I'm enjoying my FL350 quite a lot and have been slowly bringing it up to form. One thing that I'm struggling with a bit is figuring out how to keep dirt/roost/crap from getting into the cockpit and settling in the bottom of the seat. After about 20 minutes of driving on my little rally circuit I had a pile dirt under my butt (pic below), and beside not being comfortable I imagine it's not too great for the seat to have me grinding all that in there, and it definitely didn't do anything good for my jeans.

In response, I made some side panels and a hood out of cardboard (pics below, will redo with ABS after they're finalized), and they seem to cut down the amount of stuff coming in, but still a good amount is still making it's way to the bottom of the seat even after just a little bit of driving (10-15 mins). So, what gives - what do I need to do really cut down on the crap coming into the cockpit, or is it just a lost cause?

Stuff in seat before side panels:


Side panels:


Hood:

Careful buddy --- I see that your machine is still air cooled. It needs all the air it can get.
In the picture below you will see that I run full side panels and front nose piece. It keeps the crap out. I've been running these for years but my machines are all water cooled head and cylinder. The side panels are plastic. It's the same stuff you use on a wall. You can get it at a place like home depot. It's real cheap. Held on with tie wraps.

Side note: I see you run a spun aluminum tank. That means gravity feed. The needle valve in a stock carb is to small for gravity feed. You could lean out the Engine. You need a bigger valve or a fuel pump supplement with return to tank.
CO

Edit: AVGAS
CO

Here is some reading:
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=13108&hilit=liquid+cooled+air+cooled
CO

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13009
CO

Here's an easy front bonnet hood cover I made years ago when racing.It's from a sheet of HDPE.Also made one for the FL800Pilot.
viewtopic.php?f=98&t=15410&hilit=Bonnet

Here's the one I made for the FL800Pilot when racing wheel to wheel and Enduros etc.

@canadian oddy - thanks for the pics and the information. I was wondering about extending the side panels and whether it would help even more, and it sounds like it does (nice and simple looking job on the panels and the hood, too). I'm aware of the cooling issues of the FL350 and that's why I made this first round of panels so small, to stay out of the way of the air scoops. The type of riding I do, 15-20 minute motos at rarely WOT (Wide Open Throttle) throttle (because my track is so small), combined with how rich it runs makes the overheating issue much smaller for me than others who do more extended wide open riding, I believe...however, if I want to extend the side panels I'm going to need to do some thinking here.

@bugeye59 - nice looking bonnet - it looks seamless with the rest of Pilot's styling. What kind of material did you use?

You can build doors as well --- IF you LIQUID COOL the Engine.
CO

Those doors are awesome. I may eventually liquid cool my oddy, but I've gotta find a used head for a decent price to appease the cheapskate in me. To order new is a $1000+ dollar proposition by the time all the incidentals are done. I have a radiator I can use already, so when/if I can figure out how to get the rest of the stuff for $500 or less I'll probably pull that trigger.

I've noticed this happening too. I feel that the stock fenders are pretty ineffectual and that better fenders would go a long way towards reducing this w/o affecting the airflow to the Engine.

Mine are in pretty rough shape so I was thinking of fabbing up some out of sheet metal. My idea was to make the metal part stick out at least as far as the stock ones, perhaps further, and then to extend them out even further with some kind of flexible material. I also had a crazy idea of making fender frames out of springs or springy metal and covering them with canvas.

Thoughts?

Sheet metal is a good budget idea.
The only thing is that sticking out further than the wheels will most likely get them bent into the wheel and maybe get a flat tire out of it. They would be easy to reshape if not made of to thick a material.

As for your comment on air flow:
Take a very close look at your front fenders. What do you see ?
You will notice that "bump" with a squarish side to it at the top of the fender.
I wonder if Honda had these in a wind tunnel to check air flow going to the scoops from the front fenders. It just looks "off" and a bit odd to me. It looks "funny" to me, like it's directing air. Just my opinion.

Lets face it guys, these are off road dune buggies and the cockpit is very low to the ground. We are going to get dirty. That's off road life. The only way around it is to put skin on the machine to protect the driver area and that is a problem for air flow to an air cooled Engine.
CO

You might be surprised,
Lots of people get away with running the water-cooled head without a water pump, which will save you a lot of money in the wiring and pump cost.
The caveat with that is you need a vertical flowing radiator, which if that's what you have, then all you really need at that point is a few ft of hose and the head. The head will run you about $500 new, but you might be able to find a used one for slightly less.

Also, I highly suggest you look into making some shock savers, that way, when you break an axle it won't damage your expensive works shocks. (I assume you have works shocks in the rear as well as I can't really see in your pictures)

Interesting. I do have a downflow radiator, but after googling for a while I can't find anything about this type of setup. How does this work???

UPDATE: Ah, "Thermo-Syphon Cooling" is the term I needed. Lots on info out there. Even found another site/forum talking specifically about a FL350 setup (won't link it here because I don't know if that is frowned upon).

Thanks for the info/idea.

In my opinion I would not waste my time with the thermosiphon system.
I also don't like the small quad or dirt bike radiators.
You need real cooling for an oddy in my opinion and it's an easy set up.
Run a big rad -- I use a Honda Civic rad (Honda Del sol) -- and run a Bosch electric pump model #PA66-GF30 (or similar). The current draw is low (less than 1 amp) so a 2 or 3 amp inline fuse would be fine and it will not tax the low output charging system of an oddy.
I have this setup on all 3 of my machines.
A two stroke like an oddy runs best the cooler you run them. You will notice a power drop off when the oddy runs over 140'F-150'F. The go-cart racing guys run below 130'F.
CO

Yes, it's definitely not the coolest way to do it, but could work if someone is really on a budget. It still should work better than the air cooled setup.

Here is a quote from Eric S. from Facebook

In functional terms that matches exactly my thinking on the subject. However, I don't view it as a win if I have to install a fan because I didn't install a pump. Honestly, if I went the thermo siphon direction I would pass on the pump AND the fan. That said, I'm not sure what method I will actually go with, but I have sent out some feelers for a head. Thanks for the info and the input everyone.

Totally agree.
It's also about a guys budget, just like you said.
Any cooling is better than none.
Also of note is you will notice a dramatic drop in temp if you run AVGAS. This also provides a lot of safety and wiggle room when it comes to jetting. It's every man for himself out there. All a guy can do is read up, take advice that fits your ideology and go.
All I know is what works for me.
CO

Edit:
I'm quite passionate about what I believe about these machines.
It's cost me a tremendous amount of money to figure out what I know.
CO

That last piston on the right looks like it is made out of cork...wtf!

I use Torco concentrated race fuel to add to my 91 octane gas to bring it to about 96 octane or so, mixed with redline synthetic oil @ 20:1 for my Fl350, which is the almost identical to the same concoction I use in my sprint kart (2 stroke 125cc which has a higher compression ratio than the FL350). Oils, ratios, octanes - we're pretty grabbing onto the third rail of motorsports here, lol. For instance, I believe anyone who runs an oil ratio leaner than the manufacturer's spec is certifiable (and yes, I've heard the arguments for why, 'this ok'), but that reaction no doubt pales in comparison to what someone else feels about the fill-in-the-blank choices I make.

"That last piston on the right looks like it is made out of cork...wtf!" -- Baahahhaha
No it's actually wood and I use it to put in the bore of a cylinder when I cut the top three fins off to make a liquid cooled cylinder. The pilot drill helps hold the hole saw blade in place so that it don't swing around like some gyroscope when it's cutting.

Oil: I actually run 50/1 castrol two stroke oil and when I took my engines apart there was lots of oil still in the crankcase and rod. I'm full liquid cooled though. Most guys here run 35/1 for the air cooled. The 20/1 you mix is a bit rich for modern oils in my opinion. The high oil content messes with the octane. I do like what you are doing there by mixing the high test with pump gas. I used to do that with the AVGAS but gave up because it was a pain. The airport is only a couple of miles from my house and it's a help yourself service. Nobody ever there so you just put in the credit card, pick any tail number from any aircraft and fill your jug. As long as you ground, roll up hose, shut down pump nobody give a sht. Love these small town airports.
CO

I've got a small-town airport in my backyard here in Pennsylvania. I've never gone there though to see about getting fuel. I have to wonder if it's anything like yours hehe.

Anyone ever run E85? It'd have to be jetted way richer but it's over 100 octane and cheap if you can find it. With forced induction applications you can usually get about 20 - 30% more peak HP but not so much with naturally aspirated. The downfall would be even worse fuel mileage.

@canadian oddy - That sounds convenient having the airport so close and accessible. My personal reasoning about ratios - besides being recommended by the manufacturer, I'm ok running higher concentrations of oil because the only actual test data that I've ever seen on the subject (see attached) shows a relationship to higher power output with higher concentrations, lower running temps, and just as importantly the least well lubricated part of the Engine (varies from case to case) is still getting plenty. Also, if the ratio is higher, then leaning out the jetting gets a bit less dicey.


Glad to know my eyes are not that far gone yet!


Besides the jetting issues, I'm suspicious how well the gaskets/seals/rubber in the carb and Engine would react to E85 over the long term.


(test is from the book "Two-Stroke Performance Tuning" by A. Graham Bell)

I'm no fuel expert but I think E85 is very corrosive.
I believe the entire fuel system of the new vehicles running this stuff is special.
Stainless ?
Special O-rings ?
CO

See the missing pictures?

Can those who created the post with the missing pictures please edit their post and upload the pics again, I think the pics were lost in the site outage over the weekend. My website host made some mistakes and screwed up everything and when they restored from a backup I noticed some pictures were missing.

Thanks.

I just seen this now.
I'll try to remember which pics I posted.
CO

Thanks

And sorry.