Started welding up my first Lockwood

[Heath Daily]

I'm finally getting back around to pursuing a pulse-jet project. I've had the itch for awhile now, but just not the time/money to scratch it. Have a look at the drawing and pictures below and tell me what you think of the design will you? Note, that I had to take the combustion chamber diameter up to 6" due to what materials were available. There will be two engines, and I'm hoping for 20 lbs apeice thrust.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/odaily/heath.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/ ... CF0044.jpg

Still waiting on the last peice of exhaust pipe (6") to come in. And the welds DO look that bad in person. I'm about to pitch the lil' ol flux mig into the trash.

Also picked up this road-rocket for a test platform. Fenders, chains, rear-view mirror and basket are already stripped off, new tires and tubes installed, should be dangerous soon.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/ ... CF0039.jpg

[Jonny69]

Really nice little bike, I chopped up a 70's shopper for my test platform. So far I've lowered it, stretched it, raked the forks back, pulled out the handlebars and I've got a really sexy 1 gallon teardrop shaped motorbike tank mounted up front now. Just needs a bike battery, pump and jet mounted now. Must get some new pictures of it actually!

[pezman]

Did you use stainless steel bowls for the end of the CC?

[Heath Daily]

Everything is mild steel. The ends are weld-on pipe caps, commonly used to finish off the top of posts. Kinda like the safety posts you'll see across the front of a wal-mart to prevent car / pedestrian impacts. Though wal-mart usually just caps them with a little concrete.

[Eric]

Do you have any specific plans for fuel injectors?

Eric

[Heath Daily]

I'm going to fuel it with a stinger / wand. I expect this will be simple brake line with either a pinched end and cross drilled holes, or an attached fitting with holes drilled radially. Kind of a K.I.S.S. excercise. I figure the more exotic I go on my first attempt the less likely it is to even run, much less produce meaningful thrust.

The bike does still have the cable operated shifter, kinda like the throttle on a motorcycle. I've been contemplating some kind of cable operated fuel valve to permit easy throttlability. I figure it'd kinda suck to reach down between your ankles at speed to try and shut the fuel flow off if somthing goes wrong.

[Eric]

Actually depends on what way you go. If you build any of my infinijector type injectors I gaurentee it will be much much easier to start and tune than a straight tube or normal radial injector, and definately produce more thrust.

The 55 lb lockwood engine is notorious for needing lots of air for starting, most of the time needing a leaf blower to get it going with any reliability. With a fairly simple fixed infinijector the same engine will start with a single puff of compressed air at 50 psi.

Your intake looks a little large in diameter in relation to the tailpipe, though similar engines have run before.

If you build the injector below you can use it as a stinger type, and once you find where the engine likes the fuel the best, you can make a permanantly fixed injector. I posted some info about this in the "Liquid fueling made easy" thread.

Eric

[Heath Daily]

Went to a local farm supply store and looked at a great many different spray tips. Unfortuneatly everything that looked good was either brass or plastic. Neither of which will take the heat.

There's a much bigger place about 30 miles north of here, I'll have to try it soon and see if I can find something.

[gvacume]

Hello Heath Daily Have you looked at hot air furnace nozzels.
thay are made for #2 fuel oil but also work with gas or kero.
sizes go from 0.5--7.5 GPH and are made of brass or steel
you have a choice of spray angle.
Here is the best part thay are $2-3 Dollars at most hardware
stores.

[Heath Daily]

I never even heard of 'em, must be because everyone locally heats with electric or propane. I'll have to check 'em out.

Thanks for the tip!

[Heath Daily]

I finally got my 6" exhaust pipe in and got it trued up and welded in. So........ I mounted it in a vice and tried to see what it'd do. With a little carb cleaner I could produce some bangs, some of which kind of double or triple banged. Then I tried putting my lit running bernzomatic propane torch down the intake. If you insert it slowly to about half the length of the torch head it will start the whole rig humming. Just a little more and it blows out the torch flame.

Went down to the neighbors place and borrowed a propane regulator and hose, attached it to some 5/16" brake line and tried to light it up. I can only get it to "howl" with the flame staying in the very end of the exhaust pipe. My fuel pipe is a straight open flared end, some kind of radial spray injector is due next. Along with a change in venue. Got some bad vibes from one of the neighbor ladys.

Anyways progress is made.
Check the video, shows me trying to light on propane.

[Heath Daily]

Can't get the video up, will try again soon if I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[Eric]

You need a spark or ignition source in the combustion chamber to get the flame started there and it will start right up.

Oh and ditch the regulator for a 20 pounder!

Eric

[Heath Daily]

I tried sparklers in the combustion chamber without success. Either I get a big billowy yellow flame or I push the fire out into the exhaust with the shop vac.

I'm outa sparklers for now, and the regulator was just quick and dirty to see if it'd run before I lost the daylight. I think I may make a more serious attempt this next weekend if I can add a sparkplug. If it'll light up, then I can start mounting them to the bike.

[Heath Daily]

I decided to go ahead and mount both engines as it'll allow me to work with them a little easier. I added a spark plug near the exhaust end of both combustion chambers and I'm powering them with a neon sign transformer. I ditched the regulator.

I get good sized flames, a couple loud bangs and hard puffs, but that's about it. Need another cylinder to try again and will try to get some pics of the whole rig.

Question? Do you normally start on vapor and then switch to liquid? I was trying to start on liquid and by the time I thought to go to vapor the bottle pressure was pretty low. Even so, I got my best results on vapor.

Also I noticed that, at least most of the time, if I opened the valve slowly it would increase flow to a point, then I'd hear a little click from the tank followed by much reduced flow. Some kind of safety, or what? This is with tank in the normal upright (vapor) position.