The Death Kart.

This Death Kart is equipped with a "High Output" 1.8L DOHC 16V 4 cylinder, so we're already off to a great start. Right now though, this thing is jenk. All the welds need grinding down and re-done, the wiring harness needs to be stripped down to just the basic engine harness which is our current priority, we need to replace the front end with something less jenk, build a roll cage, new tires, and other various things. For now, pictures.

is that a Nissan SR20DE engine??? If so, you freakin' scored!

I would have expexted a steering rack at least...

Thats a proper name for it alright, jeeez   

i dont think i would want to drive that thing looks to dangerous

@dwcopple wrote:

is that a Nissan SR20DE engine???  If so, you freakin' scored!

Nooooooooope, Kia motor. Still plenty of power for how light it is

Doug Fackler wrote:

I would have expexted a steering rack at least...

Everything for steering on it is going. We're going to cut the front subframe out of my buddies 3000GT and adapt it. Suspension, rack, hubs, brakes and all.

Another shot.

Ah, it looks like it has some Chevy in it.

#1 Priority was painting the valve cover red because racecar.



#2 Priority was stripping out the wiring harness which is now also done. Waiting on a ECU pinout so we can start yanking all the crud that isn't necessary.

WELDING!!!
For all you guys with flux core welders out there, STOP BUYING CHEAP HARBOR FREIGHT WIRE. Lincoln electric .30 wire on mild steel did this.



It really is all in the wire. Well, I re-did most of the load bearing welds and I'm no longer afraid to stand under this thing!

Little bit more progress, I gutted the pre-cat to make a small resonator, we'll see how it sounds later.





I also found out why there's almost zero suspension travel. The guy I bought it from had apparently welded the tie-rod ends solid so they couldn't pivot. They also tried welding the input shaft on the steering rack which was steel to aluminum so I don't expect that to hold very well. I'm going to grind down and re-drill so I can slap some new tie-rod ends on and also disassemble the rack and weld the pinion gear so it will be much more solid.

the lincoln is all i ever use in my welder, you still using that jobsmart?

Outer tie-rod ends gone, ready for new ones. While I'm at it I'm just going to remove the steering rack because it's completely useless and instead weld mounting points to the subframe for the inner tie rods to mount to.





Then I set to work on cleaning up the fuel rail for paint, red is for racecars.

im not sure if i should laugh or cry at this thing, whatever happens, it better do a wicked burnout. steering rack up front?

@redlinemotorsportts wrote:

im not sure if i should laugh or cry at this thing, whatever happens, it better do a wicked burnout. steering rack up front?

Sometime this weekend I'm going to be tearing the front subframe and strut towers out of my friends 3000GT and using that on the front. Picture to give a very rough idea.

Why not take all his front end and weld up to yours   

Man, put some good tires on the back, and this would be wicked fun at haspin.

Keep the steering in the back, 4 wheel steer! Or for more fun, weld the front straight, rear steer!

For now the plan is just to get the basic front wheel steering going, though having rear wheel steering actuated by a switch up front like the crawlers did cross my mind. Maybe someday. Haspin is a definite yes though, IF I can get it running and reliable in time.

Gonna need a stout roll cage while your at it, and some 5 point belts. I could see this being a heck of a hill climber. Wonder if you could lock the diff in it.

If this was the 5spd I totally would trust myself with it, sadly though it's the 4spd auto and there's no way in hell I'm opening that up. Cutting brakes may be considered in the future if it comes to be a problem. The plan is to get the new front end on and then we can start designing the cage.

I think some chevy luminas have front diff covors that you can pop off and weld up the spider gears, learned from demo cars. not sure about yours.

@redlinemotorsportts wrote:

I think some chevy luminas have front diff covers that you can pop off and weld up the spider gears, learned from demo cars. not sure about yours.

I've already looked, no such luck.

UGH.



On the topic of wiring though, yay!



I'm also using a Arduino board as a TCU so paddle shifters are soon to come. Moving over to the topic of steering, I started cutting up the car that's donating its front subframe, lots of fun.

and i thought mower wiring is a pain lol, nice to see some more progress, looking forward to the end result