Trying to Decide on an Engine

[GPhillips12]

I am looking for opinions on options for an engine for a kart/buggy project that I am working on. I am wanting to find something with about 30-40HP. Been thinking about a 250cc 4-stroke MX engine or maybe an engine out of one of the smaller street bikes. Any suggestions or opinions?

 

[GPhillips12]

Since I there hasn't been any response to the original question let me add a few details. What I am planning on doing is building a off road kart/buggy with a short-long arm front suspension and a suspended straight axle rear. The driver compartment will be on the left of the chassis and the engine will be mounted to the right of the driver (something like the Sidewinder buggy by Edge). I would like to have an idea on the what engine I am going to use so that I can get all the details lined out. My original plan was to use something along the lines of a 400ex or similar engine but I am open to and ideas.

Please feel free to through out any opinions.

Thanks
Greg

 

[redsox985]

How about a street bike engine? Or a larger dirtbike/quad? I know my friends YZ250 puts out about 45HP stock.

 

[Rustydog2010]

I would look at a quad, or street MB motor. The reason being they will most likely be 4 strokes, so there is a more usable torque range. Plus, they will most likely be electric start. I would be looking at a single cylinder 250-600cc depending on your fabrication skills and the weight of the frame.

Jeremy.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Since I there hasn't been any response to the original question

You gotta be patient, my friend- you only gave the first post about an hour.

 

[redsox985]

You gotta be patient, my friend- you only gave the first post about an hour.

I agree here. We have, at the moment, 41 members online and I know that I am logged in on my computer 24/7 as I never close the window and I'm sure a few others do this as well. So it's entirely possible that we only have a large handful of members actually on at any given time.

 

[GPhillips12]

You gotta be patient, my friend- you only gave the first post about an hour.

I always try to be patient, the fist post was made nearly a month ago, and to be honest I haven't been on here much because of work.

The reason I made the follow up post was because after reading my first post I realized that I didn't give enough details about my project for anyone trying to help.

Sorry if I seemed impatient.

 

[fowler]

arr right i see i dont think toystory noticed the the date

u werent impatiat

what terrain are u on

id proberly also reckomend the 600 single cylender

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Yeah- I dropped the ball on the date. My bad. You'll forgive me, it happens fairly often- folks who are not familiar with the membership put up a question and don't give much time between prods. Again, sorry.

Back to the question- Quite often, an engine is selected upon availability- ie "I found this bike cheap so that's what I'm using". If you actually are in a position to shop around, that's great. You'll want a fair bit of power, yet you don't want the package too large. With the engine situated beside you, a narrow but longer block is okay- maybe a V-Twin or V-Four. You could also go with a single or inline 2. I don't think you'd want an inline 3 or 4 due to the width.

Have you reached to point in your build wherein you have to have the engine nailed down right now?

 

[anderkart]

Quite often, an engine is selected upon availability- ie "I found this bike cheap so that's what I'm using". If you actually are in a position to shop around, that's great.

Unless your wealthy and dont care, you'll have to pay top-$$$ for most any specific motorcycle engine whether its new or used.

If I was building a kart like yours I'd just start watching my craiglist motorcycle ads and try to find a complete motorcycle that's either been wrecked or maybe the frame had cracked. You'll end up paying less for one of these than just an engine from most any source besides maybe from a motorcycle thief... This way you would hopefully be able to see/hear the engine running before buying it too.

You'll find there's lots of parts from the bike you could use for your kart like the complete brake system, air cleaner, pipe, throttle/clutch cables, kill switch, coil, radiator/hoses etcetera. You could even cut the bike down to just the portion of the frames motor mount cradle, and simply bolt that (in a sliding mount for chain-adjustment) to your kart instead of building the motor mounts from scratch.

With that said, I'd try to find a single cylinder 2 or 4 stroke street, enduro or mx bike between 250 and 500cc's so the engine would be narrower and lighter weight.

Does your reign of Kentucky require all off-road vehicles to have an OHV type licence plate like all of California and Arizona? (Az. OHV info here:--> http://ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25733

If your states laws are like Arizona, the title you got with the complete motorcycle would make getting an OHV-type license plate much-much easier...

 

[GPhillips12]

Yeah- I dropped the ball on the date. My bad. You'll forgive me, it happens fairly often- folks who are not familiar with the membership put up a question and don't give much time between prods. Again, sorry.

toystory, don't worry about it. I have seen the post on here where people don't get a response soon enough and keep prodding it.

As for having to have an engine nailed down now, I don't have to, I just wanted some ideas and opinions about which directions I should be looking in.

I'm not sure about the registration, but I don't think that is an issue here. Most likely I would stay on the farms that we own anyway.