Landspeed bike with DIY gas turbine

[Johansson]

Oct 3, 2013 19:05:16 GMT -5 pitciblackscotland said:

Hi Anders,
It will be interesting to see what temps you get coming out of the free power compared to what Andrew was getting.
Good Luck with the test.

Cheers,
Mark..

I am only measuring the interstage temp right now, later I will fit more temp and pressure probes and log the values on an Arduino board. Any more gauges and I would have a hard time watching them all during the test. Sensory overload...

Thanks again all of you, hope the test makes an interesting video even if the language spoken is a bit difficult to follow. I´ll make sure the video text is in english for you.

Cheers!
/Anders

[racket]

Hi Anders

Your 100th page for the build Thread , seems appropriate for this moment :-)

Theres a lotta guys wishing they could take your place on Sunday .............me included , we'll all be thinking of you and wishing you the most pleasant of rides, you deserve it after all the work you've put into the bike .

Heh heh , don't worry about the language .............us guys will only be listening to the turbine whine ;-)

Cheers
John

[rythmnbls]

What language barrier ?, we all seem quite fluent in gas turbine

[Johansson]

100 pages and no bike run, yet. =)

Oh how I wish that you all were here this weekend so we could drink some beers and discuss the test to come, it would be a weekend to remember for sure!

[Deleted]

To True, had a look at cost of flights :-( but is there an air port near you , mite be able to find a cheap flight

[Johansson]

Yes there is, but save the ticket cost until the first one mile race at Tierp Arena next summer. That will be tons of fun!

I just remembered that I haven´t weighed the bike so I went outside with the bathroom scale to find out how it compares to a modern sportbike.



Weight on the front wheel is 82.5kg, not bad. What about the rear?



It weighed in at 95.8kg, much thanks to the heavy battery and cast iron gearbox. Add up the numbers and you get 178.3kg with 15kg of fuel and oil in the tanks, remove that and you get a dry weight of 163.3kg!

Sure, I have to strenghten the frame somewhat and make a rear fender etc. for it but those things will only add a couple of extra kilos. It is actually possible to reach a power/weight ratio of 1:1 or even better after the engine has been tuned in!



As a comparison the Ducati 1198 has a dry weight of 171kg and I bet its gearbox isn´t made out of cast iron either.

Cheers!
/Anders

[jayakod2]

Hi Anders
After long time comment
But I continuously following your post
Still waiting for first test run of the land speed bike
Thanks for shearing this kind of fantastic work with us
Thanks and waiting for videos of that huge step
bike

[Johansson]

Hi jayakod2! Thank YOU for following my life long journey towards a land speed record.

Cooling down with some beers now to keep the butterflies at peace, my friends are arriving early tomorrow to help me raise the race tent and set everything up for the test.

Even if everything turns to shit tomorrow we will still have a great time, that is the best part with my equal minded friends. No sad faces just a pat on the back and a few shared laughs about the wrecked machinery.

[Deleted]

good luck..... all will be good :-)

[cursorkeys]

The very best of luck from me too! Its been great watching the build thread, some hardcore engineering going on

(lots of pics/video of the testing please!)

[Johansson]

I´ll make sure the camera batteries are charged.

[metiz]

Have fun!

[turbochris]

From the same shop as the cast aluminum penis and the lethal jerk off machine. I am proud to know you Anders.

[Deleted]

HI Mate just seen the video :-(

But got to say it all looks so good, just a crying shame about switch, its is some thing you dont expect to fail ,got to ask did you get it from ebay, as i had one that looks just the same and it broke just the same way on the kart.

Keep up the good work,

been speaking to some of the guys over here, we thinking of coming over next year if we can use the track when you are there ? mite even have my bike done,

[Johansson]

Today was D-day, my friends had gathered and the BBQ set for a kerosine smelling lunch!



As you can see we went all the way and made camp with my new race tent, always good to get some practice in raising it before we have to do it in the middle of the night in full snow storm in Orsa...



With rain fast approaching we decided to kick of the test immediately, scuba tank and propane all set so I gave her a spin.



Here is the video from the day, see it first to better understand the comments below.



As Andy points out it was a shame the switch broke, but looking at the video footage I think something was wrong even before I lost oil pressure. During the first run I had a stable exhaust temp around 600°C or so (mental overload so can´t remember exactly) but then the temps started to climb fast and then the fuel pump shut off due to the lack of oil pressure. (a pressure switch trips the fuel pump if the oil pump stops)



This is the piston ring seal after the teardown, my guess is that a rotor out of balance combined with a too tight clearance for the piston ring seal in its housing made it rub against the wall until the piston rings overheated and jammed up everything.



Luckily I have two bearing sets on their way so with a new piston ring seal and a somewhat opened up seal housing it shouldn´t rub any more. I will also send the rotor away for rebalancing and point out that the compressor wheel and the shaft must be grinded so I can align them perfectly during assembly.



Right now I have no clue how they were aligned during balancing so they can be assembled way out of balance for all I know.



Despite this minor setback I am satisfied with the test, the starting procedure was flawless (it would have been easier with three hands though) and from what I remember of the idle exhaust temp the power turbine section must be correctly sized.

The shaft looks ok though I will measure it again with the indicator clock in the lathe before I send it away for balancing, the comp wheel throw in the video was from the piston ring seal rubbing unevenly in its housing and not a bent shaft. Pheww!

Cheers!
/Anders