Author Topic: Team Unorthodux, the third year  (Read 41828 times)

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Offline mergatroyd

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Team Unorthodux, the third year
« on: March 24, 2015, 12:38:07 AM »
Well...

I find myself as team captain, chief builder, chief tuner, and chief know-it-all this year.  :mrgreen:

I've got the 749R from 2013, and the piston-supercharged single from last year that I didn't talk about.  I was at WOS and got lots of strange looks.

Looks like MPS-F 750 and M-BF 500 as classes.

Mostly fairing work on the 750, and tuning for methanol.

Rebuild the blower head for the 500, and tune it for methanol.  Oh, and re-design the entire intake tract...  :-P


When I know what I am doing, I'll probably be dead.
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2015, 12:36:54 AM »
This is us at WOS last year...
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline Grandpa Jones

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2015, 08:14:02 PM »
Cool! I dig singles, any more pics of the compressor set-up?

Cheers, Dave

Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2015, 12:40:59 AM »
From the other side:


During "test and tune"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiJ3FutBPn4

The crew chief ran over the camera right after the fuel truck, so we only have a few cell phone snaps and some pics new friends on the salt took.


That's a home-cast blower head on a formerly twin-combustion 1000 engine.  Two-stroke reed valve assemblies to make the blower head work.  It's a Rube Goldberg contraption with about as much engineering as you'd expect from a home builder with a degree in underwater basket-weaving.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2015, 01:29:58 AM by mergatroyd »
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2015, 01:35:23 AM »
But, not too bad overall
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline Rex Schimmer

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2015, 04:51:50 PM »
What is the displacement difference between the compressor side and the engine side? Do you run a reed valve on both the intake port and the outlet port of the compressor? If they are both the same displacement I would guess that you should be getting about a 2 to 1 ratio of compressor to engine which would be about a 1 bar inlet pressure. Do you run any type of volume chamber to try to attenuate the pressure spikes from the compressor section? Interesting project.

Rex
« Last Edit: March 30, 2015, 04:55:54 PM by Rex Schimmer »
Rex

Not much matters and the rest doesn't matter at all.

Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2015, 05:13:59 PM »
What is the displacement difference between the compressor side and the engine side? Do you run a reed valve on both the intake port and the outlet port of the compressor?

Rex
Thanks for the interest!

They are the same displacement.  The first blower head was capable of quite a bit of boost, but some serious inefficiency meant it generated a lot of heat really fast.  The new design and new fuel will hopefully mitigate some of that.

I run reed valves on both sides.  It doesn't seem to work as well if there isn't something to keep the compressed charge out of the compressor... which is probably why we got slower and slower throughout the meet.  Somewhere along the way the outlet reed gave up the ghost.

I don't have a calculated plenum volume, just a distance from the outlet to the intake valve.  I ran a blow-off valve as a pressure relief device because I was worried I might overwhelm the MAP sensor on the ECU.
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline Rex Schimmer

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2015, 06:12:24 PM »
My only thinking about running some sort of plenum was to have additional volume to reduce the pressure fluctuation at the engine inlet and also to your MAP sensor. Have you ever looked at the MAP while the engine was running? I would guess that you could be generating some heat as your compressor side is not very efficient. Put a jacket around the compressor cylinder and outlet and fill it full of ice. You say you changed fuel, alcohol?

Rex
Rex

Not much matters and the rest doesn't matter at all.

Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2015, 08:30:11 PM »
Yep, switching to methanol this year.  The learning curve on event gas was... enlightening.  I'd rather work with something I can source locally, and the other benefits are multiple.

The map sensor didn't show extreme fluctuations, and it reads right at the head for the working cylinder.  The working cylinder may not have liked it, but I couldn't tell with all the other learning opportunities.  :-D The outlet for the compressor opened into 2.5 inch ID silicon, aluminum pipe (maybe about a foot? 8-12 inches), then necked down to maybe 45mm ID from the throttle body on (~6-8 inches).  But a compelling case for a small intercooler.

With the compromise on top of compromise, I don't think an ice water jacket could have helped that compressor head.  Imagine everything you could do wrong given those design parameters... also the first thing I'd ever made out of liquid metal...
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline Rex Schimmer

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2015, 03:04:05 PM »
You said: " first thing I'd ever made out of liquid metal.." did you cast the head yourself? from aluminum? Any pics of the head itself?

Rex
Rex

Not much matters and the rest doesn't matter at all.

Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2015, 04:46:50 PM »
Yes on casting myself (with a little assistance) out of aluminum.

I used a lost foam process, and quickly learned a lot of things not to do.  I don't have any pictures that show it off the bike.

It looks pretty much like you'd expect on the inside, with a "Y" shaped passage to the piston working area.  The rectangle on top houses the two-stroke reed valve assemblies, with a third one sacrificed to make a spacer on the inlet side...

I probably should have started over after the first attempt... but I'm a stubborn one.  :-D 

Litany of learning points:
Risers are important
The pouring path must be thicker than the thickest part of the piece
Styrofoam is the wrong kind of foam (two reasons: the nasty stuff it releases when burned and the terrible surface texture it leaves)
Can't fix a giant inclusion by pouring more metal on top of it
Can't fix a giant inclusion with the jelly-stuff that plugs holes in engine blocks
Cutting a long slice of aluminum with a hacksaw is tedious
Water bonded sand doesn't work outside in the high desert in the summer (hence lost foam process after 17 failed attempts at making molds)
Not enough sand on top will let the casting bulge
Cylinder stud "locator dimples" don't stay lined up in a lost foam casting
Don't wait until June to try a new skill necessary for the plan to go racing in August

I probably forgot several things in there, but all that should give you the idea. 


I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline Rex Schimmer

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2015, 05:33:02 PM »
If nothing else you are certainly tenacious! An important thing in Salt racing.
As "they" say: When you learn by experience the test comes first and the lesson come afterward!

Rex
Rex

Not much matters and the rest doesn't matter at all.

Offline Koncretekid

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2015, 08:40:22 PM »
I remember seeing a Harley at Loring that was set up as yours.  I don't know the name of the owner, but Jesse over on the LTA site (actually rebuilding Joe Daley's old bike right now) will probably know something of this bike as the owner was/is still active at Loring.  Might have some insights for you.
Tom

Jesse's build is right here: http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,14392.0.html
« Last Edit: March 31, 2015, 08:42:43 PM by Koncretekid »
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Offline mergatroyd

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2015, 11:51:48 PM »
As "they" say: When you learn by experience the test comes first and the lesson come afterward!

Rex

Tell me about it!  I would say it's good for me and builds character, but my wife says I am already too much of a character.

I remember seeing a Harley at Loring that was set up as yours.  I don't know the name of the owner, but Jesse over on the LTA site (actually rebuilding Joe Daley's old bike right now) will probably know something of this bike as the owner was/is still active at Loring.  Might have some insights for you.
Tom

Jesse's build is right here: http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,14392.0.html

Thanks!
« Last Edit: March 31, 2015, 11:56:05 PM by mergatroyd »
I have no idea what I'm doing... but it seems to be working!

Offline tauruck

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Re: Team Unorthodux, the third year
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2015, 12:00:42 AM »
Awesome thread mergatroyd. I really like the post on casting. :cheers:

Regards, Mike.