Twin engine kart?

[daveb]

Hello. Are there any pros or cons to a twin engine kart. I was thinking of trying to set mine up for a twin engine. I figure when the clones go on sale if I pick up another one and slap it on there it might be no holds barred fun.
My kart has a live axle . I am not sure if that would be a plus or a minus. I have been searching for them ,but mostly just find some pics and specs.
I figured I would ask here and see if any one has info or has done it.

 

[mike75925]

getting the engines to run at the same speed and produce the same amount of power could be a huge obstacle. i'd almost say it would be less headache to make a 6.5 into a v-twin. there are some guys who have done it, maybe they will chime in and alert you to their headaches. if you were to blueprint it would help, but still no gaurantee of equal running.

 

[Blazkowiez]

As long as you have the same engines running at the same time with the same drive setups the internal governors kick in and monitor the two engines... our shop has built a large number of these twin engine karts.

This is a sample picture from a twin engine twin axle kart.

 

[daveb]

Do you have the engines set up to fire at the same time .
Thanks.

 

[modelengineer]

Do you have the engines set up to fire at the same time .

No need. You don't even need to get them perfectly balanced. Near enough is good enough. At WOT both engines will be pulling as hard as they can, and it doesn't matter if at idle or slow speeds one engine is doing most of the work (though it would have to be way out of whack for that to happen) it will just pull the slower engine along. No damage will be caused by this.

It's easy, just hook the two engines up, two throttle cables with adjustments for getting them close to each other, and off you go!

It's not critical that they're identical in every way, or even that critical that the throttles open exactly the same amount.

 

[Russ2251]

Do you have the engines set up to fire at the same time .

Mine self synchronize and fire at the same time.
High speed needle adjust was the most difficult part.
Twin Lawn-Boy push mower engines:

 

[daveb]

I am really interested in this. I am thinking of getting twin clones each one mildly worked and seeing how fast I can get going

 

[Russ2251]

Wish I had done it years ago.

 

[Linksep]

Russ, if those are lawn-boy and they're mounted horizontal I have to assume they're 2-stroke... How well do they run without expansion chamber exhaust systems on them?

 

[Russ2251]

I have to assume they're 2-stroke...How well do they run without expansion chamber exhaust systems on them?

They are indeed 2 cycle.
I don't know about expansion chambers as they don't come equipped with them.

 

[Linksep]

Even if they didn't have tuned pipes they must have had mufflers with really small outlets. I would think you're blowing half your intake charge out the exhaust with a setup like that?

What's with those extra long engine mounting plates? You have plans to run 4 engines or what?