The next project. Gas turbine content.

Thanks for the interest guys!

Did some thinking and research today about the oil pump. It needs to be 12 volt, it needs to be cheap and it needs to be capable of 50psi, or more. Those don't go together if you are looking for off the shelf components, mostly the cheap part. Some fabrication will be in order.

Research shows that a power steering pump will work. That meant a trip to LKQ, which scored me a Mazda power steering pump for next to nothing. I've got a box of DC motors collected over the years, so one of those will be the drive motor. I'll have to make a motor pulley to match the pump pulley. I may also need a pressure bypass since power steering systems run a good bit higher than 50psi but I'm hoping that turning it slower than normal will solve some of that problem.

Some trial and error will be happening, hopefully not too much error.

Pictures to come...

My dad built one of these out of an old tractor turbo. He's in prison (long story) and minimum security at that. They pretty much let the guys do whatever. Said he built one, started it up in the tractor barn, but forgot to regulate the speed. It blew apart in a spectacular fashion. That got his privilages to work out there revoked for a few months. LOL He laughs every time he tells that story. Said there were metal shards stuck in just about every piece of wood in the immediate area. Glad no one else was in there.

Toyman01 wrote: Thanks for the interest guys! Did some thinking and research today about the oil pump. It needs to be 12 volt, it needs to be cheap and it needs to be capable of 50psi, or more. Those don't go together if you are looking for off the shelf components, mostly the cheap part. Some fabrication will be in order. Research shows that a power steering pump will work. That meant a trip to LKQ, which scored me a Mazda power steering pump for next to nothing. I've got a box of DC motors collected over the years, so one of those will be the drive motor. I'll have to make a motor pulley to match the pump pulley. I may also need a pressure bypass since power steering systems run a good bit higher than 50psi but I'm hoping that turning it slower than normal will solve some of that problem. Some trial and error will be happening, hopefully not too much error. Pictures to come...

If that doesn't work the front pump from an automatic transmission should do that if you can power it with a motor. Roughly similar pressure outputs and it's pretty small.

The 4 cylinder Duratec/MZR has a chain driven oil pump. It appears to be adaptable to other applications.

Welcome to GRM, where we know everything about everything and how to make everything fit on something completely different.

GOD I love this place!!!

You sir have added to my laundry list of stupid things I want to waste money on this summer.

OK, a little more, with pictures.

The pump is cleaned up and mounted to a piece of angle. Mazda was nice enough to use a flare fitting on the high pressure side so 3/8 copper tube will work for the output without having to find some adapter that isn't made.

I did some digging for motors and came up with a couple of possibilities. I'm planning on running a 10:1 reduction on the pump so hopefully one of these will do the job. Dropping the volume should reduce the pressure to something manageable and I shouldn't need a lot of volume for one turbocharger. .

While I was digging through my junk, I came across these. Everyone had a couple of stainless 4" 90 degree elbows in their junk box don't they?

I had bought them for a boat project a bunch of years ago and never used them.

I think they will do nicely for the free shaft power turbine housing. A little welding...well, a lot of welding will happen on these. Anyone know where I can get some 4" stainless flange rings? Making them is going to be a PITA.

More to come...

In reply to Toyman01:

Man, you're efficient.

You better send the kids to the front yard and make sure you have the fire dept on speed dial when you fire that puppy up. I can just see that thing flinging hot metal into that dry pine straw behind the house... be sure to take pictures!

Curmudgeon wrote: You better send the kids to the front yard and make sure you have the fire dept on speed dial when you fire that puppy up. I can just see that thing flinging hot metal into that dry pine straw behind the house... be sure to take video!

FTFY

OBTW: Toyman, you probably thought of this already but just in case, you really want to consider an oil cooler.

tuna55 wrote: In reply to Toyman01: Man, you're efficient.

While I was being efficient, I went ahead and turned out a pulley for the motor. It's not perfect, but close enough. It should give me about a 9.5:1 reduction. The pump should turn around 250 rpm.

That's probably going to be it for a couple of days. The wife gets a little antsy if I disappear into the shop for days on end.

She did come outside while I was testing the burner though. Her first question wasn't what is that, she wanted to know if it would explode. She walked off muttering something about me, flammable things and welding machines.

More to come...but not tonight.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

That's in the works. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those in the junk pile. I'll have to scrounge around LKQ for something.

UPDATE!!!!!

Please...

just gonna leave THIS HERE...

Once you have yours perfected, try this...
Running...

I found a cheap oil cooler on a '77 Mustang II. It's mostly a long-ish loop of pipe with some fins. Might have been for the power steering, but I cant remember. I think it was attached near the radiator. Shoot me a PM of you're interested.

Afterburner yes?

OK, an update for what it's worth. Not much has been done in the last few days. I had family things to do.

SWMBO is going to be out of town this weekend, so much noise and dust will be created.

This week, the oil pump motor was determined to be unusable. It's not rated for continuous duty, the brush hood was plastic and the brushes were already broken. My box of tricks didn't have another useable motor, so I had to order one from Surplus Center, my other favorite shopping place. I'm hoping it will be here tomorrow.

Some stuff did show up. Notably:

EGT thermocouple and meter/ programmable controller. Rated to 1800 degrees. Keeping the temps in the turbo below 1100 degrees is important. 600-700 degrees would be ideal. These were so cheap I ordered two. One for the turbine, and one to fix the broken controller on my smoker. Ebay, $35

Omron Fiber optic sensor and tachometer. Rated to 99990 rpms. Mostly because I want to know how fast the thing turns.

Something a little safer to fire the spark plug. That 14000V neon transformer was making me nervous. A grill ignitor should do the trick and not kill me when I grab the wrong thing.

There are some other gauges on the way with the motor as well as an oil cooler, fan and filter adapter. One will be for oil pressure, one for oil temp, and one for combustor or boost pressure.

A little research has shown that the air holes in the combustor liner are probably too small. I noticed when testing it that if I turned the fuel up the flame started burning outside the combustor. That's a bad thing. If the flame starts burning in the turbine housing it will destroy the turbocharger fairly quickly. I'm not sure whether the higher pressure from the turbocharger compressor will overcome the small holes or not. I'm not sure if I should drill them out. More testing will be done either tomorrow afternoon or this weekend. I'll try to video it.

akamcfly wrote: Afterburner yes?

Afterburner, no. I'm going to build a free shaft turbine to drive a transmission.

In reply to 4cylndrfury:

You laugh, I actually found a set of plans to build something like that on the internet. It uses a Garrett compressor and turbine wheel in a custom built housing. I just happen to have a monster compressor and turbine wheel in my junk box. I also happen to have a lathe and a mill.

I've thought about doing the twin turbine idea, running them sequentially to get a higher pressure ratio and hopefully getting more thrust with less fuel, but I already have too many projects and not enough time, that one's pretty far down the list

Another update, now with more video.

I got home early enough to do some combustor testing.

This video is basically as built. I had opened up two rows of holes to 3/8" from 7/32". It worked better than when I started, but still was pushing the flame out of the combustor liner. You can hear the flame push out, and then pop back in as the fuel is adjusted and if you turn it up too high it flames out. Temps top out in the 500-600 degree range.

First test.

This video is where I ended up after four other tests. I added another row of 3/8" holes and opened two more rows up to 5/16. I also changed the orifice from three 1/16 holes to one 7/64" hole. It will now burn all the fuel the regulator will give and the temps are in the 900-1000 degree range at WOT. It sounds wicked in person and if it gets any louder I'm going to have to dig out the ear plugs.

Last test

Both of these tests are using a vacuum cleaner for air. Tomorrow I'll probably try to open up the fuel orifice some, the turbo is going to flow a lot more air, at a lot more pressure, than the vacuum can.

The other good news is the grill ignitor worked perfectly as did the temp gauge.

More to come, probably tomorrow.

(That's all I got)

Heh. And the neighbors thought I was nuts.