LocostUSA.com

Welcome to the forum, it's nice seeing another young builder. Are you a welder? Those are some good looking welds you have. I see you know how to walk the cup, I'm still learning that one. I plan on fully TIG welding my chassis as well. I'm loving the color you are getting considering its carbon steel, usually only see that much color in stainless.

I would go ahead and get a stronger diff, that stock 1.6 diff is going to fail if you turbo the car. The Torsen units are expensive as you have to buy axles, half shafts and a driveshaft as well but it will hold up the power of you throw a turbo at it. I wouldn't worry about what people say about throwing a turbo on the 1.6. If you're familiar with the you tube channel Mighty Car Mods they turbo'd a 1.6 and using a suby turbo and managed to get 200whp out of the setup.

Check out enjukuracing.com for turbo's. A company called ISIS (surprised they haven't changed their name) makes a t25 replacement for the sr20 Nissan engine and it's a great turbo for the price.

If you want to build your own manifold I dont know of any stainless steel flanges for the 1.6 engine. Check out siliconeintakes.com for some stainless steel pipe. It's the cheapest I've found for building anything for an exhaust system.

Keep up the good work, looking forward to some progress.

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30 years old, not sure what I want to be when I grow up…

Hey Josh,

I am a self taught welder, but still have a lot to learn when it comes to tig!! That weave pass that I was practicing on was done with the little Miller Dynasty 280 that we have at work and I swear that rig will make anyone look like they know how to weld, it is by far the best rig I have used to date. On my chassis I did use MIG here and there for suspension pickups and other odds and ends, but all of the chassis tubes and control arms are all TIG.

Would you switch the whole rear end out for a torsen, or just replace the guts and put in a limited slip diff and up-rated ring and pinion? I know swapping to a torsen unit with half-shafts, drive-shaft, and diff assembly is kind of ridiculously expensive. I have actually been looking at that ISIS rebuilt T25, or a TD04 off of a Subaru mainly because they are a great size turbo for the 1.6 and you're not paying $1400 for a Garrett ball bearing turbo, which is the only thing the pre-done kits seem to come with. As far as the manifold I was going to do exactly what you said and get SS weld fittings and I have found a DXF file that someone made for a 1.6 flange that I will have either laser cut or cut out on the water jet at work.

On a side note my brother and I were looking into buying a racing kart just to toy around with at some of our local "track", more like parking lots, but what could you tell me about what to look for in a simple, entry level racing kart? I was trying to just find a chassis and then add a little 6.5 hp clone engine to it so we can get into it and then work up to a full blown shifter, Rotax, or whatever style kart we could find to race locally.

Thanks

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Build Log
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Even the aftermarket diff's for the 1.6 are not much better then the torson. If it were me I'd mock up the car with what you have and keep an eye out for a good deal on a torson.

I'm actually selling my shifter kart. It's a 2012 Gallard chassis with a built cr125. Part of me wants to keep the frame and just sell the engine.

You can get a nice frame for around a grand. Birel, CRG, Tony kart.. All good frames. Many more out there but those are the big ones.

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30 years old, not sure what I want to be when I grow up…

The shock angle does look a little shallow. Remember under load the shock will compress about 2" which is going to flatten out the shock even more. You could move the mounts to the outside of the frame which will move it up and out and inch or more.

Nice looking welds by the way.

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2015 & 2016 EMod Florida State Autocross Champion
2013 & 2014 DSP Florida State Autocross Champion

Scrap Metal Build Log viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14558

Hey Briggs, we went down to Atlanta Motorsports Park this past weekend and drove the 125cc Rotax TAG carts and my brother, dad and I are hooked, so if you were interested in selling your kart what would you be willing to sell it for? Just PM me.

So again a thousand thanks to Jack for supplying my project with the bodywork I love it Jack!!

Here are a couple pictures, some of the 351w I am building for my truck and one of the newly acquired body work.

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Build Log
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I missed your comments about diff mounting first time by. I have had some arguments with folks about combining solid and flexible mounts for diffs. If your solid mount is a Heim joint you may be fine. I think a Heim is a good choice for a mount on the back of a diff cover for example. If the hard mount allows tilting and rotation, it my be fine for the other mount to be flexible.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

OK, Alec, I found you.

Cheers,

Lonnie

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

When I was buying parts I just bought the Energy Suspension poly mounts for the diff thinking yeah that'lll work great without really thinking about how I was going to keep the diff from rotating downward and I had a spare heim sitting around so thats the route I went. If I were to do it again, I probably would use a 1x2 piece of tube on the seatback area and mount a generic poly busing like I have used for the suspension. We will see how things work out, I know i did not want to use the aluminum diff bushings to solid mount it because both the engine and trans are mounted using poly bushings so I thought that I might have a problem later on with things vibrating and breaking cases is bad...

How's it going Lonnie?

I feel bad coming back to my build thread and not having any updates for a long time, my last post was in August and it was for my truck engine I need to get back on it!

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Build Log
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Aw, shucks. A thousand you're-welcomes, and keep those orders and checks rolling in!

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

So here is a quick update on the car, I have devised what I think to be one of the sexiest trans mounts out there. I know I am biased haha. But for real this thing is not only stupid light it is straight up beefy too. For any of you Miata guys I am selling these adapters as a kit with the bushing, adapter plate and hardware; I am not going to include the corss member because I know all of our cars are slightly different. The little cross member I whipped up yesterday in about an hour, so again fairly straight forward. Hope you all enjoy!

I am madly starting to work on this car again now that I have finally graduated!!! It is such a relief to be done with my undergrad (at least until I go back and get my engineering degree haha). I am going to start the roll cage next before I get the frame powder-coated to make my life easier. What color do you guys think I should go with? I was thinking black frame and either orange or red control arms?

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Build Log
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More progress!! The entire drivetrain is figured out now! I have lost sleep over this part of the build and I am very excited to have it all figured out and tacked in place. Another plus is the engine and trans are now dirt easy to get in and out! Like I said earlier the next steps are going to be to figure out the roll cage and turbo plumbing and then move onto things like the floor and brake and fuel plumbing. Plumbing is all going to be handled with AN fittings, stainless hardline and teflon lined braided hoses, I might run this thing on corn juice at some point so I do not want ethanol eating up my fuel lines.

As far as floors go I was contemplating a carbon/honeycomb style floor to play around with composites; has anyone else done a floorpan like that or do they usually go 1/8" aluminum? I want a full floorpan from front to back other than engine bay to increase ground effects. My little brother is getting his degree in aerospace engineering and wants to figure out bodywork and surfacing to maximize downforce on the car, I'm just the shmuck who puts all the pieces together haha.

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Build Log
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