I'm fixing to get a new car in a number of months. You know, when I get a job...

I'd like to take the Civic, start selling off the parts here and there, and yank out the engine for a project:

A go-kart powered by a D15B2

I know it's crazy, but with a custom tube frame, a real transmission, the right wheels and tires, and enough money, it's very doable.

Now, do we go with traditional go-kart? mini top-fuel dragster, F1 body? I'd like this to be something that I can take to a dragstrip and try out, but I also want it for off-street fun too

Give me some ideas, people!

 

sounds cool, the only problem, car engines are big and heavy, so it would need a beefy frame to support the heavy bitch engine, but if you could get the total weight around 500-600 pounds, thing would be fast as hell. The thing is, you'll evetually want more and you'll make a nitroused mini-me setup, then a turbo setup, then a all motor b-series lol, definitely would be cool though. I was thinking about making an air compressor out of my old engine, have like two cylinders for compressing and the others operating in a normal 4-stroke engine cycle.

 

I want to keep the engine as stock as possible for as long as possible, THEN build it up. NA at first, then turbo or supercharger, then whatever. I want to keep it simple and easy to service, and juice out as much wheel horsepower as possible on this thing before spending a lot of money on superfluous details (yes, I realize the entire project is superfluous! )

I think the top-fuel dragster form might be the way to go here. Maybe a conversion to nitromethane down the line is an idea

 

wow that is crazy. a few years ago my friends and i had a go-kart pwered by an old yamaha YZ motor of some sort.

just curious, would you put the radiator for the engine in the front or how would you cool the thing? God, that would be a beast. it would be hard to NOT peel out. hurry up and get strarted so that we can see what happens dude!

 

*thinks* Damn! someone stole my idea! *rushes to patent*

 

the torque to weight ratio would be bodacious. < what a silly word.
Thats what would separate you from other go karters, you could plow up hills, man that would be cool as hell, lol, like doing 4th gear burnouts in this dangerous go kart with a ******* full fledged car engine. Officer: hey, do you have the charcoal canister properly setup. Well, looks like i'm gonna have to ticket ya.

 

Dude, if this actually goes down, I wanna see some pictures! I'm also curious about the cooling deal, how would u go about that? Freakin awesome idea, can't wait to see it!

 

I wanted to do this for a while, but the chassis I had in mind was an old golf cart. The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to commit to it. heh

 

Well it's going to have a radiator and everything. Think shifter kart for some of the details. I want it to be a center-seat, right-handed shifter deal with a real clutch, just with things relocated and connected with cables or whatever. It's going to be a small but fully functional race car WITH A BIG ENGINE

Has anybody *done* this before? I've seen the go-kart with the turbine engine, but a 1" pipe frame isn't going to cut it. I think i'm going to have to go to a sandrail fabricator for the frame.

 

it's gonna tip over...
You'd be better of with a motorcycle engine anyway. The shifting lends itself more for ghetorigging, and even the smaller engines scream out more power then a D15...wich is huge compared to those blocks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SETI20 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it's gonna tip over...
You'd be better of with a motorcycle engine anyway. The shifting lends itself more for ghetorigging, and even the smaller engines scream out more power then a D15...wich is huge compared to those blocks.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree, an old 750 4cyl Honda bike motor in a cart would kick your *** because the gearing is better and you can rev the hell out of it.

 

i would use the Ek radiator, its like half the size of an EF one.

 

if you want it to be street legal why not just ditch the ef body and start from there??? i mean just use the chassis. its just an idea, cause then you could make it center seat and or make the chassis lighter by constructing it out of something else just my 2cents...

 

Hey check this out..i use to race mini outlaws with 500cc 2 stroke motors in there we went from 10-100 in 2.5 seconds doing a wheelie...theres also 125 and 250cc...i mean its cool to do cause u have the motor and stuff now but it still wont be as fast as you think...put it this way your going to have about what 92hp at the flywheel stock and yea if you can make a frame sturdy enough for the engine its going to have to weight enough then you have to add your weights its still going to be about 600-800 pounds...now get this a crx runs around 15.0 in a 1/4 with a stock LS and its the same idea your just dropping weight sure it will be a fast go kart but a 1/4 wont be too quick and depends on tire size because you would have to use a tire that wont explode because of the force on it which would mean you have to go with a car tire because a go kart tire isnt going to hold that weight....look best bet go to your local motorcycle salvage yard and pick up like a 500cc-600cc streetbike motor and tranny...we had one of those and it was so fast it was pathetic but we didnt have a big wnough wheel on it so no matyter what speed we were going you would spin the tires so be careful too cause you'll lose control easy its not like a drift car or anthing when you have a short car and its wheel set-up is almost in a perfect square you turn into a spinning top thats why longer cars are better for drifting and something like a crx or civic hatch has that ability to spin out easier....well good luck and if you want to keep it cheap just get a 250cc dirtbike motor and u can do 0-60 in 2 sec no problem.....

 

cant build a motor bike eng. like you can a d15..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crazyslowhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cant build a motor bike eng. like you can a d15..</TD></TR></TABLE>

actually you can dont make uneducated posts. wow! off to a great start (post #3)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rextec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

actually you can dont make uneducated posts. wow! off to a great start (post #3) </TD></TR></TABLE>

boom shocka locka lmao....im seriously thinking about this tho i just cant wait to find me a project car to work on and i guess ill use its stock motor and ill keep everyone posted

 

More ideas, people!