Author Topic: Australian Belly Tank  (Read 3171034 times)

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Offline salt27

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5730 on: February 27, 2020, 10:07:05 PM »
I just googlised the Stein family name: you might be surprised how many named their daughter Phyllis.


Probably just the "Steinway" of naming their daughters.

Perhaps after a "grand"mother.     :roll:

Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5731 on: March 10, 2020, 10:47:01 PM »
Rev H+ here,

knowing I always hang out for info, thought I'd better fill in our friends and followers with an update.

The motor is definitely in for dyno. Has been for a couple of days but some elements are refusing to play.

Lost ignition for a while but Graeme has recovered that and endeavouring to get it on song.

Hopefully issues resolved soon... shall report further when I know.

rH+

Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5732 on: March 11, 2020, 09:44:57 PM »
Current report is engine is running, but not properly. Still trying to diagnose and fix.

rH+

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5733 on: March 12, 2020, 05:47:02 PM »
Well we're out.

Couldn't get any consistency on the dyno and although the motor was making over 60psi in oil pressure there is suspicion a bearing might be bad.

Struggled with fuel mapping too.

This motor has already gobbled up twice what we spent on the previous three and it hasn't run in anger yet, let alone set any records. Feeling sore about the whole thing but also incredibly grateful to those who've thrown their time and effort in, Graham and Ian Powell.

Its part of why we do this I guess......
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 Interested Observer

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5734 on: March 12, 2020, 06:27:43 PM »
Are you still using Electromotive?   Ref. reply 4909 this thread.

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5735 on: March 12, 2020, 07:50:28 PM »
Motec now.
I wasn't at the dyno Grumm441 was with the operator.
It went to the trouble of smoking a bunch of new ignition parts before it decided it wanted to quit.

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 Elmo Rodge

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5736 on: March 12, 2020, 10:03:42 PM »
That's OK. You can go to the Formula 1 Race. Oh. Never mind.
Wayno

Offline salt27

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5737 on: March 12, 2020, 11:26:43 PM »
Nuts

Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5738 on: March 12, 2020, 11:47:35 PM »
That's OK. You can go to the Formula 1 Race. Oh. Never mind.
Wayno
That was the only solace, could relax and watch the F1. Reckon our boy Daniel and Renault might be a team that is better than it looks...

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5739 on: March 19, 2020, 03:49:19 PM »
Here's a post I put on Zuckerbook, yes it's true we nearly had it ready to go with the old motor....

So purely for entertainment purposes this is how it all went down. The world is gripped by an unprecedented threat and yet my friends and I continued on desperately trying to get ready for Australian Speedweek with the Spirit of Sunshine.
We were given a Chevrolet V6 race motor by Robin Dripps from Virginia in 2016 and it took us two years to get it fitted to the car. Due to issues with the engine management computer, although we had the motor running and took the car to Speedweek 2018 we were unable to make a run. We didn't come up with a useful plan and failed to make the cut for 2019 but at that point I made a commitment that whatever else happened it would be there in 2020, it was at Speedweek 2019 that Marcus Thomson and James McMurtrie introduced me to Lee Smits after I told them I was thinking of looking for someone local to me in Lancefield who could help with preparing the car, I needed to commit to at least a day a week to make it happen. Just to rewind a bit I built the car with Dik Jarman an architect and animator... if you like the way the Spirit of Sunshine looks it is all down to Dik. Not long after we started Gray Hadley came on board, he is someone who if it flys floats fires or  even just sits there he probably knows how it works.. The car exceeded everyone's expectations and set an Australian record with a Holden V6 power-plant running 215.041mph in 2013. By 2014 we'd worked out to beat the US record in our class of 236 mph we would need something like 460 horsepower. One morning in 2016 I got an email and at first I thought it was a prank....someone wanted to give us a 500hp V6, all we had to do was pay the freight and insurance from LA and it was ours. I messaged a few landspeed racing friends in the US, "do you know Robin Dripps? She wants to give us a chev V6...".. It checked out, the process started. We needed a new gearbox, our "Aussie" 4 speed was not going to be strong enough. Another friend we 'd made over the years Andy Welker who'd built an incredible bellytank in Pennsylvania offered to help, he had a G-Force  super close ratio T101 type 4 speed and had made his own "shorty" conversion..." "I've got it all on CAD, give me $200 and I'll CNC it for you"... In all it cost nearly 10 grand but we had the ultimate gearbox and the close ratio aspect meant we weren't going to "fall over" on the 3-4 shift....race engines, specifically landspeed engines make all their power at high revs, if you fall out of the powerband when going into the next gear you can't accelerate so an ideal box has a high first gear and small percentage drops between gears...this box had 20/19/18% everything was looking good.
Lee and I started working every Friday, just doing what I'd call housework, tidying things up, doing jobs on the car that had been neglected over the years, tidying up the wholesale changes that happened when the motor swap was done. The original motor used a total loss cooling system, a 60 litre water tank and the exhaust was routed through the body exiting at the very tip of the tail. The new Chev motor was physically bigger and meant we had to send the exhaust out the sides and use a radiator with a fan. The initial install was pretty rushed and there was a lot of tidy up that needed to be done and there was also a bunch of stuff that was busted and fried from a few years of towing it out to Lake Gairdner.
I'd been hassling Graham that we needed to get the motor on the dyno up in Shepparton mid year but various things happened and that didn't get any air. This is an amateur game and everyone has a life and life as we know gets in the way. In the meantime Gray had bought Wayne Mumford's Waza Vudu  Bellytank  as Wayne had made the decision to simplify his life and leave bellytanks to idiots like us... It is hard building a bellytank, it is just as hard reworking one that someone else has built... So, we had a strange motor that didn't seem to want to run because someone in the States had lost the code for the bin file that would allow us to remap the engine management computer and a car that was "nearly" ready but not quite....
We decided to ditch the original Electromotive engine management on the Chev and use an Australian built Motec...
The motor didn't get to the dyno until three weeks before we were due to leave for Speedweek.  It took a day to set it up and on the second day I spoke to Gray and there was no joy, the motor wouldn't run. Was it the fuel? they didn't know... A plan was made to return the next week. They did and Gray had some ideas but as time went on there was no consistency, each time they chased out a problem another one appeared and then it fried a bunch of new expensive ignition parts. A change of tack still gave no consistency and by Wednesday, ten days before we were to leave for Speedweek the pin was pulled, whatever was happening the Chev wasn't going to make it to Lake Gairdner. I had leave booked  and Thursday was my last day, I called in sick, I was so pissed off I figured the last place I should be was at work... I'd been working at least a day a week all year and spent a massive amount of money since we'd got this motor in, and now it had gone to shit.
Cassie decided not to come seeings how the car wouldn't run, but I was still going...I spent a day in a mix of shock and anger. My sister Ruth called and said in light of the Covid 19 situation that I, with emphysema, probably shouldn't go... I had to, it's my thing, friends were coming from the States.... I promised her if I got a fever or a sore throat that I'd come straight home.
The Spirit of Sunshine has always run in E(3-4.3Litre) Gas (petrol) class... and still holds the record, but the Fuel record is what is referred to as "soft" at 155mph.... after some phone calls and grinding of teeth I decided we weren't going to lie down. Despite all the structural changes that had been made to the car to fit the Chev we would reinstate the Holden V6 and run against the fuel class record.Gray had suggested the move and initially I rejected it saying " no point, it won't go any faster"..... but that's where we went. I tracked down all the removed parts and got the motor and box bolted together and washed two years of shed grime off them, it took a while but I found everything ....there had been no plan to ever go back... By Saturday night I had it all sitting in place it needed engine mounts , a gearbox cross-member and wiring and we were ready to go. Graham and Lee arrived on Sunday and by 5 o'clock we had a cross-member, engine mounts ready to weld in and wiring mostly done. Scott Morison announced a 14 day isolation order on international arrivals but it was too late to persuade Stainless and JohnBoy to stay in the US, then as we feared and as was right the meet was cancelled because of restrictions on gatherings over 500 people.

it was over.

Our plan now is to strip the Chev and do a ground up measure and check. The car will have the capability to mount either motor and with a few changes both motors will run the G-Force box.

Compared to what is going on in the world right now this is a mere trifle but it's our trifle and we're going to keep doing it because we love what we do. My friendship with the people I've met through this pursuit and the single minded commitment to making it happen is one of the most intense and fulfilling things I've done in my life.

Look after yourselves everyone, we'll get through this and we will come out better and stronger.
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 salt27

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5740 on: March 19, 2020, 09:59:39 PM »
Thanks for the update. 

  Don

Offline Stan Back

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5741 on: March 20, 2020, 09:03:23 PM »
Good to hear from you.  You've got a few more years in you ? the fuel record's in your grasp.  Sounds like you did the smart thing by now setting up for both engines.  Robin's such a great person ? hope you can give her a record in both Gas and Fuel when you get it sorted out.

I know what I'd do ? no fuses involved.  Hilborns with the washing machine pump and an old Mallory mag.  (Maybe that's why I'm not racing any more.)

Stan
Past (Only) Member of the San Berdoo Roadsters -- "California's Most-Exclusive Roadster Club" -- 19 Years of Bonneville and/or El Mirage Street Roadster Records

Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5742 on: March 21, 2020, 12:01:14 AM »
I am pretty sure that the car Marlo has down there has mechanical fuel injection.  It might be a good place to look to see an example.     

Offline kiwi belly tank

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5743 on: March 21, 2020, 01:17:43 AM »
I've spent what seems like a lifetime :roll: with blowers, mechanical fuel leakers & Mags & will also be going through a learning curve with with the new liner. Turbos, Fuel EFI, dual crank trigger ignition & this thing called a laptop!
I'm gunna miss stabbing the mag, buzzing it, leaking the barrel valve & making an educated guess at the pill! :-(
  Sid. 

Offline ggl205

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #5744 on: March 21, 2020, 10:17:30 AM »
Anybody heard from Stainless or Johnboy? Just wondering if they are still touring Australia in a motorhome. Sent a couple of text messages but no word back. There was some talk that the US government sent out a message that all US citizens return home from foreign countries or hunker down for the duration. That could be months.

John