Author Topic: Australian Belly Tank  (Read 3171301 times)

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Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #240 on: July 16, 2007, 07:48:34 PM »
So you are going to build a wind tunnel...

Wow. Um... we have a 1:5 scale model of our car, any chance of sticking it in one day?

rH+

Offline Dr Goggles

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Meanwhile , back on earth.
« Reply #241 on: July 16, 2007, 09:02:04 PM »
On the weekend we continued on . The Rev' got busy building a bulkhead to isolate the engine section from the tail section...me? I got started on the gearshift...the more I thought about it the less inspired I felt so in the end I just held the selector shafts ( 3/4' round tube)together , drew a line across them and cut 'em , then welded them back in the reverse order , that worked .However while fooling around with it without the support gantry attached I glanced back at them and the rear shift seemed to have a lot , read LOT of slop...then it fell off....it was broken off right at the gearbox where normally there is just a tag with a nut holding it on. This I might add is a unique size, yes it looks like 3/8 unf but if you tighten one of those on it it's gone ...I think they're 11/32 , great!....Our contraption has a piece of square tube welded over this tag to extend it out about eight inches so the cables can meet it at right angles.Earlier in the day I mentioned to the Rev that sometimes I look at things we've made and struggle to remember actually doing them , because we were just so busy with it ....I was a bit puzzled as to how this piece got broken( stretched not sheared or bent) when the only force on it is the nut ( inside the tube , tightened with a long extension)that holds the selector tag to it .After a few days I think I now remember the specific moment when I tightened that nut :oops:....It's one thing to make something that works ................................................... it's another to make it strong enough to resist an ape swinging on it. :wink:

Right now I'm looking at getting a piece machined up , out of something hard with a usuable thread on it........on we go.
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 whitworthsocket

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #242 on: July 24, 2007, 08:51:05 AM »
I'm sure we can accommodate you at the right price!
I will keep you posted.
Regards Whitworthsocket

So you are going to build a wind tunnel...

Wow. Um... we have a 1:5 scale model of our car, any chance of sticking it in one day?

rH+
Regards
Whitworthsocket

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #243 on: August 18, 2007, 07:39:25 PM »
Got the gearbox selector drama sorted , built the double throttle body manifold with a bit of an extension to the plenum and have nearly finished the fuel tank.Put a cross piece over the tank outlet to defeat vortexes and a baffle to calm to return flow it looks pretty good but it turns out the carefully calculated extension to the filler neck is too long .......We're using the original filler from the Canberra tank which is a big brass screw in job about 3 inches across as the access in the body and then we have a 1inch screw-on weldable alloy filler in the actual tank

Colonel Grumm has assumed the job of making the progressive throttle body linkages much to my relief ....I'd stared at them for long enough and the administrator was tiring of them sitting on the kitchen table....


Had to replace some power tools this week and stock up on some expendables so it hasn't been cheap but onward we go......
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 Dr Goggles

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round and round the mulberry bush
« Reply #244 on: September 13, 2007, 09:29:36 PM »
Progress , slow , but progress all the same.

As with most of what we have been doing this year we tend to be re-making things we have already made at least once before .Sounds terribly inefficient doesn't it? Well, not having much to compare to and sticking firmly to my doctrine of "I'd rather make one badly myself that does the job than pay for one that doesn't' and the other firmly held belief that it's "more fun making it than working to pay for it " ( I can hear a few saying "Hallelujah Brother" ! there) we are getting closer to a car that we'll feel comfortable standing next to , while people pore over it and say things like " Yeah , 200 mile an hour you reckon? , do you think it's safe?"

It's sort of like packing a car for a holiday , we're trying to cram a lot of stuff in and each time we think we've done well we realize that we've left out the this or the that and it all comes out again and we manage to jam another piece of gear in there and hopefully make things work a little better.

I'd made the brake pedal and master cylinder set-up over a year ago and it had been put in position and been working though I hadn't been really happy with it .In the mean time a few things down at the drivers feet had changed a bit and the job of "just bolting the brake pedal in" got pushed aside.The pedal pivot had been a little sloppy so last week I made a new one which was a tighter fit and was hollow with a grease nipple and a series of holes around it, this was a great improvement .When we started on the job of installing it it didn't seem right , we ain't too proud to change or admit that our previous flashes of genius might have been more delusions of grandeur and so the back yard is the resting place for many pieces that have taken pride of place in the car only to be replaced when good sense or skill of manufacture prevailed.The clutch and throttle pedal are both foot shaped rocker pedals .This allows one to rest on the clutch by pressing toe down or release by pressing heel down , there is very little other room to put your left foot anywhere so a pedestal pedal was out of the question .The rocker throttle pedal means it works push-pull.These two pedals pivot on a piece of 2 inch angle which sits over the tie rods and pitman ( which is a dual eye number from a Kombi)as they run through the nose of the car , you don't want something getting mixed up with them during a run or worse still during an "upset".

The brake pedal arrangement was designed to pivot from the floor which at that point is angling steeply upwards.The problem with that is that the top of the master cylinder was very close to the pitman arm and when I looked at it I couldn't get the pedal far enough away from the driver ( for me , and the Rev struggles even more in the confined space :roll:), not how I wanted it.Each of the versions of this pedal I've made have been done so I could flip the master cylinder in order to pivot from below or above and that's what we decided to do.Fortunately there was enough room next to the steering box, beside the knuckle, under the top frame rail and above the tie rod cover to fit the requisite pieces in. In the end the mount for the cylinder ,the pedal pivot I'd made that week and , um , nothing else remained from what was the "final design" .....the neat looking pedal box was hacked away , a new pedal arm was fabbed and the link position for the push rod was changed .....never say never I say!!!

While this was going on The Rev was busy trying to work out where we would mount the cockpit switch-bay.Now ,no amount of good ideas , experience or sense was gonna change how this went because it had to be where we could reach it with arm straps on, and where it would fit.That turned out to be at shoulder height behind the front hoop .The Rev spent a bit of time mocking up a floor console because one place we have got room is under our knees when strapped in and I figured while sitting in the car that it was probably safer down there and easy to reach , not for the Rev , I trusted his word that he "couldn't see what was going on down there" :lol: :lol: :lol:

Last week we made a bit of progress down the back with the fuel tank , fuel pump , fuel lines and keeping heat away from the above.We made a sandwich out of two sheets of polished Al with a piece of cement sheet between to sit over the rear exhaust collector , the fuel tank sits an inch above this and radiated heat was a great concern here as we are intent on having the exhaust route out the rear of the car rather than running zoomies or side-winders.I made a mounting clamp for the fuel pump out of a piece of 2 inch exhaust tube with a pinch bolt and a bit of angle so it bolts nicely to the rear bulkhead under the fuel tank We had already installed steel lines tightly clipped along the outside of the frame but when we looked at it all we figured that when things got hot in the car we'd have hot fuel too.We have run rubber lines inside fibreglass sleeve with foil braid along the side of the water tank as it is the best combo of avoiding the scatter shield and all the "hot-spots" to be found along the way.

Colonel Grumm got the linkage on the dual throttle body manifold working , nicely too .He said "you're gonna have to weld that up again coz it leaks like crazy"......" how did you work that out " I asked ....."well when I pulled it out of my parts washer there was fluid pissing out everywhere!".............."Oh" :oops: :oops: He also made a neat cable arrangement that will replace the Hillbilly one that a certain Doctor made, hey , it worked!

I'll have a fast net-connection next week so I might even post some photo's...

Be good everyone :wink:
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 Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #245 on: September 15, 2007, 03:38:54 AM »
Ok , I've arrived in the 21st century with a thump , cable internet ......here's some shots of the bellytank .................actually for the moment they're offline
This is a horizontal front on showing the frontal area , taken shortly after we put the car on the ground for the very first time about two years ago

« Last Edit: September 13, 2008, 11:30:04 PM by Dr Goggles »
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 Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #246 on: September 15, 2007, 03:40:00 AM »
oh , while I'm here ...more



Dr Strangelove anyone?


« Last Edit: September 13, 2008, 11:42:12 PM by Dr Goggles »
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 Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #247 on: September 15, 2007, 03:44:43 AM »
here's a view from the right side before we worked out the manifold , as it appears here it is backwards , the normal orientation would mean that the throttle body wouldn't have cleared the water tank, however this way there is no room for the alternator.....

so we chopped the top off it and mounted the throttle body vertically , then we thought "well there is room for two."...

so.....

This is the dual throttle body manifold , we increased the size of the plenum from the single version, we went with simultaneous opening


Here we have the rear bulkhead showing the new Al fuel tank , lines and forward of that the water tank

« Last Edit: September 17, 2007, 06:52:11 AM by Dr Goggles »
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 JackD

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #248 on: September 15, 2007, 06:58:36 AM »
OHOH, I broke it.
I got the narrative just fine and lots of blank space for what I am sure are great pictures. :-(
"I would rather lose going fast enough to win than win going slow enough to lose."
"That horrible smell is dirty feet being held to the fire"

Offline gazza414

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #249 on: September 15, 2007, 09:21:06 AM »
Stewie...you been on the piss tonight...not lookin good pal
1 FAST HAYABUSA 217.443mph so far
9 Official Timeslips over 200mph
Very much the apprentice

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #250 on: September 15, 2007, 10:31:59 AM »
Ta , Gazza , actually they're there....it has something to do with the link,at various times I've refreshed the page and different variations have appeared ....some photo's one time others the next....F.I.I.K.W....trust me ( or someone else ) I'll get better at this.....

......there second try I've tuned it a bit ....it has something to do with the MSN site ......couldn't do all the shots at once ....I should use a Mexican provider :lol: :lol: :lol:

Ok I've fixed it with photobucket......
Now , once we've sorted this car we've got plenty to go on with.....
« Last Edit: September 16, 2007, 08:12:11 PM by Dr Goggles »
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 Dr Goggles

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Ike Andy
« Reply #251 on: September 16, 2007, 10:55:22 PM »
Ok , I've mentioned at various times we have another motor..


It's a 3.6litre all Aluminium 60 degree V6 quad overhead with vari-cam on both the inlet and exhausts .They are quoted at 195KW which is high 200's in Horsepower at 6500rpm. It has a servo throttle and a split plenum which can change from a dual to single plane, these may well be chucked we're not sure yet.The reason we've stuck with the early 90 degree motor for the time being is that we will need to make a bell-housing  and study up on the computer stuff for this motor before we can use it , It's a pity because straight up it should be fast ( in fact on a recent holiday to NZ we hired the low spec version and I have a speedo shot that....um , not here :wink:), it was a present from the local arm of GM........we couldn't believe their generosity as it came complete , brand new with no strings attached....

Now ,here's me getting the bottom end that we are using in the mean time out of my brothers old car...it had a few miles on it but it came from the country , they'd had it since new and let's just say he drives like an old woman so it was a good get....
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 simplybebop

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #252 on: October 03, 2007, 01:02:48 AM »
how much are you expecting to weight when its all said and done minus driver?

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #253 on: October 03, 2007, 03:05:09 AM »
how much are you expecting to weight when its all said and done minus driver?

It's only a guess but at the moment I'd be surprised if it's over 2500llbs .We've been trying to make it heavy on the advice of others who've built here , shouldn't be too long before we can weigh it..............why you ask huh?

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 simplybebop

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #254 on: October 03, 2007, 04:04:16 PM »
i just bought a f15 600 gallon tank that im designing the chassis for now, just wondering the weight of yours so i can get a general idea.