using a VW type 1 engine for a go-kart
 

Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I am a welder, Aircraft mechanic and painter, and have a pretty
endless supply of tubing to use, especially chrom-moly.

On 14 Jun 2005 19:47:50 -0700, wrote:
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

How sure are you that that engine has "close to 100 hp"? I seem to
recall that they were well under that, stock.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I am a welder, Aircraft mechanic and painter, and have a pretty
endless supply of tubing to use, especially chrom-moly.



Athos

That is a great idea. You could have alot of fun with what you build with
VW power.
I submit that a VW powered device wont look much like a Go Kart. But, as
you know, there are thousands and thousands of VW based Dune Buggies used to
power Off Road vehicles.
It is quite feasable to get 100 HP out of a rebuilt 1600 cc VW. But, it
wont be 1600 after you get it to put out 100 HP unless you "supercharge" it.
No matter how it is rebuilt so it'll put out to 100 HP, it sure wont be
inexpensive.

Jerry (who really likes the idea of VW for off road
vehicles)

I thought a stock VW engine that vintage was like 40 hp? At any rate, that
would be alot of hp for a cart. But, the problem would be weight. I think he
should be considering a dune buggy type vehicle, and not a true go kart. We
used to race go karts, and the upper class guys with money raced 250 cc
motorcycle engines with transmissions on them. These things would fly!
"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On 14 Jun 2005 19:47:50 -0700,
wrote:
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

How sure are you that that engine has "close to 100 hp"? I seem to
recall that they were well under that, stock.

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:24:43 -0500, Grady wrote:
I thought a stock VW engine that vintage was like 40 hp?

Right, I was thinking either 38 or 42. With new nearly-everything, you
can get tons of hp out of 'em, though, and the parts are dirt cheap.

"Grady" wrote in message
news:s8Nre.770$Zt.175@okepread05...
I thought a stock VW engine that vintage was like 40 hp?

A little more. The 1200 cc engines were 40 hp. A '67 would be 1500 cc, IIRC.

The Meyer's Towed was a dune buggy made for that engine that was little more
than an overgrown cart with VW suspension. The tubular chassis was really
simple, too.

--
Ed Huntress

Build a sand rail, VW engines are extremely popular for that type of buggy.

-Tom

wrote in message
oups.com...
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I am a welder, Aircraft mechanic and painter, and have a pretty
endless supply of tubing to use, especially chrom-moly.

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:24:43 -0500, "Grady" wrote:

I thought a stock VW engine that vintage was like 40 hp? At any rate, that
would be alot of hp for a cart. But, the problem would be weight. I think he
should be considering a dune buggy type vehicle, and not a true go kart. We
used to race go karts, and the upper class guys with money raced 250 cc
motorcycle engines with transmissions on them. These things would fly!


Indeed..sand rail/dunebuggy/off roader would be my choice. Transaxel
gearing would be really funky for small go-kart tires.

http://www.atvutah.com/northern/images/sand_rail.jpg
http://www.adamlyon.com/photoalbums/...pismo/02_G.jpg

and so forth. Lots of them in my neck of the woods. Build from scratch
or from kit if your welding skills are limited. Some of them are
Corvair powered, most are VWs.

Gunner


"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On 14 Jun 2005 19:47:50 -0700,
wrote:
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

How sure are you that that engine has "close to 100 hp"? I seem to
recall that they were well under that, stock.


"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

Sorry for not clarifying...its not a stock VW engine. The prev owner
told me it had been bored out and different parts were used to max out
the performance. One reason I want to make a go-kart is the size of
the application I will be using it for.
Thanks for all the replies, and I guess it is possible, but might be
out my little go-karts league for now

On 15 Jun 2005 05:54:17 -0700, wrote:
Sorry for not clarifying...its not a stock VW engine. The prev owner
told me it had been bored out and different parts were used to max out
the performance. One reason I want to make a go-kart is the size of
the application I will be using it for.

Sounds like fun then ;)

Thanks for all the replies, and I guess it is possible, but might be
out my little go-karts league for now

Worst case, you could head over to rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled (I
probably got the name somewhat wrong) and see if someone wants that
particular engine, so you could find something more suitable for your
kart? The boys over there always appreciate good Fweem.

Dave Hinz

wrote:
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I am a welder, Aircraft mechanic and painter, and have a pretty
endless supply of tubing to use, especially chrom-moly.

If you've got lots of tubing, then a sandrail/dune buggy is what you
want to build. You need the transaxle to go with it, a go-kart belt
drive isn't going to cut it, those can go as little as $25 at the local
U-Pullit. You could probably get suspension parts from the same
source, a Bug frontend with steering gear is fairly easy to pull and
there's tons of off-road parts. Alternatively, if what you really want
is a go-kart, swap/sell the engine for a suitable Briggs/Tecumsah/Honda
single cylinder. There's whole magazines out there dealing with
air-cooled VWs and off-road vehicles built with them. Check the local
newstand.

Stan

Gunner redeemed 1 (one) polit. OT post with this:

http://www.adamlyon.com/photoalbums/...pismo/02_G.jpg

That photo just oozes "fun"!

Thanks!

~D

Dave, nice pic...
Well, let me explain what I'm looking to build..
A Small one person go-kart. Very compact. I have an old Suzuki Quad
with no steering, engine, electrical or gas tank. But its ripe for the
cannabalism to go toward my kart.
The kart is going to be used on a level but bumpy field.
I work for Aerial Banners, and we tow banners with my airplanes out of
this field. I want to use the kart for running back and forth on the
field (about 3 football fields), to retrieve banners, and various
Aerial Advertising related stuff. Plus I wanna **** of the Airport
officials as much as I can, since they hate us already.
I would really like to have a full suspension cart, made almost like
a pickup truck. Well, more like a cart, with a roof rack to carry the
banners and stuff...
No electrical needed, we only work during the day.

Again thanks for the input.

Nice pic, Dave.
Well let me explain what this kart is used for, and see if any of you
have some input (I'm sure you will :) )
I work for an Aerial Advertising company
http://www.aerialbanners.com
and at the field we tow our banners from I need transportation around
the area to retrieve banners, and various banner related stuff. The
kart needs to be compact and a one seater. I need a roof rack of some
sorts on top to load the banners and stuff. I need full suspension,
and no electrical because we don't need to work at nite. (I have a
portable Q-beam to use if I do)
I have an old Suzuki Quad, with no engine, gas tank, seat or
electrical. It has the steering, suspension and brakes and wheels.
I'm thinking of cannabalizing that to make the kart or at least save
money.

Thanks again for all the advice...

wrote:

Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


I don't think it's very feasible. I have a Honda Odyssey, which is
bascially a 600lb go kart with 350cc engine, and it flies right along.
A VW engine would take much more of a chassis to support the engine. I
think what you want to build is a sandrail. Do a google search on
sandrail or go to sandrail.com to see more about these.

Gary Brady
Austin, TX
www.powdercoatoven.4t.com

On 15 Jun 2005 03:44:44 GMT, Dave Hinz wrote:

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:24:43 -0500, Grady wrote:
I thought a stock VW engine that vintage was like 40 hp?

Right, I was thinking either 38 or 42. With new nearly-everything, you
can get tons of hp out of 'em, though, and the parts are dirt cheap.

Tons of HP for very short spurts. VW heads can only shed ehough heat
for about 40HP sustained - then they start getting "soft"

Bored, Stroked and Dual Carbed a 67 type 1 *MAY* give ya 90-BHP ..on a good
day...
And last about a week....

But what you have is probably at best 80HP.. and naa this ain't go-kart
material.. it's dune buggy fodder...

KeyRist if yer an A&P go find a good Lyc off a dead bird.. now THATS some HP
that will last..

Dave

------------------------------------
FEAR ME
I Fly A Cessna 150
Nations Tremble Before It
Millions Flee It's Approach
2 Seats, 26 Gallons of gas, 100 HP
And 90 knots of Screaming Terror
-------------------------------------


wrote in message
oups.com...
Sorry for not clarifying...its not a stock VW engine. The prev owner
told me it had been bored out and different parts were used to max out
the performance. One reason I want to make a go-kart is the size of
the application I will be using it for.
Thanks for all the replies, and I guess it is possible, but might be
out my little go-karts league for now

I actually have a couple Lycoming IO-540s laying around and some club
props...maybe an air powered kart is at hand... j/k, I'm not Eveil
Kneivel...

I'm not looking for a sandrail... I need small single seated. I'll
scrounge for an old lawnmower engine or an old gen engine...maybe a
honda or briggs...
I'll load my pics of my plans when I complete them..

BTW, any thoughts on using the Quad parts for the go-kart?