New guy here Port and Polish Question

[totalsnafu]

Hello fellow humans! I've begun my first DYI gas turbine engine build. I don't have the resources of you old-timers, but I've got the tools and basic knowledge to make this work (we'll see). I have a Holset HX-55 turbo that I'm currently rebuilding. It's in excellent shape, just has moderate carbon buildup in the usual places. My goal is to mount it onto a go-kart in the next couple months, but only after I'm confident that it'll work reliably and safely enough.....actually, falling a little short of lethal would be a start. Anyway....

The throat on the inducer is such a significant factor in producing thrust. I spent a lot of time porting and polishing my cousin's 13B rotary motor, with great results, so I'm wondering.....

1. Can I port and polish the compressor housing in any way to increase throat diameter, and thus increase mass air flow? I'm sure it won't be much that I can shave off the inlet, but 5% here and there adds up.

2. Would a conical fairing (spike) in front if the inducer aid in turbine acceleration/MAF?

3. Anyone have any advice on whether or not the hassle of adding a swirler to the combustor inlet would assist in combustor efficiency and/or ease of ignition? Or am I over-engineering this?

Thanks for your time!

[racket]

Hi

Welcome to the Group :-)

The addition of a bellmouth inlet will maximise the flow inlet efficiency .

A conical spike will need supports , they will probably reduce inlet efficiency so don't worry about fitting one .

A swirler surrounding the fuel nozzle is a good idea but it won't produce any more power output , thats mainly the result of turbine inlet temperatures .

One thing that will greatly influence your mass flow and power output is the size of the turbine stage driving the compressor wheel , a lot of "performance" turbos run "undersized" turb stages with a wastegate to maximise turbo acceleration ( minimal lag) , this isn't a good idea when making a gas turbine from a turbo , we need a well matched turbine stage , not too big , not too small , just right ...............so you'd better check your turbine stage size , ideally turbine wheel exducer area needs to be ~20% greater area than the compressor wheels inducer area .

Cheers
John