Dont hate me for asking...

[HRT]

I have a spare car body and not sure what engine to put in. Stupid idea popped into my head of something along the lines of a 1000 or 1200cc bike engine and just use a shaft drive box for the drive to the back wheels.

May sound like a dumb idea, but would like the know the possibility of it. I'm not stupid when it comes to cars, but bike engines etc are a new thing to me. I'm not sure what boxes bolt to what engines etc etc, and not entirely sure what sort of clutch arrangement I would end up with. If anyone has ever tried this or got any useful info on, or some useful discussion then let me know

Cheers

[Guitana]

They're not designed to fit in cars mate and would probably shit themselves under the load, if you did manage to somehow put one in the stress on the gearbox would be too much!!!!

[James Deuce]

You really are a guitarist ain't you?

People have been bike engines in cars and car engines in bikes (look at Guzzi's Vtwin - that was designed for a FIAT 500 originally) since, well internal combustion engines in vehicles. Load isn't an issue. You just X HP to get Y weight moving at Z velocity.

The biggest problem with putting a bike engine and transmission in a car body is the box has no reverse, and it is of course a sequential box. Setting up a foot clutch is not drama. It's just linkages after all, or even a cable if you want.

[Colapop]

You'd be better to build a lightweight steel frame and mould a fibreglass shell to sit on top of it.

[Disco Dan]

Been done before... best example I saw was a busa motor in a mini... even had a electric scooter motor for reverse... they go like the clappers if done right, if not... the motors are notorious for 'exploding' under such unantural stresses. They dont tend to last long thats all im saying...

you thought about how to get the drive to the wheels? :shutup:

[HRT]

Yeah, I know its been done as I've been a few examples in the past. Main idea for drive to the wheels was the shaft drive setup being thats its already RWD it would make it a bit easier.

Colapop, while I'd like to do that its a matter of cost (and the fact that I have the spare car).

I see the issue with reverse... I dont think I'd like to be pushing it out of carparks. Clutch and linkage stuff shouldn't be an issue, can sort that sort of stuff out.

I suppose the other option for a gearbox is the car gearbox setup, though then I would have clutch issues and having to make up a plate for the box to bolt to. And having to have a big flywheel on the back of the motor...

I might have to just find a motor and pull it apart so I know where I'm start out




Sorry if I sound hopeless and like I don't know what I'm doing, bikes are just new to me. :dodge:

[onearmedbandit]

Good on you for trying something different. It may cost lots, take up too much of your time, frustrate the fuck out of you, but projects like that are immensly satisfying at the end.

[Colapop]

Not hopeless to ask.. The stupidest question is the one not asked.

If you have a car body and no engine - it'd be easier to get an engine, rebuild the car, sell it and use the cash to buy a bike engine and some materials and build a scratch bike around it...

[MaPeXi]

Depends what car body you are using?.. Ideally you would want to use something small and lightweight. How about something like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQIizRp9ck

Not completely relevant, but talking about engine conversions.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgEK2xqyEUM

Only in America..

[HRT]

I dont want to sell the car though ;) Car in question is a 1972 Corolla. Wet weight with old engine and everything in was a bit under 800kgs from memory

Mainly just wanting to do something different. I could just throw a bit of a tickled up standard motor in but then its just like every other one out there.

OAB, I'm well aware of projects taking up too much time and money :yes: They are worth the time and effort at the end though

[wildpudding]

Might be a good idea to check the prices from wreckers for a decent 2nd hand 1000. I've got a feeling they will set you back thousands...

Stefan

[HRT]

Damn them and their wantingness of money

I'd imagine GSXR750s and like the aren't cheap for engines either. Will have a hunt around though. Not 100% set on 1000cc, just really wanting to plan it a bit before I go buying anything

[Motu]

The weight of the Corolla is the biggest problem,what ever you do is going to be slow.Get a shaft drive XJ and turn it sideways,you can bolt a UJ onto the drive flange.

[Quartermile]

ooh ooh a car body, blow the fuker up!!!!! :woohoo:

sorry that wasn't at all helpful :mellow:

[trumpy]

"Star Cars" (NZ version of Legend race car) are done with shaft drive and bike motor. Not sure about reverse with these although they are technically required to have one. Lotus 7 replicas in England that are being built with Busa motors use a starter motor for reverse.
You can buy a reverse gear kit ready to bolt on from England but you might need a friend standing by with a defribullator when you hear the price.
Give Craig Greenwood at Challenge Racing in Taupo a call he may be prepared to answer some of your questions. His single seaters run chain drives but I know he did look into the reverse gear thing closely.

[bobsmith]

Good luck! sounds like a fun idea!

I would love to build a go-kart with a cbr250r engine sometime.... now that thing would move....

[Kickaha]

"Star Cars" (NZ version of Legend race car) are done with shaft drive and bike motor. Not sure about reverse with these although they are technically required to have one. Lotus 7 replicas in England that are being built with Busa motors use a starter motor for reverse.


They run a GSXR1100 motor and the drive shaft is bolted to where the sprocket normally would be

Star car runs the same reverse system as the Busa Lotus


Good luck! sounds like a fun idea!

I would love to build a go-kart with a cbr250r engine sometime.... now that thing would move....

250 motorcross engine in a Kart will piss all over it

[Guitana]

You really are a guitarist ain't you?

People have been bike engines in cars and car engines in bikes (look at Guzzi's Vtwin - that was designed for a FIAT 500 originally) since, well internal combustion engines in vehicles. Load isn't an issue. You just X HP to get Y weight moving at Z velocity.

The biggest problem with putting a bike engine and transmission in a car body is the box has no reverse, and it is of course a sequential box. Setting up a foot clutch is not drama. It's just linkages after all, or even a cable if you want.


Seems like alot of fucken drama to me when you can just buy a proper engine ex japan for fuck all these days!

[Ixion]

Harleys , Gold Wings and some BMWs come with reverse gear. The latter two also have shaft drive.

[marty]

how about buying a flat 6 porsche engine (probably cheaper than a busa engine anyway) and put that in the back of the rolla? that'd be a bit different

[Disco Dan]

Harleys , Gold Wings and some BMWs come with reverse gear. The latter two also have shaft drive.

goldwing motor... inline 4, reverse gear... in a car? ...ummm ya may as well buy a car :shutup:

[HRT]

Heh, Porsche motor would be a tad heavy and I dont think the 1970s Japanese handling would do it justice.

Am wanting something a bit more revvy, and bike engines have the bonus of a bit of extra power. Cant imagine how much work and how peaky it would be to get 150hp from a 3K

Cheers for the info though, tis very helpful

[cheese]

Hey HRT, I know you from CANZE!

anyway, I've been thinking about similar things adn I saw this thing on topgear about radical racers

http://www.radicalextremesportscars.com/

now this is the fastest car to ever go around there track (at the time) and it has a 1300cc Suzi engine in it!!

I think that they use the cylinder and make there own housing for the crankshaft. I think that they have made a new one that mates two inline 4 engines to make some stooopid V8 that will red line and some even more stoooopid revs!!!

I think that your one major problem would be time between rebuilds. If you had a single 1300 bike engine, the extra pressure would be difficult and I think it would be better with two engines to share the load.

But I'd have to say it would be fucking mean!! and how cool would it sound!!!!!!

[crazybigal]

id say your corolla will be to fat for a bike motor! mabe a mini or a fiat would be better.
bussa motor will be expensive, could use a blackbird or a gsxr1100 motor.
id try a shaft drive motor first maybe a honda ST or a bmw or even a yamaha fj? wouldnt worry about reverse until you know its going to even work! i like the idea of an electric motor for that.
keep an eye out at the damaged auctions for a trashed bike with a good motor or try someone like bikebusters.
hope you get your idea off the ground, would be cool to see it on youtube!!!

[HRT]

Hey Cheese, didn't know you were around this place too. :hug: The plan to start with wasn't going to be anything radical like you're talking about. Want to get something going and see what its like and develop from there. Just get it going and then start playing with induction stuff...

Yeah the Corolla may be a little heavy, but thats something I'd like to find out. 800kg with full interior, factory engine etc etc so hopefully a bit lighter than that. Still makes for a heavy go-kart.

Busa engine would be way over the top for what I can afford, I'm not going for ll out power or anything, but the likes of a GSXR1100 would be nice place to start. Couple I've seen use a starter motor onto a ring gear for the reverse via a switch on the dash. Pretty simple idea really for that side of it.

Will keep an eye on auctions, sounds like a strange idea but I'd like to give it a go. :)

[The Pastor]

Why don't you buy a huge big v 8 and put that into a bike?

[RantyDave]

(look at Guzzi's Vtwin - that was designed for a FIAT 500 originally)
No kidding, I had a Fiat 500. Complete piece of shit. Ludicrously unreliable, gutless beyond belief, rusted as if I had been keeping it on a beach ... below the high tide line.

Our family had a string of the little f*ckers - my Dad was into keeping them going as some sort of masochistic pastime. He always told me the engine was basically two motorbike engines glued together - turns out he was wrong and it's actually only one motorbike engine. Crap one too.

Mind you, it does give rise to the possibility of a Fiat 500 with an R1 engine. Death trap, personified.

Edit: speaking of which - http://www.sylva.co.uk/riot.htm

Dave

[James Deuce]

No kidding, I had a Fiat 500. Complete piece of shit. Ludicrously unreliable, gutless beyond belief, rusted as if I had been keeping it on a beach ... below the high tide line.

Our family had a string of the little f*ckers - my Dad was into keeping them going as some sort of masochistic pastime. He always told me the engine was basically two motorbike engines glued together - turns out he was wrong and it's actually only one motorbike engine. Crap one too.

Mind you, it does give rise to the possibility of a Fiat 500 with an R1 engine. Death trap, personified.

Edit: speaking of which - http://www.sylva.co.uk/riot.htm

Dave

Serves you right for having an outrageous accent.

The Guzzi engine never actually made it into a FIAT. It went in a V7 instead.

[James Deuce]

Seems like alot of fucken drama to me when you can just buy a proper engine ex japan for fuck all these days!

Ah yes, but one isn't supposed to put the boot into someone else's dream without good cause.

This suggestion is only mildly mental, so it deserves some support.

[Deviant Esq]

IMHO, better to biff a RWD Nissan motor at it than a bike motor, if you can shoehorn it in. Gallons more torque. You can get a CA18DET (1.8 DOHC inline 4 turbo motor out of a Silvia) with gearbox reasonably cheap, pretty readily available, and in the 'rolla it would go like buggery. Or if you want something non turbo, an SR20DE (2.0 DOHC inline 4) would be the bizzo. The RB series Skyline motors probably wouldn't go in (Inline 6, too long, too heavy) without silly amounts of work.

Just make sure you upgrade the diff or it'll go bang! Get a decent rear axle and Limited Slip Diff (LSD)... and spend the rest of your days going sideways. :innocent:

[Kickaha]

I think that they have made a new one that mates two inline 4 engines to make some stooopid V8 that will red line and some even more stoooopid revs!!!


http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/02/09/hayabusa-v8-engine/


(look at Guzzi's Vtwin - that was designed for a FIAT 500 originally)

I thought it was designed for the mule
http://www.3wheelers.com/motog.html

if you've got it wrong "you know who" will be along to correct you

[James Deuce]

I thought it was designed for the mule
http://www.3wheelers.com/motog.html

if you've got it wrong "you know who" will be along to correct you

I thought so too until I was "put right". There was glaring and turning red and suppressed shouting involved.

[Kickaha]

I thought so too until I was "put right". There was glaring and turning red and suppressed shouting involved.

Ta, quite interesting

http://www.moto-euro.com/sample_article_13.htm

Some time back, it became chic for smart-ass journalists and misinformed authors to link the V7's alloy lump with the engine fitted the failed Autoveicolo da Montagna, or mechanical mule 3x3 utility tractor. Designed by Antonio Micucci, a two-stroke specialist who joined Guzzi during WWII, the 3x3 did indeed use a 90- degree twin, but one that featured different crankcases and heads. It wasn't even Guzzi's first 90 degree-twin, that being an air-cooled 500cc unit for the Fiat 500 automobile. Kudos to Greg Field (assisted by Moto Guzzi historian/M-E contributor, Ivar de Gier) for laying that tired old rumor to rest in his book Moto Guzzi Big Twins

[HRT]

Dont want to put an SR20 or a CA18 in, boring Nissan motors. If I was going to do something like that I'd put the turbo 20V 4AGE in I had sitting at work a couple of weeks ago. Last car was a KP60 which I did a twin carb blow through turbo setup on with the mighty 5K in there.

SR20s in anything are boring, they've been put in just about everything. Bike engine is different, hence the attraction

[cheese]

I really think that you would need two motos to get going properly.