At Least it Spins

It's beginning

Ok it's been going for some time now, but I'm starting to see more and more references to Biofuels in the main stream. More importantly, they are echoing my point that, though possibly better for the environment there is a far greater benefit to bio fuels with regards to our security and economy. I even saw a well produced ad on Fox News for ethanol from these guys: http://www.growthenergy.org. Ethanol is not my first choice for Biofuels for a number of reasons. It isn't a drop in replacement for gasoline and it is more difficult to handle than gas, but it is a cleaner renewable fuel. Ethanol can be produced domestically with Americas massive grain and crop producing capability, and therefore has many of the same benefits as bio diesel. Anyway, getting to the point....People are beginning to see the logic. Especially the Navy: Navy Flies on Bean Juice

Functional But Rusty

This is exactly what I'm talking about. It's the oil feed line to the turbo and it's rusty. Fuctional but rusty. I sealed the ends, blasted the rust off and painted it but that still doesn't make me feel better. Onward throught the fog.

Cam and High Pressure Drive

Just a few pictures of the cam and High Pressure pump drive. The more I get into this engine the more tempted I am to tear it apart, blast all the corosion off it and rebuild it. The rust and aluminum oxide that is all over this motor keep trying to fall inside it when ever I take a cove or seal off. Guess I should stop taking covers and seals off.

The fruits of todays waste of Aluminum. Soon to ba available at an Ebay near you.

PS it's a custom belt cover for an old skool ARD magneto on a Triumph Bonneville Flat tracker owned by a good friend.

The Beginning of the front Wheels assembly. for the sake of the lowest possible front profile I want the smallest and narrowest wheel I can find. I also need to take into consideration the tires available for any rim I choose. the tire needs to have a speed rating high enough to handle the speeds I hope the bike will see on the salt. all other things are secondary, however modern sport bike rubber (which will handle the speeds) is usually made in a 130 width tire. Keeping the front tire narrow helps with not only the frontal area and thus air resistance, but also rolling resistance which, with a wider tire, is the greater concern at the speeds I'm shooting for. The other limiting factor is that High performance rubber is only made for sport bikes which these days all have 17 inch front rims. I have decided to make the steering mechanism a hub center type because of the advantages in being able to keep a very low profile with no steering neck or stem. This means that aside for clearances for the riders line of forward sight the height of the front of the bike needs to only be as tall as the front wheel. Luckily for me Honda decided to build their revolutionary CBR900RR with a 16" front wheel from its introduction in the early 90's till they went to a 17" rim in 2001. This means that there are tires that are rated to 175+mph available for 16" rims and with a relatively small profile this saves on the overall height. Also I remember from back in the 90's a neighbor who had a Kawasaki Ninja 250 which had a rather large hollow hub and was also 16". Thanks to EBay and $35+ shipping I had one to mess about with a week later. Here it is and me using a sawzall to cut out the center of the hub. With all that room, it should make bearing selection easier and cheaper, as well as making it easier to design and build the Hub Center mechanism. The Hub is a symmetrical with respect to the centerline of the rim with Disk mounting holes on only one side. This may present a problem but I don't think at this point that it will make the rim useless for my application. FWIW a quick calculation shows that at 200mph with a 110 profile tire this wheel will be spinning at about 2715RPM. This is well within the speed range of most regular bearings.  See Pictures Below and Stay tuned.

The future of the front Hub Center steering. Is there anything a Sawz-all can’t do? A marital aid, and Kitchen utensil, a....

From here it's on to the mill. I don't have the exact Hub dimensions worked out, and the mill is tied up with paying work so I may not get to that for a while, but as soon as I do there will be pics.

Taking the engine apart part 1

The water pump off the engine block. I'm seriously toying the idea of taking it apart so that I can blast the corrosion off the parts.

I don't know what this is. The 1mm bolt that holds it into the bottom of the engine block was so rusted that it snapped off when I was trying to take this piece out. I think It may be some sort of block heater for winter time. If that's the case then I won;t have to go through the hassle of extracting the broken bolt and and heilicoiling the hole so that i can secure this thin back in the block. Lets hope.

Take everything you know about Gasoline car and motorcycle motors and forget it.Diesels are a completely different animal.the oil sump is not only made from very heavy steel it is also cemented to the lower engine block with polyurethane that is stronger than.... It is there to not only form a tight seal but to also integrate the sump into the engine block for vibration damping and thus quieter running. The sump is on there so well that it is not a user serviceable item. In fact there is no drain plug so the way you change the oil is bu inserting a hose into the dipstick tube and sucking the oil out. the sump is never meant to come off the motor for the life of the car. Yet here I am. Not only do I need to take it off to clean and inspect everything in the lower end of the motor, but I will also be replacing the pan altogether with one I'll make out of aluminum. I need to do this because in the car this engine was designed to run tilted over on almost a 45 deg angle. I'll be running it with the cylinders almost straight up and down in order to make it as narrow as possible.

Used Diesel oil is BLACK. It's still quite thick and I don't think it's all that old,but boy is it Dark. Oh, and for what it's worth when the trucking company or the sender tells you that they are shipping the motor dry, don't believe them. The amount of coolant and oil that came out of this engine was actually surprising.

There is corrosion and rust all over this motor. It cam from Alberta so I assume that not only was it stored outside before I bought it but also it's brief life was spent in the salty sea air of a coastal city.

for a motor that allegedly has only 18K km on it there is a surprising amount of corrosion. Aluminum oxide even inside gasket and seal surfaces. Now it seems I have to take this motor apart if for no other reason than to make sure everything inside is all right and not filled with corrosion and who knows what?

Whats the fist thing you do when you get a smart motor? Why scan it with your Romer arm of course!

This is my new motor. I'm actually very excited because this is something I've been looking forward to for a long time now. It is in a way the continuation of a dream mostly enthused by a very close friend who is no longer with us, and thus never fulfilled in his lifetime. As much as this is for me it is also in memory of him. May the long road begin and May world records fall!

These are some detailed images of a KKK P31 Turbo off of a 800cc Smart ForTwo. When I get some more technical info on this engine and perhaps a better understanding of exactly what is a reasonable Horse Power target is for this motor then I'll know if this turbo will work for my application.
Ill post the compressor map when I find it, but in the mean time enjoy these images

I swear this will get less pathetic some day. Really.

What if my only real tallent is building work benches?