|
|
Post by racket on May 20, 2020 23:27:12 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 20, 2020 23:29:48 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 20, 2020 23:31:46 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 20, 2020 23:38:50 GMT -5
Getting ready for the first ride , bike fired up and untethered from the clothsline pole , and me trying to summons up the balls to throw my leg over her and take her for a spin up the road  Coming back from the first ride , LOL ...........I don't look very comfortable in the saddle :-(  |
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 20, 2020 23:50:24 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 21, 2020 0:50:18 GMT -5
And now for the hard part , typing up the story .
The turbine bike idea came out of the failures of my turbocharged motorcycle to stay alive whilst the turbocharger had no problems pumping out the boost , so a decision to ditch the pistons and go turbine was made even though I had very little knowledge about them , but a friend had told me stories about the turbo on his bulldozer that kept spooling even when the engine was shutdown , it was feeding on the heat within the engine as "fuel" to heat the air enough to keep the turbine stage going , only a bucket of water down the exhaust pipe would stop it screaming .
A kids book from the local library on jet engines with a drawing of the RR Nene engine with all its temps and pressures that could be easily be replicated by a turbo convinced me it was possible , so extra research was required in the form of some weighty texts on aero sized engines that made the point that size does matter when it comes to turbines , so the little RayJay turbo off the bike was put aside and the TV84 from a 475 HP Detroit Diesel engine was sourced .
Unfortunately the turbo came with an undersized turb stage , and not knowing any different I attempted to use it :-(
All was OK without a jetnozzle attached as temperatures were low enough not to cause problems , but once some backpressure was put on the engine from adding a nozzle , surge reared its ugly head requiring a change to a large scroll A/R , which also proved to be wanting once P2 pressures were increased and temp rose, the result was a bent shaft and a very expensive rebuild .
Not knowing the cause of the failure I persevered with the undersized stage until a second failure meant a change of turbine size , both wheel and scroll A/R to the biggest possible , a "fat" 1.84 A/R doughnut .
The second failure was only turb tip edges broken/thrown off , a failure the repair shop recognised as a surge failure , they'd seen similar in turbos that guys were taking off large earthmoving equipment and fitting to automobiles , this was in the 1990s well before turbo cars became common place so lots of experimenting going on with DIY mechanics in backyard sheds.
The new larger turb wheel and scroll fixed the surge problems and it was time to start development proper, to maximise thrust output .
To this end I rigged up a stand which allowed the entire bike to be suspended and the thrust measured by spring balances either side of the jet nozzle .............I'll find some pics and get back :-)
Cheers
John
|
|
|
|
Post by turboron on May 21, 2020 7:13:27 GMT -5
John, looking forward to the next chapter of the "Story".
Thanks, Ron
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 21, 2020 17:46:21 GMT -5
Hi Ron LOL............this is gunna be a bit of a "marathon" I feel , lotsa of old CDs to go through . Finally found a pic of the thrust testing stand , bit fuzzy as its off a pre digital print  And a latter test stand test with the BIG ejector pipe   An experiment which was cut short by me going to a freepower setup but not before attempting to get the bike mobile under just thrust power which finalised in me walking the bike around the backyard , heh heh , still didn't have the balls to ride her.      Cheers John |
|
|
|
Post by pitciblackscotland on May 21, 2020 22:54:52 GMT -5
Hi John,
Thanks for sharing your photos of Frank!! There is a lot of history of your development of the turbine bike that i see. LOL wish you were my neighbour back then as i was playing around with cars in my teens, this would of been a lot more interesting and fun!.
Cheers,
Mark.
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 21, 2020 23:34:31 GMT -5
Hi Mark After looking through all these old CDs I can understand where the decades have gone , not a miss spent youth, but miss spent latter life  Some pics of the flametube    These look like latter pics as I've added a row of extra cooling holes at the Primary Zone where the wall was getting a bit cooked , the 0.5mm stainless was a bit thin , hence my current use of 1.2mm sheeting in my engines. Cheers John |
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 21, 2020 23:51:01 GMT -5
And a little dead end bit of development where I tried using the gearbox from the original Suzuki GS750 engine , I used a hand wood saw , one of those ones with very sharp heat treated blading , to seperate the gearbox from the rest of the engine , I was going to fit the shaft and 10" dia turbine wheel from an ALCO locomotive turbocharger I'd sourced, to mate with the clutch gear . I'd already had the "pinion" gear cut into the quill of the turb shaft when my mate Andrew in Melbourne sourced me the 3rd stage Allison freepower wheel , a much more appropriate wheel that deserved a better gearing solution . Pics are fuzzy as they weren't digital   |
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 22, 2020 0:07:39 GMT -5
Heh Heh , found a couple of "3 inch discs" all of 1.44MB capacity with pics on them , but can't open them ............dinosaurs :-)
|
|
|
|
Post by racket on May 22, 2020 0:35:39 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by pitciblackscotland on May 22, 2020 4:18:47 GMT -5
Hi John, That locomotive turbine wheel looks similar to the one i have  Do you think you could use a electric motor instead of the two stroke motor  Cheers, Mark.   |
|
|
|
Post by enginewhisperer on May 22, 2020 7:46:10 GMT -5
I like how you're still using the same fuel tank and some of the instrumentation |
|
Do you think you could use a electric motor instead of the two stroke motor 
