Building Go KArt

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S

SolPWR

Senior Member
What raw materials would you use to make a chassis of a go kart with a Dseries engine? Would you go with tube, square, flat stock? thinckness?

Aluminum - light cheap but very weak
Steel- cheap strong but very heavy
Titanium- Light strong very expensive

looking to make a oneseater open air dseries powered racer

any help would be appreciated
 
Um....aluminum is far from weak. If you can weld aluminum then go with that, if you can't use steel. As far as thickness, I have no clue.
 
aluminum is expensive too. Steel is by far the cheapest. I vote steel tubing. The square tubing is easier to work with than the round tubing.

Size and wall thickness would depend on how the structure was built, and how big it is.

A variety of materials is nice. Say like, 3-4" C channel iron for the frame rails, then angle iron and square tubing for the other shit.

Sky is the limit, use your imagination.
 
I say aluminum, it is lighter and can be built to be as strong as steel can be. Plus you will get a much more ridged ride with aluminum, which will be good as that D series is going to move all over the place on you. However for aluminum to be made strong you are going to either need to buy heat treated aluminum, or weld up a frame and then have it heat treated other wise your frame is going to crush and crumple like a coke can, if you get it heat treated it will make it more brittle, which is actually a good thing, as it stiffens it up, prevents it from crumpling. Instead if it is stressed too much it will just crack, but if done properly it will take a lot of stressing to get it to crack. I would also suggest talking to someone who has built a few carts, with car or motorcycle motors to find out what they did, and what they suggest.
 
a d-series? wtf.

bad idea.

too big, not enough power for what it weighs...

there's better options.
 
Just buy a 125cc shifter for $7000 and call it a day. It'll own any D series powered karts, handle better, be more manageable, and mostly, be designed and built by people who actually know what they're doing.
 
Originally posted by Loco Honkey@May 25 2004, 08:51 AM
Just buy a 125cc shifter for $7000 and call it a day. It'll own any D series powered karts, handle better, be more manageable, and mostly, be designed and built by people who actually know what they're doing.
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thanks Don Vito, but after I do my swap on the sol I got that D16z6 left over and need to do something with it. I could sell it but wont get enough money for it so here is the go kart. The D16z6 has about 130hp and I think it is pretty good for a kart!

any thoughts on thickness?
 
Originally posted by SolPWR+May 25 2004, 12:01 PM-->
SolPWR @ May 25 2004 said:
Loco Honkey
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SolPWR @ May 25 2004 said:
@May 25 2004, 08:51 AM
Just buy a 125cc shifter for $7000 and call it a day.  It'll own any D series powered karts, handle better, be more manageable, and mostly, be designed and built by people who actually know what they're doing.
Click to expand...

thanks Don Vito, but after I do my swap on the sol I got that D16z6 left over and need to do something with it. I could sell it but wont get enough money for it so here is the go kart. The D16z6 has about 130hp and I think it is pretty good for a kart!

any thoughts on thickness?
Click to expand...

You're right. WTF do I know anyway, huh? I mean, a 125 shifter only hits 100 in about 4 seconds and only pulls ~3 Gs in the turns... Have fun afro engineering something you'll never build.
 
I have to somewhat agree with Loco on this. If I were to build a cart, then I would go with a smaller engine. I'd try to trade that d series for a suitable engine/tranny combo.

My buddy got a snowmobile engine off of Ebay for $100. It has a centrifugal style belt drive that requires no transmission. A good dirtbike or street bike engine/tranny combo would kick ass too. The only downfall is constructing a little linkage.

Whatever you decide, best of luck. If you go D series, then I'd shoot right past cart stage and build a rear engine sandrail. It wouldn't take much to construct an A-arm strut package on the rear of the buggy salvaging stock civic front parts. ;)
 
I don't think he's planning on competing with it, I think he just wanted to find something to do with his leftover engine... Stick it on a frame and blast around a parking lot or something. :)
 
already been done...
s40a02d2fd6d94.jpg


YOU do not have the time, money, resources or experience to build a SAFE vehicle around an engine especially one that is fuel injected.

These guys break something everytime they run this "car" and are are engineering professors. They, wisely, used a carb '89 Accord drivetrain/engine and can still barely get it to run most of the time.

If you want to waste your time/money use 1" square tubing and talk to an engineer about where to make the welds for the best strength. You then have to fabricate FROM SCRATCH motor mounts, front and rear suspension, shift linkage, brake lines, you said a Z6, right? that will require a COMPLETE wiring harness, fuse box, various & sundry electrical components and this is just what I can come up with in less than 5 min.

again, YOU CANNOT build a vehicle around a Z6

but...that just my .02
 
Bah I guess the engine will go for sale then. <_<

use the money for mods I guess

How much a complete engine sell for?
should I part out?
 
that SAE car was built by a local college engineering students.. the professors bought it & race it in AM in Solo II.

Here is the solar car the same college built.
s40b400c42712c.jpg

That's my brother-in-law behind the wheel. He got to make a couple of laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a warm-up to the 500. It was slow as shit (top speed was 80-something) but how many of us have or will ever made laps around that track?
 
ya go with steel tubing, and get dom tubing for the little extra cash. As for wall thickness you will need a 1/8 *1 for the three of four main bars and whatevere you can get cheap for the rest of the cart. As for suspension go carts dont have any.
 
Originally posted by ahedau@May 25 2004, 04:56 PM

These guys break something everytime they run this "car" and are are engineering professors.
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An engineer does not a welder make. My mom can bake one hell of a cookie, but that doesn't mean she could build an oven. Scientists and engineers pound numbers, quite successfully. They could definitely design a much better theoretical design. Poor materials probably caused their failure each time. That or lack of welding experience. I was trained at college for it, and still don't know everything.

They, wisely, used a carb '89 Accord drivetrain/engine and can still barely get it to run most of the time.
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The 89 sucks. Why would an engineer have a problem with fuel injection?


I'm just playing with you, but I am somewhat serious. :)
 
this would have been nice if you had the extra d-series laying around and URL=http://www.patriot-racing.com/]if you had the cash [/URL]

mini monster trucks that you can drop a honda motor into
 
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