So this just happened .....

[Flyinhillbilly]

The body came in for the banshee today, as did the fuel for the wedge. The engine is mounted on the wedge and ready to go, or at least until I get a bigger carburetor. I’m still scratching my head on which way to go with the carb.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Finally got some nice weather so we played in the yard a little. The wedge runs good enough to do doughnuts on dry pavement, it’s basically useless for anything other than drifting in the yard. Any throttle at all just burns the tires. I’m pretty happy with it overall, but I’m going to have to stud it. This engine was meant to be a stock appearing build so it had stock head and sidecover bolts and it worked the side cover bolts loose. Fortunately the GF was riding it when it happened and was being pretty gentle with it so I don’t think we hurt anything.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

We got the body wrapped. It took me and the GF about two hours. What a PITA. He doesn’t have a rear number panel, so we put the rear panel sticker on his helmet.

 

[Kartorbust]

Nice helmet! Oh and wifey says she likes the rug lol. Nice job on the wrap.

 

[landuse]

Nice!

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Nice helmet! Oh and wifey says she likes the rug lol. Nice job on the wrap.

GF says she got it on overstock.com, and she also says thank you.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Got the body mounted, the pedals moved, and the rear bumper on. All that’s left is to make some aluminum foot boards to keep his feet above the tie rods and he’s ready to rip.
I really can’t wait to get his reaction the first time he gets on the track and makes some laps. He’s driven concession karts a little, but nothing like this. The commentary should be outstanding as he’s the outspoken type.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

https://youtu.be/quj7_hZ98nQ
Got the sidecover studded but I ran short on time and will have to do the head later. It’s still on the stock predator carb that I changed to methanol so it runs out of breath around 7500 rpm from what I can tell, but it’ll be enough to go have some fun at a local play day tomorrow.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

https://youtu.be/MVVx1EWeKAc
The first day out was great, my wedge was hands down the fastest open at the track, the boys both did well and caught on really quick. I think with some fine tuning on their karts and some more practice that they’ll be forces to be reckoned with.
The best thing about today was that other than the initial check overs when we got to the track I didn’t have to work on any of the karts at all and we beat them like they owed us money.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

GF had my phone all day Saturday and I found this picture earlier tonight on my phone.
I guess it just magically appeared, lol.

 

[bob58o]

I’ve had luck using Dorman exhaust manifold stud kit for the side cover. IIRC they are M8 x 1.25 x 56mm. Only a few bucks and they work great. I have to cut them shorter if I use a TC with back plate. I think I also have to put a few washers behind the back plate to keep the plate off the nuts. I’ve heard multiple stories where the side cover bolts backed out, all the oil drained, and people put a rod through the block.

Dorman 03411
$8 for 10 studs and nuts when I bought it from Advanced Auto Parts.
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...fold-mount-hardware-m8-125mm-03411/22148089-P

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

I bought the head and side cover stud kit from NR, it already done.
The bolts did back out, and it lost the oil when that happened, but the GF was riding it and being easy on it at the time. It must not have been long because I was turning it over 9000rpm last weekend and it was fine.
I just drilled holes in the chain guard to let the studs poke through.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Went to a play day today and made probably ten laps and lost my valve cover filter somewhere along the way. I’m hoping I didn’t hurt my motor, but I did spend some time making some adjustments on the karts for the boys and were getting close with them.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

I’m very happy that on only the second trip to the track that they are getting right in there and running with the more experienced racers. I think they’ll be good at this.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

We put the wrap on the body for the badmax today, and once we got it all done we realized that the graphics on the side panels are on backwards.
Not super proud of that one.
#facepalm

 

[Denny]

Just tell people it was on purpose. You wanted to be able to pick your kart out in a crowd. Or better yet if it ever gets stolen it is easier to identify.



Denny

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

I’ll just own it. I screwed up, it makes me feel stupid, but the truth only hurts if it should.

 

[WrenchnIsWhatIdo]

I don't know likes good to me don't let it eat you up trim it back if it bothers ya
How long do they last anyway 1 season.?

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Something like that. I like for things to be as close to right as I can get them so it irritates me. We’ve emailed the wrap company to see if we can get just the side panels and numbers. I’ll see what the driver thinks of it, I guess if he can live with it then I can too.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

The beast is back together. I tore it all down and checked it out. It had some dirt in it, but it hadn’t gotten anywhere important as nothing was scratched or scored. Since it was a valve cover breather fitting that fell out and caused this, I welded a stand-off to the valve cover and put the breather on it. I believe it’ll stay this time. After the welding I painted the valve cover to make it look better, and I sanded the CPE lettering to accent it. It stands for champion power equipment, but I’ll tell people that it stands for Chaney performance engines.