Author Topic: Australian Belly Tank  (Read 3171797 times)

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Offline Ron Gibson

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1140 on: April 11, 2010, 10:43:05 AM »
Oil aeration
Years ago (early 80's) Al was having trouble aerating the oil on his liner. We were talking to the guys with the Howe Welding Special modified. They said they had that problem until they started using an anti-foam additive. They said it cost $25 a quart at that time. Pricey, but cheap if it works and saves parts.
Google anti foaming and a bunch of sites come up. Good luck

Ron
Life is an abrasive. Whether you get ground away or polished to a shine depends on what you are made of.

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1141 on: April 11, 2010, 11:02:02 PM »
Hey Ron, interesting, thanks for the tip . Priceless this site.
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

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Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1142 on: April 21, 2010, 07:55:07 AM »
I've been enjoying myself lately for a number of reasons.....last week I heard a song I hadn't heard for a very long time , in an incongruous place. Joe Walsh's song "Life's been good" rang out at work, I could hear it from my office , I'm a case manager for homeless men, now I'm sure you can see the irony of a bunch of blokes who live on the street singing along to a guy singing about a life of grand excess....I used to love that song when it came out, in 1978. And to be sure life has been good, though I have to admit on a much more modest scale than it has or had to Joe....but there I sat thinking how well the tank had gone this year, how my ankle was better than I'd hoped it would be after the bike crash in 08 and how I'd had a lot of fun playing music lately.

I got back last night from visiting Brett de Stoop up near Sydney so I could get the basics together for an article that we hope to be able to sell to some magazines. Simon Davidson a salt fan and photographer for some of the country's bigger car and bike mags amongst other things had called me right about the time that I'd been thinking how much I'd like to write a story about Brett and wondering if on some slim chance he'd be interested in doing it with me. Brett is a very clever guy who has achieved something great but there is a whole lot more to him than that. Some people just want to take their ride "out there , just to see what it'll do"...Brett is on a grand pursuit to take his know-how and his ability to see what it will do, he is a massive ball of energy and a fierce creative force who will freely admit it frightens the bejesus out of him. He will also openly describe how the death of his brother and a broken relationship created a blizzard that kept him focused on the bike as a way of avoiding the pain around him.Many of the regulars here will envy the ability to devote so much time but it has been a strange compromise between therapy and self harm.

It is simply fun as he says , theatre that he can perform in and he lights up even when describing what he likes about it let alone the process itself. He regularly says "if that (some particular idea)hadn't worked I probably wouldn't have gone on with it( the whole bike)"....but it doesn't take long to workout that very few things he does are stabs in the dark and he has a clinical way of developing things that eschews "hunches" in favour of plotting out parameters and cooly analyzing the effects that singular changes have.Most of the items that are used on the race bike have been dynoed on a single cylinder test motor, pipes compared , ports compared...he loves to describe the stock 50hp Waterbottle motor as a "lawnmower motor". He's very patient when you ask questions in an effort to consolidate what he has told you because it is often overwhelming and he has a great way of listening to you as you struggle to explain what you understand of what he has said......

We got there around lunch time  Brett had put the naked bike together so it looked complete but without the internals , Simon began set up his gear I sat next to Brettie in his dyno shed as he explained that he felt too many people got caught up "tinkering" when they should take that extra step to make their own repeatable version so they had "room to move" and could genuinely "think outside the box"............it was as he said when he made the molds for the block that he could really mess with it and eliminate the compromises that he knew the original designers had made....

Bretts motor is way over square and as he said "anyone who knows their two stroke stuff knows that just by increasing the stroke I will get proportional gains, this motor , the thousand, is like a lame 1500, that's what the bore is ideal for.......I've got heaps to do yet"

I got back home close to midnight , with some notes and some voice recordings...and a lot of writing to do....

Moving right along I have finally bought the Torsen diff centre that we will be using in the tank so we can run numerically lower final drives . Shamelessly we are copying Sparky's ideas for his rear end , it's a 7 and a 1/2 inch 10 bolt that came from Arkansas and has just arrived at ground central, AzTex Motorsports in Phoenix.....we're going to marshall parts there before getting them back here via Bonneville... as the Rev says we try to surround ourselves with clever people and ask lots of questions and I don't need to tell anyone here that Bill Smith is way , way up there and we feel privileged that he even returns our emails...let alone helps, thanks Sparky.

This week I'm talking to an engine builder about modding some roller rockers for our motor and sourcing some solid lifters  we're also going to get him to fit some bigger valves to the heads....46 weeks to go.

Anyway, besides all that I bought another Fender Telecaster this week, life is good.
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline Graham in Aus

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1143 on: April 21, 2010, 08:05:17 PM »
Great writing Dr G, real insight into the man and his machine, I look forward to be able to buy the magazine and in a small way contribute to the progress of the Spirit of Sunshine !  :cheers:

Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1144 on: April 21, 2010, 11:40:53 PM »
Rocky Robinson has a nice little publication and he prints a lot of land speed stuff.  He is a forum member.  Classic Bike Guide, an English magazine, published an article I wrote about my Triumph a few years ago.  They might be interested.

The magazines are in a financial pinch right now and they might not pay what the article is worth.  A book may be a better deal for you guys in the long term.  A magazine article is a one-shot deal, but a book sells for a long time.

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1145 on: April 22, 2010, 04:14:41 AM »
Rocky Robinson has a nice little publication and he prints a lot of land speed stuff.  He is a forum member.  Classic Bike Guide, an English magazine, published an article I wrote about my Triumph a few years ago.  They might be interested.

The magazines are in a financial pinch right now and they might not pay what the article is worth.  A book may be a better deal for you guys in the long term.  A magazine article is a one-shot deal, but a book sells for a long time.
Hey wobbles
what with this internet thing here was me thinking they didn't make books anymore... :roll: but yes of course in a way you are right, thing is the weigh-in is pretty big for that stuff, we are looking at more general/human interest type publications as we believe his story has a wider audience than the purely tech-head crowd ...that said it's appeal to them is strong because he's the real deal......
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline SPARKY

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1146 on: April 22, 2010, 10:19:25 AM »
Good Dr Goggles --- If you don't watch out the KiWis will be over trying to get Brett to change islands  :evil:
Miss LIBERTY,  changing T.K.I.  to noise, dust, rust, BLUE HATS & hopefully not scrap!!

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."   Helen Keller

We are going to explore the racing N words NITROUS & NITRO!

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1147 on: May 20, 2010, 02:32:45 AM »
Ok peeps, it's alright we're still here. In the interim I've been talking with our man in Az Sparky who has been very very helpful with the 10bolt sitch, we have also found a guy here in Aus who it looks like has enough experience with them to get some decent assembly done ....the issue is we want to keep the Ford axles when we go to the GM diff. It turns out that the 28splines will fit either. Bill is looking out for 2.41 and 2.56 sets for the Torsen carrier and then we'll be on the way.

Back here , I have found a set of series three heads for our Buick based Holden V6 with roller rockers, huge valves and a big porting job. I got in touch with the workshop who did them in the first place and the build cost is about three times the asking on flea-bay .....but we do have to ship them across the country if we are the successful bidders.........
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline Rob

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1148 on: May 20, 2010, 05:04:05 AM »
Doc,

Check out trucking companies, backloads W.A. heading east are usually cheap thanks to lack of freight headed that direction.

Cheers,
Rob

Offline SPARKY

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1149 on: May 20, 2010, 11:07:27 AM »
oooh ---so we are trying to give the V-6 a bigger bite and a louder bark for next meet----you load that puppy up with the taller gears----an I bet we see and smell more oil next year... :-D sounds like more fun to me
Miss LIBERTY,  changing T.K.I.  to noise, dust, rust, BLUE HATS & hopefully not scrap!!

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."   Helen Keller

We are going to explore the racing N words NITROUS & NITRO!

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1150 on: May 20, 2010, 05:38:12 PM »
Doc,

Check out trucking companies, backloads W.A. heading east are usually cheap thanks to lack of freight headed that direction.

Cheers,
Rob

Nah, it's Darwin!but good point , there's probably an even greater proportion ......

oooh ---so we are trying to give the V-6 a bigger bite and a louder bark for next meet----you load that puppy up with the taller gears----an I bet we see and smell more oil next year... :-D sounds like more fun to me

Geez, don't put the hoo-doo on us..... :wink:

I got some pics of the chamber on the heads we're bidding on, you can't fit any bigger valves than the one's they've squeezed into 'em, nice porting and blending too.
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline grumm441

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1151 on: May 21, 2010, 07:49:36 AM »
I got some pics of the chamber on the heads we're bidding on, you can't fit any bigger valves than the one's they've squeezed into 'em, nice porting and blending too.
oooh ---so we are trying to give the V-6 a bigger bite and a louder bark for next meet----you load that puppy up with the taller gears----an I bet we see and smell more oil next year... :-D sounds like more fun to me

Last year it sounded like an old 173ci holden six thru a hot dog muffler
The first time we started it this year, you could tell it was going to be faster
to quote Goggles "this certianly converts hydrocarbons into motion much better than than my last car"
G
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Spirit of Sunshine Bellytank Lakester
https://www.dlra.org.au/rulebook.htm

Offline SPARKY

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1152 on: May 21, 2010, 09:37:24 AM »
NO      to      hoo-do

yes      to    more     MO-JO    :-o      :cheers:
Miss LIBERTY,  changing T.K.I.  to noise, dust, rust, BLUE HATS & hopefully not scrap!!

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."   Helen Keller

We are going to explore the racing N words NITROUS & NITRO!

Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1153 on: May 22, 2010, 09:01:37 AM »
Back here , I have found a set of series three heads for our Buick based Holden V6 with roller rockers, huge valves and a big porting job. I got in touch with the workshop who did them in the first place and the build cost is about three times the asking on flea-bay .....but we do have to ship them across the country if we are the successful bidders.........
Looks like somebody won 'em.  Are you the successful bidder?
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #1154 on: May 22, 2010, 11:12:44 PM »
That certain somebody ......would be ME!!!!!

Now, we mix some gasoline with some of that lovely Lake Gairdner air........
and we poke it in

here.........


it comes out the big valve ....here



and it goes BANG.....then it goes out the little valve...and out through here...



then these things go up and down a bit more and it all happens over again, and again, and.....



la la la la la la

haven't had my grubbys on them yet as they're on the other side of the country but it won't be long....
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.