Engine driven compressor with power turbine idea

[parkland]

Hi all, long time no chat.
So I built from scratch a side by side go kart.
Made the frame from steel and used a Toyota 5 speed manual trans and transfer case and Toyota axles.
For an engine I used a 418cc air cooled diesel and belt clutch setup and chain reduction drive onto an adapter into the Toyota transmission.
This last weekend, the engine cracked in half. Looked like maybe some bolts worked loose that held the back plate on the case and it lost strength and just vibrated the top of the block off.
Seeing as how I need a new power plant and I always wanted to do some turbine ideas, I'm here to ask about an idea I had.

What if somewhere I mount say a 8hp gas engine driving an air compressor of some type, and then use the turbine section of a turbo driving a reduction gearbox to the transmission?
Sort of a hybrid unit. Converting a turbo to a turboshaft would be just so laggy and only work at full power really.
I'm thinking a motor powering the compressor stage would work great. Any ideas guys?

[racket]

Hi

8 HP won't do anything as the power for an air compressor feeding a turbine :-( a small GT40 sized turbo's comp wheel consumes >80 HP from its turb wheel

LAG, ...... what lag .... LOL, you need to reassess that, a turbo based gas turbine engine's gas propducer accelerates as quickly as an IC engine , a gas turbine engine idles at ~40% of max RPM , it takes no time to reach 100% .

There are heaps of turbine shaft powered examples in the DIY Section .

Cheers
John

[parkland]

Alright.
I finally might have time and money to fool around. Even got a tig welder to do things the mig can't.

From reading it seems I can make the power turbine from mild steel right?

For the gas producer what size of turbo should I be looking for if the system goal is 30 to 50 hp?

[racket]

Maybe a turbo with a comp inducer of ~70mm or bigger .

If your freepower wheel is made from mild steel , you'll need to keep rpm and temperatures at modest levels , not an easy job if you want horsepower , probably easier to use a HX82 turbine stage

[parkland]

Feb 23, 2023 23:22:27 GMT -5 racket said:

Maybe a turbo with a comp inducer of ~70mm or bigger .

If your freepower wheel is made from mild steel , you'll need to keep rpm and temperatures at modest levels , not an easy job if you want horsepower , probably easier to use a HX82 turbine stage

Looks like an hx82 is a pricey unit 😳.

Maybe I can think about making the power turbine with stainless housing and stainless fins on the turbine to help .

[racket]

Yep , stainless blades will help

[parkland]

I'm thinking for a simple design for the power turbine to take a steel hub maybe 4 inch diameter and 2 inch depth, drill holes around the outside of it where they are partially open towards the outside and I can use pins to lock in place strips of material as the vanes. This way the vane strips don't need to be the same material as the hub. And could be replaced too. I'd imagine the vanes and outside of the assembly would be the hottest.

I'll look through here more today. I'm so lucky to have you guys to answer questions I may have asked years ago and forgot 😅

[racket]

jetandturbineowners.proboards.com/thread/680/diy-turbines?page=1

[parkland]

Feb 24, 2023 15:22:46 GMT -5 racket said:

jetandturbineowners.proboards.com/thread/680/diy-turbines?page=1

Too bad images don't load for me 😔

[racket]

Did you click on the icons ??