I am not sure if having the air intake sticking out the sides is a good idea, it will add lots of drag and in case I tip the bike with the engine running it will ingest lots of dirt.
A quick peek at what I am cooking up at the moment, I have started to design a new 300hp gas turbine for the bike which should be ready to install in the frame in a year or two. I might have written something about it earlier but here is the story so far.
I have 3D printed out a split pattern for the compressor backplate that I need to get the build going, on the old engine I spent roughly 100 hours manually milling it from a solid chunk of aluminum so if this work it will save me lots of time.
I printed a 3D scanned version of the compressor wheel for comparation.
Here is the rear part of the pattern fitted with dowels.
Last night I made a pair of suitable sized flasks and tonight I made the sand pattern.
I sifted the sand closest to the pattern to get a smooth surface finish for the casting.
I used copper tubing to form the downpour and the vents, the downpour fits to the thickest part of the pattern that solidifies last.
Baby powder is brushed on the surface so the sand won´t stick together when I ram the sand in the second flask.
Looking really good! A couple of minor cracks on the diffusor wedges but that can easily be fixed on the cast part. Time to pull the second pattern from the sand.
I am very pleased with how easy the 3D printed PLA patterns release the sand, I haven´t even bothered to smooth out the raw printed surface with sand paper.
The plan is to cast the part on Friday, keep your fingers crossed!
Cheers!
/Anders