Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

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LinusN
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by LinusN » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:42 pm

Yes, it is flexing a bit. Not easy to see, and we planned to do some high speed footage of it, but kind of forgot about that. We will probably put some more support between the rear and the front mountings.

Here are some recordings of the test starts performed at Saturday.
http://youtu.be/9ByOTmPXzYc

LinusN
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by LinusN » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:43 pm

JimN wrote::evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Take a look at this clip on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Ml4go72Y_8
For now the subtitles are in Swedish but i think you will enjoy this one anyway . We will post an english version later on.
I have added English subtitles. Just click the "CC" button when the movie is playing.

racketmotorman
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by racketmotorman » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:22 am

Hi

Nice job guys .................thats one sweet machine :-)

Thanks for the english subtitles .

Cheers
John

PyroJoe
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by PyroJoe » Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:09 pm

Some really good runs this year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... ew-K8mL-0c

Where were the mentioned holes appearing?



http://svarthaletracing.se/

JimN
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by JimN » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:04 am

Yesterday we came home from Orsa Speed Weekend on ice 2012 in Orsa, Sweden. And here is the damage report.

As you know we got the engine to start a couple of weeks ago. And when we felt a little more confident that it would start again and again we ripped everything apart and painted the chassis, added heat shields, a seat, a steering system, a braking system and made the final touches on the parts we were unsatisfied with.

On thursday night last week we arrived in Orsa and later the event boss and the security team came by the pits to perform the security check. All was well and they were very satisfied so we prepared for startup. When we started the engine back home we used a pretty thin steel wire to secure the engine and it worked very well. But we thought "bigger is better" so in the pits we used a thicker wire a friend donated. A very VERY bad idea...
At the second the engine started the wire snapped right off! I´m really glad that i told Linus to use the Safety cable because i was standing right in front of the engine operating the starting fan and as the engine started it pushed me for about 2 meters.
Fortunately they were very kind and understanding so instead of failing our security check they made a couple of phone calls and got us a big six-wheeled military truck with a winsch to secure the engine.

On friday morning we went out to the short track (800 meters) to make the first test run ever. Off course we were extremely nervous but everything worked out very well and with an early shut off the GPS showed 82.8 km/h. The chassis performed as we hoped except that the back end was waving a little when the engine was turned off. So we went back to the pits and sharpened the rear ski to make it dig down a little deeper in the ice. We also made a checkup on the engine and fuel system but everything seemed well.

On the afternoon we headed for the long track (3000 meters).
The start was good but pretty early in the race the engine started to feel weaker and after about 1600-1700 meters it broke.
In the front of the engine there is a transition from round to square. And on the right, flat side we had welded in two spark plug threads. The engine cracked at these and also at the squared flange. If you look at the picture below you will understand what i mean. The light blue dots are the sprak plug threads and the red and green lines are the cracks.

A lot of people wanted us to make another try on saturday so on friday night we (with a lot of help from some REALLY great people) got hold of some 2mm stainless steel and welded the cracks and reinforced them.

So on saturday we gave it another shot.
But we also found out that the electronics for the ignition had suffered severe damage from the vibrations during the previous run.
So we never managed to do a second run.

But after all we are very satisfied with the outcome of this weekend on the ice. The engine started and we managed to make a pretty decent run.
We had a great time, made a bunch of new friends and now we know what to improve until next year.
Attachments
damage.JPG

racketmotorman
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by racketmotorman » Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:04 am

You guys have done an amazing job getting such a massive engine up and running , theres always going to be some teething problems when a new engine is first started , just so many things that can go wrong , ..................but ,the basics are now working well , she starts nicely and throttles up and down OK , just a few minor problems to fix and you'll be ready for next year after some summer endurance testing .

Congratulations again on a great job , looking forward to more updates :-)

Cheers
John

PyroJoe
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by PyroJoe » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:32 pm

Thanks for the report!
I was surprised at how quickly the steering and chassi was upgraded, alot of speed and skill there. It was good of the event officials to understand that this was new and sometimes un forseen stuff happens. Wouldn't have considered that much material failure in the CC, was almost expecting problems in the tail. It must be producing some good pressure up there. I am curious how the valves are holding up, and if there is valve damage / valve burn. Any signs of heat metal erosion on the internal venturis?

I'm not sure who was helping you behind the scenes with blocking of the intakes, but I am glad they helped and that the recommendations worked. If you reach the point where the tail is showing signs it may crush, you may consider removing some of the blockage.

Its so good to see so many smiles from the team. :D

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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by Mike Everman » Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:51 pm

That is awesome! I spent a while looking at videos. Look for me next year. I'll be the guy with all new winter gear and pulse-jets.com on the back of my jacket!
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
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JimN
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by JimN » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:58 pm

PyroJoe wrote:Thanks for the report!
I was surprised at how quickly the steering and chassi was upgraded, alot of speed and skill there. It was good of the event officials to understand that this was new and sometimes un forseen stuff happens. Wouldn't have considered that much material failure in the CC, was almost expecting problems in the tail. It must be producing some good pressure up there. I am curious how the valves are holding up, and if there is valve damage / valve burn. Any signs of heat metal erosion on the internal venturis?

I'm not sure who was helping you behind the scenes with blocking of the intakes, but I am glad they helped and that the recommendations worked. If you reach the point where the tail is showing signs it may crush, you may consider removing some of the blockage.

Its so good to see so many smiles from the team. :D
All three of us took the last week before the race off to work on it. We spent at least 12 hours a day in the garage and when we went home my retired father was dragged out of bed to paint all the parts and welds we had done during the day. Without him we probably wouldn´t have made it. At least it wouldn´t have looked this good.

Of course we have a theory about the damages. Because the transition from round to squared on the CC is so long we get a pretty large flat area on the sides of the CC that probably moves/bulges alot when the engine is running. The metal (2mm stainless quality unknown) seems to hold up but not the welds. When they get hot and bends they crack.
So we will probably make a new CC until next year with a much shorter (maybe 100mm or so) transition. As we all know a round shape is much stronger.

We checked the valves and internals of the engine after every run and saw no damage at all! That made me very happy since i spent over 70 hours milling the valvegrid. Not including the calculations, programming and finishing touches. I would probably have cried for hours if the grids had melted :P

Both the blocking of the valves and the tailpipe-extension were ideas that we had and then discussed with an acquaintance before we tried them. But since we were pretty short on time we were satisfied when the engine was running. We can probably gain some power if we block off more or less valves.

We ALWAYS try to smile and laugh! And when you hang around such great people as we do (Johansson and his team Mobacken Racing) it´s usually not that hard.
When we´re not having fun anymore we will stop building engines and take on something else instead.
Mike Everman wrote:That is awesome! I spent a while looking at videos. Look for me next year. I'll be the guy with all new winter gear and pulse-jets.com on the back of my jacket!
You are very welcome to join us in the pits. You will have a great time. I promise! :mrgreen:

PyroJoe
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by PyroJoe » Mon Apr 09, 2012 3:14 pm


JimN
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by JimN » Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:28 pm

Last weekend we went to a vintage tractor-pulling event to watch our friend Olle drive his BM Bison 470 powered by a Rolls Royce Meteor V12-engine and we were asked to bring our engine as entertainment during the events lunchbreak.

Here´s the videos:
http://youtu.be/agoCpKm-LmI

http://youtu.be/nPaRlmcoqd8

And as always, there are more videos, pictures and (swedish) text at our website. http://svarthaletracing.se

Mark
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by Mark » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:47 am

Nice shot of the intake and valves on the second video.
Presentation is Everything

luc
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by luc » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:24 pm

Nice movies ... Very impressive ...

But does this snowmobile does more then just make noise?
Does it race or move foward?
Luc
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LinusN
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by LinusN » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:59 pm

On snow yes. Have a look at the posts in the category Speed weekend 2012

luc
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Re: Planing for next years speed weekend, (1/2 scale Argus)

Post by luc » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:30 pm

If you say so ... I believe you ... :wink:
Luc
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