Predator 212cc Engine Swap Into Dirt Bike Frame

A Predator 212cc pull-start dirt bike sounds awesome to me.

I recently spent a little time riding dirt bikes at an off-road park in Indiana and had a blast. That got me thinking a lot about scramblers, dirt bikes, and other off-road machines.

Then I came across this guy who swapped a Predator 212cc engine from Harbor Freight into a dirt bike frame.

The build isn’t the most elegant, but it definitely works. It’s some serious ingenuity, and skill that made this happen. I love out of the box thinking and this guy definitely made the dirt bike work.

Check out the video above and consider following the YouTube channel for more great content.

How He Did It

The build is essentially divided into three different parts:

1. Get an old dirt bike with a crap engine or no engine.
2. Weld in a frame section for the mounting of the Predator 212cc engine
3. Bolt it in there and hook up all the clutch and everything else.

You can buy a Predator 212cc engine here.

Get an Old Dirt Bike

He had one with no engine. It was basically an empty frame. I was thinking you could just buy the cheapest dirt bike you can find of craigslist or Facebook marketplace

Weld Up a Frame for the Predator Engine

The frame section you’ll need to weld to the actual frame of the bike needs to consist of a horizontal plate with four holes that you can bolt the engine to.

The engine mounts are on the bottom of the engine. You can remove the gas tank that comes with the engine like he does or keep and use the one that comes with it on there.

I’d suggest using a legit motorcycle or dirt bike gas tank. It’ll give you something to grip with your knees while you’re tearing up the trails

Bolt Everything Together

There are plenty of other videos and things out there showing you how to connect up a throttle cable, attach a clutch, and other parts of making the predator engine work in basically any bike.

I’d also say you’ll need to take off the governor for the engine. You won’t want to run the engine at full chuff all the time, but if you want to get going good and fast, you’ll need to remove that.