briggs 3 HP's were 127 cc. I guess the OHC is much more efficient design. Are they known to be reliable and durable?

Here is a few pics of the Fox. It is nearly perfect, and I'm not planning on doing anything to do it but maintenance for a while.

 

[OzFab]

There used to more stuff out there for Tecumsehs than there is now

It wouldn't help that Tecumseh (the company) no longer exists...

What is the general opinion of the Subaru Robin 5 HP engines? Are they known to be reliable and durable?

Reliable & durable, absolutely; those that have one rave about them... before complaining about the non existence of performance parts & the massively overpriced replacement parts

 

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

I got a few pics today of some my old junk. This is the one I'm fixing is up for my kids. It is actually a USA Industries kart (I think) instead of a Streaker. This is the one I'm going to put the Tecumseh OHV motor on. I bought new tires and tubes for it, and I'm going to blast the frame and rims, repaint everything, and get a new seat bottom made for it. I hate the way the cage looks on these things, but I guess I'll leave it on there since it's going to be for the kids.

 

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

This was my old race kart. Dragging this bad boy out really brought back some good memories! We had a blast on these junky old things. -lol It was originally a 2 seater, but I moved the steering wheel to the center. As crude as it is, we had to do a lot to get the best out of them. At one time, there as many as 10 or 11 of racing. Most guys ran Briggs flatheads, and I started out running them, but a couple us started fooling with Tecumsehs just to be different. I kept breaking off the shelf pulling hubs, so I made a billet one at work out of 6061 Aluminum. The tire combination on it (as odd as it looks) was needed to make it handle as well as it could. It is useless for any other than running clockwise in a circle! -lol If you try to turn left it won't do anything but spin the LR tire. The H50 Tecumseh that is on it has the block ported, reground race cam, a billet rod, an aluminum flywheel with the timing advanced, header, shaved head with a fire slot, custom intake, and I ran a Tillotson with methanol when I raced it. It has a 8 HP Tecumseh carb on it now just so I can crank it up. This is one of those little motors that will almost break you fingers when it kicks back. -lol

I may get one of the Predators for $100 and put a different set of tires on it and ride around with the kids a little bit.

 

[Xtreme Yard Karts]

Here's a shot of the offset spindles. I welded a longer than stock bolt on the spindle and they the tires are spaced out to make the wheel track a little wider.

 

[rushking19]

This was my old race kart. Dragging this bad boy out really brought back some good memories! We had a blast on these junky old things. -lol It was originally a 2 seater, but I moved the steering wheel to the center. As crude as it is, we had to do a lot to get the best out of them. At one time, there as many as 10 or 11 of racing. Most guys ran Briggs flatheads, and I started out running them, but a couple us started fooling with Tecumsehs just to be different. I kept breaking off the shelf pulling hubs, so I made a billet one at work out of 6061 Aluminum. The tire combination on it (as odd as it looks) was needed to make it handle as well as it could. It is useless for any other than running clockwise in a circle! -lol If you try to turn left it won't do anything but spin the LR tire. The H50 Tecumseh that is on it has the block ported, reground race cam, a billet rod, an aluminum flywheel with the timing advanced, header, shaved head with a fire slot, custom intake, and I ran a Tillotson with methanol when I raced it. It has a 8 HP Tecumseh carb on it now just so I can crank it up. This is one of those little motors that will almost break you fingers when it kicks back. -lol

I may get one of the Predators for $100 and put a different set of tires on it and ride around with the kids a little bit.

That thing looks awesome, it looks like it used to go pretty fast

 

[landuse]

Nice kart!!

Just a thought on the one you are going to be doing up for your kids - Those cages are not roll cages. They are just brush guards, and are pretty useless in a roll over situation. They will crumple. You could always brace it up a bit more for strength