I just sold an older 440 fan cooled motor to a lad in the Southern States for a go kart.

my question is how long can someone expect to run a fan cooled motor in this type of application?

you would be very surprised. When I was a kid, I had a buddy that did this and he drove it for years. Ultra lite manufacturers have been putting 500 fan cooled Doo motors in their ultra lites for years.

I have a friend that put an older Polaris 650 free air triple in a go cart. He never ran it any long distances but it would do a burnout as far as he wanted to go. He ran it at a local drag strip and if I remember right it did close to 130 in 1/4 mile

I'll do some checking on this, but I believe their is a certain go-kart series that uses 440 snowmobile engines. I bought an '85 V-MAX 540 in hopes of using it for a year or two and then donating the engine to a go cart project of mine. The engine is a fairly fresh rebuild. I was mentioning this to a friend of mine and he was telling me about this 440 series out there. I'll have to send him an email and see what the deal is.

Snow-Drift

Holly smokes! And I thought the 250 cc shifter carts where fast. A 440 cc powered rig must just fly! :hallo1:

A friend had an old Chapperal ????? air cooled motor in a go cart. I don't know for sure but I believe it was a 340. Anyway it was scary fast taking it down the highway. He never did get it running right but it still did 80-85 mph. Rode it only a couple times and parked it in the grove for the last 5 years.

a 440 in a go cart is overkill :p

10 years ago my grandparents neighbors son ran carts. he had one that was about a tad smaller than a Formula 2000 series mini indy type car. It ran a 400 motor, can't remeber if it was liquid or fan. I'd have to think liquid. Had a friend build a 750cc motorcycle engine cart to pound in the yard, boy it flew.
Caleb

Yeap I have a 340 Yamaha engine going in my go cart this spring. Should fly the cart itself I hand built big atv tires and full indepent front suspension and rear suspension it is a BLAST in the mud just has a little 4 stroke honda on it now but she goes. The sled engine should kit a$$.

i was gonna build ashifter kart with a 500 cc AC engine, but my shop teacher wouldn't let me because we sat down and figured it out, it would max out at over 230 KMH geared low enough to spin the tires. So i was like well how about i make the frame, and put the engine in at home and he still wouldnt let me so i just sold the sled, and bought my xlt, and i am very glad that i did. :sly:

Snow Drift, you're right!

I was travelling through Oakland, Ca in 1985 and I rode on some go-karts that had 440 fan-cooled Kawasaki engines in them, If I remember correctly. You drove against a clock on a tight road coarse and you could see your time at each stop-and-go.

Those suckers were fast and they cornered so hard the tires chunked out and the g-forces were quite hard.

Check out this net site (namra.com)...I've seen these formula cars in action...they really fly...Al.